Chereads / Along The Path Of Vengeance(Sasuke/Mha) / Chapter 18 - Chapter XVIII: Mission Successful

Chapter 18 - Chapter XVIII: Mission Successful

Deidara drew his right hand back as a clay bomb was molded, "You were strong for a fifteen-year-old, but we AGHHHHH–"

Acid splashed Deidara's entire arm and ate through the flesh as the clay bomb dissolved. "AHHHH DAMN IT SHIT! WHAT IS THIS?!"

Sasori gritted his teeth as his eyes darted between Deidara and Sasuke, "Damn it, I'll finish it! Nomu!"

The Nomu dashed toward Sasuke, but was blown back by a mass of dark purple energy shaped like a bird.

Three figures landed in front of Sasuke; Sasuke's faded eyes lazily looked up at them, 'Tenten... Tokoyami... Mina.' His eyes shut as he lost consciousness.

Mina looked back at Sasuke and she covered her mouth and gasped.

"Ashido, pay attention to the enemy!"

"But he looks so..."

"I know! It's bad but he'll live! I need you both to cover me while I take care of Sasuke! I'll join you right after!"

"... Got it!"

"Yes ma'am!"

The two students held tense expressions before closing the distance between them and the enemy. Deidara and Sasori backed up, and Deidara tried to stop cringing as the burns eased. He looked at the bubbling discolored mess of his arm and snarled at Mina, "That little pink bitch... Agh! I'll... I'll torture her to death!"

Deidara's right arm hung limp while he made clay with his left; he threw some bombs at her, but she met them with acid globs that suppressed the explosions. "What the hell?!"

"How dare you do that to Sasuke?! You're not getting away with this!" Mina slid on acid close to him and held a hand back as acid seeped out of her palm. Her mind flashed back to a time when she was five. She was being pulled away by teachers from a kid curled up on the ground. She thought, 'I was taught to suppress the acid I use on people, but this guy...' Her face contorted into a glare, 'After what this guy did to Sasuke, he deserves the worst acid I can give him!'

The acid boiled and she splashed him with it like a shotgun; in response, he quickly made a clay shield that couldn't block it all. He instinctively threw off his cloak as it burned through the fabric instantly, and backed up more. 'This isn't looking good, Hm. My right arm is gonna look nasty after all this, and I don't think I could make much more clay.'

Over where Sasuke was, Tenten laid out her largest scroll, placing one hand on Sasuke, and another on the scroll. Her nose scrunched at the smell of copper. She felt a pool of blood where she placed her hand; her lips tensed as Sasuke was put inside the scroll. 'With how much blood he lost, he's on death's door. It's a good thing I can put people in my scrolls, or I'm not sure he'd even make it to a hospital bed.'

She put the scroll on her back and turned towards the fight. 'Since Sasuke's led us to them already, I'd like to finish the job. We've been trying to find them forever now anyway, and I have my own score to settle.'

Tokoyami was faced by the Nomu and Dark Shadow clashed with it before being knocked back. "Silver Tornado! If the lights are taken out, I believe I can be of a lot more use! Although I may not be able to control myself afterward!"

"That's ok, go wild! I'll take care of it!" Tenten threw kunai at the floodlights. The place was once again dimly lit, and Tokoyami let loose as Dark Shadow enveloped him. Sasori looked up as Dark Shadow quickly dwarfed both the Nomu and Sasori in size.

Sasori's eyes became dinner plates, "God dammit." Tokoyami swiped wildly at the Nomu and crushed it into a wall. The Nomu left an imprint, and there were deep claw marks that took out most of its torso. It slowly regenerated and jumped back at Dark Shadow, 'The boss really should have given us a stronger Nomu, this thing's healing is slowing down! The quirks of kids these days are absurd!'

Dark Shadow swung around wildly and the Nomu hopped above its swipes and punched it back. Although, all the punch did was make it angrier, "RAAAAH!" Dark Shadow grabbed the Nomu and began crushing it. Its eyes popped and its head flew off as it exploded.

Sasori's eyes narrowed as the Nomu very slowly regenerated, 'At this rate I don't think we're gonna win. Our best bet will be to escape. That bird-looking guy only got big like that after the lights were taken out, maybe Deidara would be a better matchup for him since his explosions are bright.' He glanced at Deidara and gritted his teeth, 'With only one good arm I'm not sure if even that will work now, but it's better than nothing.' "Deidara! Use your clay on the big one here! It should shrink him!"

"Got it!" Deidara sidestepped another acid glob and charged at Mina, kneeling her in the stomach. "You stupid little girl! You're much slower than Sasuke! Do you think I need to use my quirk to get rid of you?! Your art is repulsive!" He struck down at her face with a hook which sent her to the ground, or so he thought. She spun on her hands and double-kicked him back.

He stepped back a couple of times and chuckled, while she cringed holding her hand over her eye. "Not bad, but you lack the power to make it a good hit." He held up both his arms to make clay bombs as Mina backed up.

'He could use his other hand the whole time?!'

Deidara's face contorted into a grin, "Heh, that burn hurt, but did you really think that was enough to make it unusable?"

He threw the bombs at her, but they were intercepted by shurikens as Tenten landed in front of Mina. "I'll take it from here, Ashido. Make sure your eye is ok."

Ashido backed up awkwardly and looked on at both Tokoyami and Tenten as they fought. She looked down at her hands, 'Why do I feel… useless? Is this... How Sasuke felt at USJ? Am I doing enough?' Her eye hurt again and she brought her hand up to it, seeing the bracelet on her wrist from shopping last week with friends. 'Should more of that time have been spent on training?... I don't know, I shouldn't be fighting people on this level anyway.' She shook her head.

"Your fights gonna be with me from now on, you bastard! I have some vengeance of my own! My parents died and my sister went missing because of you and your disgusting dealers!"

"Oh boohoo, get over it. Don't blame me, it's her fault for hanging around them anyway! Hm!" Tenten's eye twitched as she wheel-kicked Deidara, he caught the leg and made a clay bomb in the other hand. Before he could slam it into her leg, she jumped and kicked him in the head with the other. He cartwheeled to go with the momentum and made clay birds fly around her. She summoned a huge fan and blew them away before summoning a kusarigama.

"Stop agreeing with yourself by humming! It's annoying! If your drug ring didn't exist, it never would have happened in the first place!" She spun it around and threw the ball end at him. He weaved it and she pulled it back, this time swinging the blade end at him. He limboed under it, but she jumped into the air and swung it down at him while he was bent back. Clay rats carried him out of the way and he got back on his feet. The rats went under the arena and Tenten turned towards him holding dual pistols. "Eat this!"

His eyes went wide, "what kind of ninja uses a AGH—" he dodged some bullets but some hit him right in the chest.

The rats climbed out of holes and bit all over Tenten before setting off small explosions. She yelped and Deidara side-kicked her away. 'Is he wearing a bulletproof vest? I wouldn't be surprised.' She almost fell into a hole, but she did a back cartwheel and summoned a bo-staff; her foot slipped and she caught herself. 'That was a bad hit. Can't let that happen again.' Her white and red vest was left in tatters, making it easy to see the mesh beneath. Her hair ties also snapped, letting her brown hair hang to her lower back.

Deidara blinked, "Wow, you are a fine piece of art. Would you consider switching sides?"

She leered at him in disgust and started striking him rapidly; he dodged and blocked most, but was hit with a few before catching it and blowing it in half. She used the broken half to stab through his burnt arm when he tried to block.

Deidara winced and let out clay snakes to make room. 'Is she really rank 15? She feels like a top-ten hero! Whatever, this plan... Has failed. We gotta get out of here.' He made a clay bird to fly on and dropped clay carpet bombs on Tenten as he flew to Sasori.

"Oh no you don't! Ah–!," Clay Snakes curled around her as the bombs got closer; however, a scroll fell down her sleeve. She caught it and used it to seal herself away as the snakes blew up. She reappeared a second later and used the scroll on the falling bombs. She jolted in Deidara's direction, but he was already too far away. He dropped more carpet bombs on Tokoyami who smashed the Nomu into a puddle that no longer regenerated.

Dark Shadow shrieked and held up his arm as he banged into the walls, shrinking in size. Deidara added to the chaos by throwing bombs at the walls, causing pieces of it to fall and crumble the arena. As Tokoyami shrunk more, Tenten's eyes darted between Deidara and Tokoyami. She growled and pulled out a high-power flashlight to suppress his quirk in tandem with the explosions, "Tokoyami, you're gonna crush us! Calm down now!"

Tokoyami grunted and gritted his teeth before blinking. Both Tenten and Mina held him up as Deidara and Sasori backed off while more rubble fell. Tenten glared at them and shouted over the rubble, "This won't be the last time we meet! I have pictures of your faces! You won't be able to walk out in public ever again for as long as you live! I'll make sure you're targeted until you're dead! Do you hear me?!"

Deidara and Sasori ran away out of sight and Mina looked at Tokoyami, "Can you run?"

"No... I think one of those explosions... Hit too close to me..."

Mina and Tenten had Tokoyami's arms around their shoulders as they dashed out of the room and then the sewer as the room collapsed in on itself. As the moon shined down on them Mina asked, "Which way is the closest hospital? He's probably gonna die soon!"

Tenten raised a hand, "As long as he's inside my scroll, he won't get any worse. He won't get better either, but he'll be ok. I promise. Now let's go."

Not far away in an anonymous apartment, Sasori and Deidara threw furniture around, breaking everything in sight. Sasori pointed at Deidara "I told you that we should have just killed him in his sleep, but no! You had to put on a whole show for your stupid idea of art and it backfired!"

Deidara grabbed his collar, "Oh so it's my fault?! I was carrying the whole fight while everything you tried was countered easily! Hm!"

Sasori grabbed his collar back, "At least I never got hit unlike you, and the plan for the exploding puppet was my idea, dumbass! That was the most effective thing in the whole fight!"

"And yet it was my bomb!"

"Who cares?! Either way now because of your plan we won't be able to even walk to a store anymore! We'll be wanted everywhere! AFO isn't gonna like this!"

Upon the mention of their boss, their anger eased and they let go of each other's collars. "No... He won't. What do you think, my man? Think we could kill him at the hospital to salvage the situation?"

Sasori shook his head, "No chance, it's gonna be heavily protected now. We probably won't get another chance like this ever again."

Deidara bit his fingers, "Damn it... Well either way we're the boss's best agents. He won't kill us for something like this but... Do you think we're gonna end up having to join that idiot Shigaraki's group?"

Sasori grimaced, "I'd rather die than join the Legion of Doom Juniors club. He's like a whole decade younger than us too."

"Ha! Yeah that's true, The Boss doesn't like to put all his eggs in one basket anyway. It's not over yet..." Deidara walked to the bathroom and started taking care of his wounds. He thought, 'I'll get that ungrateful brat next time with the quirk given to me. This quirk has changed my life for the better. How the hell can someone get a quirk and just not use it?... Whatever, it doesn't matter, hm.' He snarled at the mirror while he wrapped up the burns, 'I'm gonna have to fulfill my own personal vengeance against that pink girl now. What was her name? Mina? I can probably find her family name through the Sports Festival recordings. Then getting her address from there should be easy. Even if I can't get to her directly, I'll make that bitch feel pain in another way.'

At the Musutafu General Hospital, Tenten discussed getting into the ICU with a desk worker, "Ma'am... I can't just send you to ICU if I can't even see the patient."

"Yeah, 'cause I'm keeping him inside my scroll! He'll die if I let him out of this anywhere outside of the ICU!"

"Ma'am... The ICU is already full anyway. If his condition in your scroll is stable then maybe just—"

"Hey, I recognize you! Silver Tornado! Did you say you have Sasuke with you?" A man rolled away from the doctors who were taking him to the ICU.

Tenten turned to the man in a wheelchair, "Oh hey! Yes, I do."

The man turned to the lady at the desk, "Please, let Sasuke take my place. I'm sure he needs it much more than me. He saved my life."

"Sir I..." Tenten gave the man a death glare and he winced, "Fine. Alright."

Within a couple of minutes, they got a room and Tenten laid her scroll on the bed. She glanced at Mina and Tokoyami, "You two don't have to stay here. You guys should get taken care of too."

Mina shook her head, "No, I gotta make sure Sasuke stabilizes with my own eyes."

Tokoyami nodded, "After a battle like that, I'd like to make sure our efforts weren't for nothing."

Tenten smiled, "I'm glad Sasuke has friends like you guys, but Tokoyami. You should get some care too. That explosion might have hurt something internal."

"If you insist." he bowed and turned to the door.

"Wait a minute!"

Tokoyami turned back and Mina wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, "Thank you for coming to the location I shared... I'm not sure if we could have done it without you."

Tokoyami smirked, "Of course. Although we should keep this to ourselves so we don't get in trouble."

"Definitely."

Tenten turned back to the doctors and nurses. She did a hand sign, and Sasuke appeared in a poof of smoke on the bed, just as bloody and wounded as before. The staff immediately got to work and someone asked them, "Excuse me. To maintain a sanitary environment, could you please move behind the glass in that room?"

They turned their heads to where he pointed and went to the room. After a lot of work, Tenten and Ashido looked on with bags under their eyes. At some point during all the waiting, Tenten gave an eyepatch to cover Mina's eye. Tenten pulled out her phone to call the police. Mina tensed up, "Um… what are you calling them for?"

"I have to report what happened, and I gotta get extra protection for this hospital in case anyone tries to attack it."

Mina bit her lip, "Could you… lie to them?"

Tenten side-eyed her with a furrowed brow. While the phone rang. "Uh… why?"

"Because, if Sasuke is caught for going after those guys, then he'll be expelled from UA immediately!" She gestured to her, "At least Sasuke can get stronger and protect himself better while at UA! Don't you think? If he gets kicked out then he'll become a wanted vigilante if he isn't killed first!"

They stared at each other for a while as someone picked up, "What's your emergency?"

"Hello, this is the Weapons Hero: Silver Tornado. I'd like to report that a student studying at my agency was ambushed and nearly killed by villains. Right now he's being treated at the Musutafu General Hospital. Can I get some backup here in case anyone tries to hunt for him again?"

Mina smiled and sighed as she didn't realize she was holding her breath. "Thank you."

Tenten smiled, "Of course. Sasuke would be a fish out of water if he wasn't surrounded by you guys."

Mina stared at Sasuke, then back at Tenten with her one good eye, "How did you find the place? There's no way you could have seen me sharing the location. Does it have something to do with that guy that let Sasuke take his place?"

"Yeah, I came across some injured people that told me about the hideout. He was one of them. They said that Sasuke went out of his way to save them."

"That's good..." She smiled.

Tenten looked toward her, "During the Sports Festival, I saw you and Sasuke argue during the match, what's up with all that stuff about protecting you?"

Mina's pink skin turned red, "Uh... You... You could hear all that?"

Tenten giggled, "No, don't worry no one could hear that. I can read lips."

"Oh, good," Mina breathed a sigh of relief.

"But seriously though, what's up with all that?"

Mina hugged herself, "Sasuke being an idiot... That's why I wish he could have lost the Sports Festival. It blew up his own ego, and made him think he was strong enough to do everything on his own. He thought he was PROTECTING me by pushing me away. Ha!" She scoffed and looked down. "Pretty ironic since I've saved his life twice now... I'm just... Tired. I'm sick of it. We're good friends one minute, and then the next one we're arguing because his vendetta against All For One just trumps everything else. Then we don't talk for a while. I'm tired of the cycle..."

"So what will you do now?"

"I don't know... What would you do?" Mina brought her legs up and hugged them as she side-eyed Tenten.

Tenten looked up, "A couple of days ago, I gave him a talk about this stuff already, but he ended up doing it anyway. He won't listen to me, if he'll listen to anyone, then it'll probably be you. Maybe try to talk him down one more time; try to keep him grounded and not be so suicidal at least, and if it doesn't work after that, it's probably just a lost cause. It would be best to just not be friends after that so you don't get dragged down with him if he won't listen to you, even after nearly dying."

She mumbled to herself, "I can't just stop being his friend… But Sasuke just isn't the same guy I grew up with…" She looked up, "Yeah... I'll try it again. One last time." She took a deep breath and put her legs back on the floor. "Oh yeah, why did you give him a talk about the vengeance stuff? You could tell he was here in Musutafu for that?"

"Well yeah, I think we've both noticed he's really bad at hiding his intentions."

They both snickered, "Hehe, yeah he's not a good liar at all."

The door opened and one of the doctors entered, "Are you Sasuke's legal guardian?"

"No, he doesn't have a legal guardian. Although, he's studying at the agency I work at right now."

"That should work. Do you want the good news or the bad news?"

Mina and Tenten glanced at each other, "Bad news first."

"The condition of his body is bad. There's a fracture in his right leg, internal bleeding, 6 broken ribs, and some pieces of bones stabbing his organs."

Mina's mouth tensed and she looked down. Tenten asked, "What about the good news?"

"The good news is that his condition is stable. His condition is bad, but we can save him. He'll heal, even if it takes a long time. We're gonna see if we can get some contact with professionals with healing quirks."

Tenten smiled and Mina fell to her knees with her hands together, "Thank goodness."

Tenten knelt down and hugged her. "We did it, Mina."

Mina's fist pumped, and a wide smile crossed her face. She remembered her talk with Aizawa and giggled. "We really did it! Ha! Mission successful!"

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The first chapter I wrote where Sasuke did nothing. Only had one line. Hope the focus on other characters is received well.