The Journey — (Naruto x Solo Leveling Fanfiction)

I don't own solo leveling or Naruto

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"Good day, sir."

Woo Jin Chul looked up from the documents spread across his desk. Mi Soo, his subordinate, had entered his private office carrying with him a stack of papers. He nodded his head in acknowledgement when Mi Soo came to the front of his desk and dropped the stack of papers in front of him.

Raising a curious orange brow and wondered what all of these papers were for.

"These are the evaluation reports from yesterday, sir. They just came through from all our branches across the country," He started motioning to hand the chief a green file from the stack. He reached out to accept it but it was pulled away from him. "I'm familiar with the daily reports, but why are you coming to me, Mi Soo?" he questioned, with a frown.

"A good friend of mine within the archives division came across a name, one that you've had me and a good portion of the Monitoring division look into."

"Sasuke Uchiha," Jin Chul said as a matter of fact, catching onto what his subordinate was on about.

"Yeah." The green file was handed to him. He opened it up and saw the personal details of this mysterious Sasuke Uchiha. His gender, age, contact details and address as well as his hunter rank. He whistled, "B-rank, huh? Not normal for a 12 year old."

"Not at all, sir."

"Well good work, Mi Soo. Make sure to make a photocopy for Agent Tae Shik as well. He's the head of this investigation," He ordered. Mi Soo nodded albeit not without noticing the brief look of disgust that flashed onto his subordinates face. Jin Chul knew not many were fond of the purple haired agent's attitude and how he did things, but they would have to deal with it. The man brought results even if they were clouded in murky waters.

"Yes, sir."

Mi Soo left his office leaving him to stew in his thoughts for a moment. It was fortunate that they had gotten a breakthrough in this investigation and now all they had to do was set up an interview with the kid. It was important to discover his intentions and the intentions that Choi Jong-In had for him before anything happened.

"To be a B-rank at that age? Choi Jong-In might have stumbled onto something special."

And that is what feared him.

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Sasuke was panting, wiping the sweat that dripped from his chin as he returned back to his base state retracting the power of the curse mark. He groaned mildly, feeling a painful ache on his back and shoulders. That monster really did thrash him around a lot.

'Huh, no shirt?' he touched his chest feeling only bare skin. The smoke surrounding him had cleared and he came face to face with men and women carrying various weapons and in different articles of clothing.

"Is that a child!?" Hana shouted aghast, her honey brown eyes wide open. Sasuke twitched his eyes in annoyance at the loud volume, "Yeah, what of it?" he bit back harshly.

"All this was your doing kid?" he switched his onyx gaze onto the broad shouldered and silver-haired man carrying a sword on his side.

"Hey, didn't I tell you that I'm not quite ready to leave yet? So, who the heck are all these people, huh?" Sasuke pointedly fixed Gang Tae Shik with a glare. He had chosen to ignore silver brutes' question in favour of questioning the Association agent who held his hands up in mock surrender, "They were sent here to clear the dungeon by the higher ups. I couldn't have stopped them even if I wanted to."

"Although, it does seem that this dungeon won't offer you much anymore. A Screaming Hellbeast is a B-rank boss monster at times and I imagine the boss of this dungeon as well, so if you killed it then there really isn't much of anything to do here anymore," Tae Shik explained with a curious smile.

Sasuke remained silent, sparing a momentary glance back onto the Hellbeast. With his visual prowess he was able to spot the soft breaths that stemmed from the monster's mouth.

"It's not dead yet merely unconscious," he replied simply, putting everybody else beside Tae Shik on guard. They were prepared to fight against that thing even if most of them didn't want to.

"Well then let's kill the damn thing!"

"Y-Yeah!"

"What are we waiting for?!"

Murmurs of agreement surged through the attack force before they were all quelled by Kimura's commanding presence that burst from his aura. Sasuke raised a brow at this wondering who the silver haired hunter was.

'Clearly he's more than a brute…'

"Who are you, kid?" he asked as Sasuke remained tight-lipped. "The little lady mentioned an asset of the Hunters Guild being trapped inside this dungeon and black suit over there was looking for a lost kid before we showed up," he explained.

Hana cut in, "We figured the kid had run off with the asset and if we found him or her then we could recover whatever was taken, so why don't you enlighten us. Is there another kid in this dungeon or are you the asset we were meant to recover?" She questioned with Kimura nodding in agreement.

"So, what if I am? What does it matter to you?" Sasuke retorted.

"If that's the case then our payday wasn't as big as I imagined and the Association is gonna have a lotta questions for you, kid. They don't like not knowing about anomalies like you. Isn't that right, black suit?" he chuckled, glancing at Tae Shik from the corner of his eyes. He noticed how he constantly shifted to the back of the group like a snake and didn't like having his back to him.

"Yeah that's true," he agreed easily, knowing just how quickly his superiors cracked down on cases of false rankings and even the rare double awakening.

Sasuke remained silent thinking that they had all come to similar conclusions about him. And that was that he was this so-called asset of the Hunters Guild.

'Wait, that shifty agent did mention something about someone outside the dungeon caring about me… Could that be?' it wasn't out of the realm of possibility considering that she was the only one to fetch him from school.

Sasuke tilted his head to the side, his gaze fixed past Kimura's shoulder. "What is that?" he questioned, pointing towards the black figure on the ground. They all turned and saw the corpse of Kil Nari laying on the ground in a heap.

"Oh that? That's little lady, um… What was her name, again? Kil-something?" Kimura shrugged helplessly. "Kil Nari," Sasuke murmured, moving past the group to reach her dead body. "Yeah that's right, Kil Nari was her name…" he snapped his fingers happily. "I don't think she ever gave us her name actually…" Hana mumbled softly. Neither of them picked up on the mild distress that surfaced on young Uchiha's stoic face.

He stood over her corpse with a distant look on his face as he saw the long clean slit across her throat, the shock still evident in her, now, soulless black eyes. She had become deathly pale and he already knew that she was cold to the touch having been around more than his fair share of corpses.

"Oh, you knew her?" Tae Shik questioned in mild curiosity. "She was a teacher of mine," he answered emotionlessly. "I'm so sorry, kid. By the time we realized what happened the monster that took her out had already disappeared," Hana apologised with others muttering some apologies of their own.

However, they all fell on deaf ears.

Kneeling down he cradled her head in his arms and closed her wide open eyes with his fingers. "You know…" he started, grabbing everyone's attention wondering what he had to say. "I've got very special eyes, eyes that can see the flow of mana, eyes that can see the future, eyes that burn every single little detail into my brain. So, I know for a fact that a cut this clean couldn't have been caused by a monster but rather by a hunter's blade," he said flatly, an aura of intent shrouding him but with no bloodlust.

"Are you accusing us of something?" Kimura questioned, an edge to his tone.

"Maybe or maybe not. To be honest with you I'm just putting it out there," he said deadly calm knowing that he was anything but. "Unless, I don't have a reason to suspect you of any wrong then I won't kill you." He easily met the magenta coloured eyes of older male counterpart.

'You're doing well to restrain your bloodlust, Sasuke. Honestly, I'm getting chills just from locking eyes with you.' Tae Shik remained outwardly passive despite the internal glee at witnessing the inner turmoil of the child through his onyx coloured eyes.

'Could it be that I am his number one suspect?' he thought to himself. Well, he wouldn't be incorrect in that assumption.

Kimura could feel the heavy tension in the air, tension that could honestly be cut only by the blade at his side. Was this kid really prepared to stand against all of them if he had to? Kimura didn't deny that he had the power to after all taking down a Screaming Hellbeast was no easy feat, those things needed at least a squad of 10 C-ranks to stand a chance against.

"Uh… Does anyone else hear that rumbling or is it just me?" Dong said nervously, he was the C-rank tank-type of the attack force wearing a heavy duty suit of armour and carrying around a giant axe.

'Now that he mentioned it.' Kimura thought and watched the ceiling above the Hellbeast break apart to reveal another one.

It slithered down from the giant hole it created and screamed at the group. Sasuke shielded Kil Nari's body from the debris that flew their way due to the high powered scream.

"Is that another Screaming Hellbeast!? Oh man, we're in trouble!" Minho shouted out, nervously. He was the B-rank archer-type of the attack force, carrying his black steel bow and quiver full of arrows on his back.

"It looks like it. Although, it doesn't seem to be attacking us quite yet," Tae Shik answered, watching the second Hellbeast circle its incapacitated counterpart.

"Yeah, you're right so that gives us time to figure out a strategy," Kimura commented, relieved that they wouldn't be forced to engage the monster unprepared. He knew that they would have to take down the beast before the other one woke up. Centering their attack around that should be their most optimal play.

"Hey, scary kid, do you think you can call forth that power you used to take out the first one?" Kimura asked Sasuke who regarded him with curiosity before refocusing his attention on the protective beast.

"Nah, I can't right now. It uses too much of my energy so I need time to recover," he shook his head.

'Tch, figures that he can't use such awesome power consistently!' Kimura lamented to himself. 'No bother, we'll just have to go with my original plan then!'

"Long-range fighters for a defensive line behind us and any close-range combatants we have must line up in front of myself. Tanks in the middle with the less durable fighters either side of them!" Kimura barked out his orders with everyone quickly moving to their positions.

'I'll play along for now and see what the annoying oaf has in mind,' Tae Shik thought, moving to his position.

"Archers, Mages, your goal is to provide us, the frontline attackers, with as much cover fire as you can! We don't want that thing moving around too much. Tanks, I need you guys to charge forward and use your reinforcement skill to restrain the beast from the front while the rest of us take out its eyes and cut it down to size!" Kimura laid out the roles that each member of the attack force would be required to undertake.

"All right! Is everyone ready to go?" Kimura questioned.

"Yeah!" was the answer of everyone present.

"Then CHARGE!!!"

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Dong leading from the front alongside his two other tank-type flanking either side of him rushed the Screaming Hellbeast head on.

[Reinforcement]

All of them using the common skill that nearly every tank-type hunter developed to guard against the onslaught of high powered scream

The Hellbeast then decided to launch itself at them which knocked them over breaking the formation.

"Dammit!" Dong cursed, having been knocked to the ground. "Archers, Mages, cover fire!!" Kimura screamed out.

A barrage of magic arrows and energy-based projectiles were fired at the Hellbeast causing it to wail in pain. It slithered back and then suddenly whipped around in a terrifying 180 and sent several spikes in retaliation and anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in their path would be met with a gruesome end.

Hana would have been one such victim if she wasn't pushed out of the way. She grunted when she harshly hit the ground and looked up to see that there was blood all over her, seeping into and staining her clothes red.

She groaned, her muscles screaming at her in pain because of the absorbent amount of spells she had been using. Regardless, she stood up, not one to back down, aiming to encourage the others to do the same,"Come guys! Don't sto-''. However, the words died in her throat. She wasn't prepared for the sight of multiple bodies torn asunder and ripped apart by several dozen large spikes. The Hellbeast had not missed its mark and she was the prime witness to its carnage.

She backed away in fear, gripping hard onto her chest and covering her mouth, but ultimately couldn't stop herself from spilling her guts out.

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[Chains of Judgement]

Glowing blue chains sprung forth from Kimura's palms and wrapped around the giant serpentine creature. He knew the chains wouldn't hold down the monster for long but that they would buy enough time for the tanks to recover and restrain the beast so that they're heavy damage dealers could hopefully take it down.

"Not bad, you annoying brute!" Tae Shik leaped to the side to avoid getting crushed by the giant Hellbeast struggling against Kimura's judgment chains. There were a few that weren't as fast as himself and were rendered into mere splats on the sidewalk.

After seeing that he decided that things were getting a little out of hand. 'I'll get serious just this one time.' A purple hue radiated from his eyes as he whipped and dashed onto the walls and ceiling faster than lightning, slashing and cutting up the Hellbeast with practised ease and finesse.

"Why don't you finish things off, Sasuke?" Tae Shik looked up at the ceiling where Sasuke was standing upside down with one of his palms laced in wild electricity.

Sasuke gritted his teeth pouring tons and tons of chakra into his Chidori for extra piercing power and speed. He wanted to make sure that there would be no way for the monster to survive this.

"Come on, you scary brat! Finish this!" Kimura screamed out from immense exertion as the Hellbeast was breaking through his chains faster than he could reform them.

"Right! CHIDORI!"

Sasuke launched down from the ceiling several times faster than lightning and cleaved right through the head of the Screaming Hellbeast, deafening its screams forever.

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This one was a real piece of work to finish but I really enjoyed getting it don, so I hope you enjoyed it.

There is also an announcement that I'd like to make and that'll be I'm starting an upload schedule.

Recently I've been thinking quite a lot thinking about updating consistently this past week and I think this is a commitment I'm willing to make that is easy for me to fulfill and hopefully keep you guys entertained.

2 new chapters every Wednesday.

I don't like writing super long chapters since it's a lot of spell checking work and editing to do. This is the best for me and hopefully for you guys since I'll be keeping most of my chapters in the 2k to the 2.5k words range.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and review pls.