The Journey — (Naruto x Solo Leveling Fanfiction)

I don't own solo leveling or Naruto

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Jin Chul sat in his chair relaxed as he'd finally finished today's paperwork. He let out a sigh of relief when he leaned back in his chair and watched the twinkle of stars in the night sky of his high-rise office. It wasn't often that he stayed late here but today was a particular taxing day because he got sidetracked with another case.

'I should probably get back into that warehouse murder case again?' he frowned, staring at the board in the back. He picked up his coffee mug and started sipping on it as he made his way over to the board.

'The autopsy report on the bodies got me nothing but deadends. The DNA of the victims were so scrambled by the mana residue left behind that we weren't able to identify who they were. There haven't been any more incidents like the warehouse so it confirms my initial suspicion of a hunter with the ability to transform.' He hadn't found anyone in their databases that could possibly be the one responsible for the killings aside from one. 'If what Tae-Shik said is true and that kid has a beast transformation I'd have to consider him a suspect at least.' he lamented on the Uchiha kid and his whimsical array of abilities.

For some reason he was thinking back to his briefing with the chairman right after he got back from his trip to Japan.

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"How was your trip, sir?" he asked as Go Gun-hee sat down in his chair. His aura was welcoming and warm as it had as always been.

"Ah, it was quite an experience to see those sights once again."

"I'm sure that wasn't all there was to your trip, otherwise you wouldn't have called me here to your office."

This caused the old man to smile. "On point as always young man." he complimented before clamping his hands to the desk in a serious manner. "Yes, there was some news that I heard about in Japan that caught my attention that I might be of some concern to us," he explained.

Jin Chul's gaze hardened, "What would that be, sir?"

"The Japanese Hunters Organization have kept things tightly under wraps but there have been reports of several low class monster corpses being stolen from their warehouse facilities."

Jin Chul outwardly remained unfazed but internally scoffed because the Japanese certainly liked to boast about them having the most advanced hunter system in Asia, and yet it was their items being stolen. How ironic.

"For what purpose?"

"It's unclear what these underground organizations want those low level monster corpses, however my best bet would be on them being sold on the black market." he answered.

Jin Chul nodded because that would've been his obvious guess as well but he knew that when the chairman was hinting at something deeper whenever he talked about likely scenarios.

"Do you believe there's some other reason?" he asked cautiously. Go Gun-hee smirked slightly at his inquiry, "I'm not sure but I want security tighter around our warehouse facilities and keep an eye out for any suspicious activity as usual." he replied and shortly dismissed after they discussed his predicament with the Uchiha kid.

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"I can't help but wonder what he was hinting at or thinking about?" he murmured to himself, scanning the board once again. He blinked as another theory popped into his head. He picked up the picture that showed slashes on the warehouse walls, 'What if this was the result of a failed experiment?' he wondered.

It wouldn't be too out there to consider. 'It wasn't a dungeon break because there was no gate presence in the area. The scene was the postcard for monster rampage so it must have been something capable of beast transformation. However, the only known person with that ability is an S-rank guildmaster and our databases make no mention of any other hunter with a remotely similar ability, aside from possibly that kid.' he started crafting the pieces to ridiculous theory.

The only shortcoming with his theory was that there have been no reports of monster corpses or items being stolen from their warehouses. It could be possible that they are getting the materials from the black market but they would have heard a whisper from their many border spies about illegal imports even if they slipped in the country.

He hummed pondering on the predicament, "... Could it be that they are gaining materials from registered non-guild hunters that raid in different parties?" It wasn't impossible to be the case but it would be impossible for anyone to find that person or persons even if it were.

'If they are conducting experiments, they would need some seriously advanced mana suppressors installed to ensure that their operations aren't spotted. There's gotta be some kind of paper trail from that, right?' he thought. This theory of his was a shot in the dark with no real basis but it was something for him to chase after weeks and weeks of nothing.

"What's the worst that could happen?"

He cleaned up his desk a little for the next day and locked up his office before making his way down to the parking lot. He plopped himself in his comfortable car and drove off to his house.

Traffic was non-existent in this part of town because it was so late at night which he was grateful for. He didn't want to spend more than 40 minutes on the road at this godforsaken hour. When the light turned green he went to accelerate his car forward but only managed a couple of meters before he was forced to an immediate stop by a pedestrian colliding with his vehicle.

In mild panic he climbed out the car and spotted a man in a dark trench coat with unruly brown hair and extremely pale skin groaning on the ground in pain. "Hey, are you okay? I hit you pretty bad just now." he asked cautiously as he leaned over and gently propped the man up against the side of his car.

He noticed they had golden teeth or they were comically rotted. He wasn't sure. He saw the man gripping his abdomen as he continued gasping and wincing in pain. "I'll call you an ambulance so just hold on sir." he assured the man but was stopped by a bloodied hand when reach out to pull his phone out.

The strange man shook his head and said, "No hospital… being chased… have to get away." he said between bouts of pain.

"Chased? By who? And you aren't getting anywhere in that condition." he told him plainly to which the strange man chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess you're right…" he replied.

Suddenly a trail of black SUVs arrived on scene and surrounded his vehicle. Four men from each SUV climbed out of the vehicle making the total that closed them off a swift exit 16 in total. He saw them all carrying semi-automatic guns.

He frowned as he stood to his feet to face the men that approached. "Can I help you fellas?" he questioned cordially without an ounce of concern in voice that should be there in a situation like this.

"Yeah! Just stand back and let us light this asshole up!" The grunt in front of him demanded. "Why would I stand back and let you execute someone in front of me?" he retorted which just caused the goons to start laughing.

"Well we'll just kill if it'll make things easier." he took aim with his gun along with the rest. "Before you fire, I just have one question."

"Which is?"

"Do you have any idea who you're dealing with?" he asked as his orange eyes glowed with intent. The main goon faltered for a moment before steeling himself and pulling the trigger.

Jin Chul sighed as the bullets came flying towards him. He swiftly leaped into the air to dodge moments before the bullets reached him and landed in between a couple of thugs.

He palmed one right in the jaw, sending him flying to two of his comrades. He grabbed the gun of the next person and smacked him across the face with it. He then threw it at the head of a backpedalling thug and closed the distance of three more and took them out in three swift blows.

"Shit! This guy's a hunter!"

"His pin! It's from the Hunters Association!"

"Too fast! Urk!"

The wails of the thugs were quickly drowned out by the swift strikes and blows of Woo Jin Chul. It didn't take long until all 16 of them were lying broken and bruised on the ground from his beatdown.

He brushed the dust from his shoulders as he stood upon the broken bodies of a couple of thugs. He turned around to address the wounded individual that the thugs were after but he instead found the headlights of his car beaming straight for him.

"What the hell?!" he yelled, backflipping out the way and watching his car drive off into the distance. "Hey! C'mon man, that's my car! Seriously!" he exclaimed exasperatedly.

He sighed once the injured man was long gone with his car. He really liked that car. He didn't dwell on it for too long though as he turned his attention back to the thugs on the ground. He pulled up the one he presumed was the leader because the others seemed to follow his lead when he fired.

"Who are you guys?" he demanded, pulling him up by the front of his collar.

"I ain't tellin you shit!" he spat. Jin Chul narrowed his eyes, "Wrong answer." He let go of his collar and grabbed his forearm to apply immense pressure on it. The pain became too unbearable for the thug that he started squeaking.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow! Shit, I'll talk alright!" he screamed.

"Good. Talk."

"We're just honest businessmen!" Jin Chul gave him an unimpressed look, increasing the pressure once again. "Ow, ow! Shit, c'mon! That guy was messing up our business so we had to take care of him!" he exclaimed.

Jin Chul continued to remain unimpressed. "What kind of honest men carry around illegal semi-automatic weapons, hunt people down and mercilessly try to gun them down?" he questioned rhetorically.

"I swear! That guy was messing with us. The boss told us to catch him whenever he showed up!" the squealing man, uselessly, tried to defend himself.

"Boss? You aren't the boss?"

"No, I'm not! I'm just a goon, no one important!"

"I can see that now…" Jin Chul commented. "So then, who is your boss? Is he in the area?"

This was when the thug chuckled nervously, "So, uh, you see, uh, I don't know…" He said in a desperately low voice. Jin Chul blinked, taken aback, "You don't…know your own boss? Are you serious?" His eyes glowed a terrifying orange to the thug.

"I'm serious, I've never seen him! We always receive orders from a lieutenant of his, but never the guy himself!" he cried helplessly.

"Fine. Anything you can tell me about the lieutenants then?" he interrogated, but when the goon shot him a nervous smile he knew the answer would be no.

'Seriously?'

Jin Chul applied enough pressure to break the man's arm just out of frustration and dropped the pathetic man on the ground before he then called the police.

When they arrived on scene the men were arrested and the semi-automatic weapons were confiscated and explained to them about what had occurred.

"Hey there, Jin Chul. How are you?" Jin Chul turned around to see Detective Baek approaching him. "You shouldn't address me so casually. It's Chief Jin Chul, remember?" he frowned.

Baek just waved his hand, "Yeah, yeah. Anyways, how have you been? Work got you worked up?" he joked which unimpressed Jin Chul immensely.

"Right… No, I've recently got the time to work on that warehouse massacre case again." he explained.

"Oh really? That thing is still kicking your ass huh?"

"Yeah, but I think I've got some ground to work on now though. It's actually convenient for me that you're here because I wanted to ask something of you."

"Shoot." Baek said.

"I need you to check with any of your CIs and that have contacts with black market trade," he said. The detective widened his eyes at the request, "For what purpose?" he queried.

"I have a suspicion that there have been dealings with monster corpses in the city, let alone the country," he answered.

"Monster corpses? What?" Baek stuttered.

"Don't worry about it for now. I just want you to investigate for me and see if you can find anything." he said simply and started walking off. Bake, however, stopped by placing a hand on his shoulder. "Don't you want me to give you a ride since, you know?" he hinted at his stolen vehicle.

Jin Chul shook his head and smiled with gratitude. "Thanks but I'll be fine, detective. You just get started on that investigation as soon as possible." he said.

"Wait, aren't you going to file a missing vehicle report?" he asked to which Jin Chul just rolled his eyes and walked away.

"I don't need to."

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"Scatter!" Hei-ran bellowed out as the Orges rushed the group.

Sasuke grabbed Cha Binna by the waist and leaped up to a nearby tree to avoid the club of green Ogre hitting the ground. She squeaked as he released her petite form clad in stark-white garb, "You should stay out of harm's way and recover your mana. We're going to need healing when all this is over." He commanded, leaping back into the fray.

[Chidori Blade]

He sneaked green Ogre from behind and slashed at its neck with a reserve grip. He leapt off the beast and in between its legs and sliced apart the tendons in its groin area and brought it down to its knees.

He didn't have a moment, however, to admire his work when he was forced to block a surprise attack from another green Ogre that sent him careening into the backside of the kneeling Ogre. His bones rattled from the stress of having to block the strike and he noticed that his hands bleed from the grip he had on his hilt.

'Damn… That hurt!' he commented, shaking his head to get rid of the fuzziness in his head. He saw the Ogre speeding towards him with its club dragging along the ground to swing it at him with impossible velocity.

He was saved from the fate of blocking another blow as a combination of Yon's buffed arrows and Ji-oh's mana infused punch drew the Ogres attention away.

It shrugged off the attacks and swiped Ji-oh away and sent her tumbling but Sasuke was glad to see that she recovered quickly. He weaved through a couple of hand seals before releasing a burst of high capacity flames.

[Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu]

The fireball collided with the club that the beast used to swing at it causing a massive explosion. He capitalised on the smokescreen created by abusing the fullest extent of his visual prowess and stabbing the beast through the smoke.

It roared in pain and toppled over when he stabbed out one of its eyes.

[Chidori Blade]

He let an electrical current funnel through his blade and fry the monster's head from the inside out. He let out a breath of exhaustion as he pulled out the blade from the eye socket.

'It's a good thing that funneling lightning chakra through the blade is a low cost technique,' he thought.

He watched Hei-ran and the two other tanks battle it out with a single Ogre. They were giving a good account for themselves but it was clear that they were losing the battle of strength. He saw Kim and Ji-oh desperately dodge and slip past the strikes of the second Ogre as they were given cover fire by Yon and the two other Mages behind him.

He searched around for Tae-Shik wondering where the eggplant disappeared off to. He knew that his role was to observe and only provide support when absolutely necessary but it always unnerved him whenever he couldn't spot the man in his line of sight.

"Hey kid! Come help us out here!" Yon yelled at him as he let loose another spray of arrows. He looked to be running low on them as well.

"Watch out! Behind you!" Sasuke shouted as another Ogre appeared from behind Yon and attempted to sneak attack the archer.

'Damn it! Where's that sensor!' he thought angrily because he wasn't doing his job and keeping them updated on the presence of monsters in the area. He faltered a little bit when he spotted the man completely laid out on the ground with his guts staining the dirt red.

It must have happened when everyone scattered and wasn't fast to get away, he figured to himself. He grit his teeth at the loss of life but couldn't afford to dwell as 3 more Ogres spawned in on their location and turned the tides of battle further in their favour.

Hei-ran was launched back and forced to watch as his two comrades were overwhelmed and crushed by the Ogres brutal force. Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes as his mind went blank and skin deathly pale. The man trembled and stared blankly at the broken bodies before him, the monsters tracking him being nothing more than a second thought.

Ji-oh was able to take down one Ogre but had to be saved by Kim when another came over to try and crush her. She sent him a beaming smile and thanked the speedy assassin class hunter who blushed. Park Ji-oh saw the predicament that her cousin was in moved to snap him from his thoughts before he got himself killed.

"Hey, you big oaf! Move yourself!" she screamed at him but her voice didn't seem to reach as he continued to be stuck in his trance. She clicked her tongue. "What's up with him? Why's he just standing there?" she cried in frustration watching helplessly as the Ogres readied themselves to strike him down.

[Shatter Step]

"Hiyah!"

She furiously stomped her foot on the ground and cracked the earth beneath causing rocks to go flying and strike the man's armour to send him flying to a tree. Ji-oh would make sure to get his injuries healed but for now she was glad that he was out of harm's way and that the monster's focused their attention on her and Kim.

"Everything is going to shit!" Kim complained as he dodged the club of an Ogre and then flipped to slash at its calfs with his red blade. "Tell me about it," Ji-oh agreed and used her terrifying brute strength to punch out the kneecap of an Ogre attacking her. She quickly slipped past the next one and rejoined Kim with their backs facing each other.

Yon was grateful to Lee Bora's summoning that managed to restrain the giant Ogre behind him. He hadn't even sensed he was in danger until the kid basically screamed at him to move. He pulled out two more arrows from his quiver, imbuing them with magic and then firing them off into the two eyeballs of Ogre.

The monster raged and thrashed trying to break free from Bora's summoning but such a feat would be impossible as its squeeze grew ever tighter.

He breathed a heavy sigh of relief when the crimson blood leaked from the beast's orifices and kneeled over dead. He got up and rejoined the invigilator, Jeaha and San, the fire mage and wind mage of the squad, respectively.

"Nice!" He complimented the steady faced magician.

She smiled and gave him a look of approval, "You've handled yourself quite well. All of you," She said, "But it's not over yet! Our comrades still need our help, correct?" She said with steely determination which invigorated them.

"Yeah!" They shouted in unison.

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"Man, things are looking pretty bad right now, aren't they?" Tae Shik commented nonchalantly perched up in a tree alongside Cha Binna.

"Don't you think you should go help then?" she questioned him, a disapproving frown on her soft face. He gave her an unimpressed look, "And leave you unguarded? I don't think that would be wise now would it?" he said.

"Hmph!"

She turned her gaze back to the battlefield with no further comment.

The party wasn't doing too bad all things considered. Ogres are tough mid A-rank monsters and many of the squad were just inexperienced rookies even if they were extremely powerful. He could probably take down a few himself if he really tried but these monsters, he found, had a bad habit of hiding their presence until the last second so he couldn't leave a valuable asset like the healer unguarded.

He glanced at Sasuke battling his way past two Ogres. 'You did a good job prioritizing her safety but leaving her without protection is where you messed up.' he thought.

He watched the 2 mages and singular archer provide long range assistance to the loud girl and reserved assassin to stop them from being overwhelmed. Lee Bora ran to assist the Uchiha with her summoning but her help ultimately, was for not as Sasuke swiftly decapitated the two Ogres with his lightning coated blade.

He narrowed his eyes at that feat of speed and strength, 'No normal B-rank can do that let alone myself. Did you get-!' he didn't conclude the thought however when he spotted a terror monkey leap at him from his peripheral vision.

He pulled out his dagger and dragged Cha Binne to safety behind him. He swiftly sliced apart its outstretched arm and then pulled its face in to jam his blade roughly through its throat.

"Ugh, disgusting," he said, flicking the red blood gushing down his blade. He glanced back to the petrified healer and smirked, "See. Now look what would have happened to you if I wasn't around." he mocked.

She gave him a small glare but didn't provide any counter to his words, because she knew that she would have been done in by the surprise attack.

He frowned when he saw a herd of terror monkeys bounding from tree to tree looking to join the fray. He weighed his options on fighting the C-rank monsters or just warning the others and retreating to a safer distance. He decided on the latter and grabbed the healer and leaped to safety whilst warning the others of the incoming threat.

He passed the Uchiha with the shock on his face being an open book to his thoughts on this rare occasion.

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'That's where you've been the whole time!' Sasuke thought watching the agent speed past him with the healer in his arms.

He focused his attention on the threat that the eggplant warned them of as overwhelming numbers of hyperactive and aggressive monkeys burst from the trees and started attacking them.

Sasuke swiftly cut down the first 3 that crossed his path as more moved past him to inconvenience the others. Bora used her worm to circle around her and fend off the terror monkeys.

[Chidori Stream]

Sasuke used the electrical current flying off his body to shock more monkeys that attempted to reach him. He watched the Ogres on top of Kim and Ji-oh being swatted away like pests as their skin was bitten into. He watched the duo of Kim and Ji-oh struggle quite a lot with the increased pressure of the monkeys and Ogres on top of them and they were without any coverfire as Yon and the Mages were preoccupied with their own set of monkeys.

He was at least relieved to find that Tae Shik was in his sights defending the body of Cha Binne as she healed Hei-ran's wounds. He was a little pissed off at the tank for freezing up and forcing Ji-oh to put him out of commission, but at least he would join the fray very soon.

He weaved a single sign and focused the chakra in his legs before launching off to the two Ogres that continued to harass the duo. He used sufficient strength to slice off the beast's arm and then swiftly decapitated it before moving to the next one where he jammed his blade at the crown of its head and ran Chidori through its body and watched it sink to the ground.

"Thanks!" Ji-oh said gratefully. She finished off the last of her monkeys by smashing its head to the ground. "Yeah, thanks," Kim reciprocates the sentiment by finishing off his last batch of monkeys by decapitating them.

"Hn." Sasuke nodded as the embers of battle died out as the remaining monkeys were cut down very easily by the rest.

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"That sure was a lot. What now?"

"We have to locate the boss very quickly, otherwise this dungeon won't nearly be safe enough for the collection teams to enter," Bora said.

"I hoped we would have encountered a boss during this skirmish but no such luck I guess," Ji-oh shrugged.

"Things probably would have turned out worse if it had appeared…" Yon glanced silently at Hei-ran who remained solemn. He wanted to question the brute on his reserved behaviour but decided against it.

"Regardless, that still leaves us the task of finding the bastard. So if anyone has any idea on how to make that happen that would be great," Kim sighed.

"We'll just have to keep walking around and searching until we find it." Sasuke said simply.

"It's a rather dense forest, kid. There's no telling what we might encounter." Tae Shik interjected.

"You got a better idea, eggplant?"

"... Nah, I'm just saying to proceed with caution, brat."

They both shot each other a sharp glare but no tension was formed between them.

Sasuke sat down on the ground and looked up at the slowly darkening sky above them. It looks like they have been fighting all day here. Which is why he suggested that they probably set up camp and recuperate for the night.

"Set up camp? Here? In a dungeon?" Kim questioned with a frown.

"It's not an outlandish suggestion because after all as a hunter you should always remain prepared for any outcome. Even sleeping in enemy territory." Bora explained, summoning a large bag from her staff. Sasuke wondered just what else she had stored in that staff of hers. It seemed to operate like some kind of sealing jutsu or a space-time one. 'Something to ponder on after this…' he thought.

"You guys did bring supplies for yourselves, right?" She asked, but grew disappointed when she was met with uncomfortable and embarrassed faces as everyone refused to meet her gaze head on.

"I don't really mind sleeping in the elements," Sasuke replied. He wasn't a stranger to sleeping out in the wild and whenever he was out he preferred being exposed to the elements rather than being shrouded by a tent unable to immediately react to danger.

Jeaha and San carried their bags stuffed with their own tents and got to work setting up their tents. Sasuke didn't have to hear Bora say it to know that she was happy at least some of them brought supplies. He heard Hei-ran blankly suggest to search the corpses of their fellow hunters and see if they had brought any supplies, which although crude was necessary.

"Haa! I guess we should find out who should keep watch first, then?" Yon said, plopping himself right next to Sasuke much to his chagrin.

"What do you mean? It's already been decided that you will keep watch first." Sasuke answered him. "Unless of course if you don't want to?" he phrased the question as a challenge hoping he would bite.

"Are you just trying to get out of lookout duty?" Yon said, seeing through his ploy. "Because it won't work. You're the youngest so use all that youthful energy and let the adults rest." he said.

"I concur," Tae Shik said, sitting atop the giant Ogre corpse behind them. He stretched his arms out and yawned. "I'm totally beat after all that action."

"What? You barely did anything you damn eggplant!"

"What are you talking about, brat? That little healer of ours is a real piece of work, you know that."

"I doubt that…" Sasuke scoffed at Tae Shik's lazy attitude. He heard Yon's helpless giggles next to him and turned questioningly to him. "What?"

"Nothing," he took a breath, "It's just that you two are kind of funny."

Sasuke blinked looking at Yon's expression contorted into laughter and he was left reeling at the reminder of his time back with Team 7. He'd be arguing with Naruto about something nonsensical and Sakura would either defend his position or laugh at both their antics along with Kakashi depending on the day. It was a nice feeling in his chest that rose up, but he turned away to mask his growing smile with the bangs framing his face.

"Whatever," he stood up, "I'll keep the first watch." he announced to the group setting up camp.

Tae Shik smirked smugly, "Well, that was easy."

"Shut up you eggplant."

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Surprise, surprise! I bet you didn't expect another chapter so quickly, eh? It's not something to get used to unfortunately :(

Tbh, the ideas have been flowing recently and I just wanted to get this chapter out because I was so excited. I hope you enjoyed and comment your thoughts. They mean a lot