Chereads / Along The Path Of Vengeance(Sasuke/Mha) / Chapter 24 - Chapter XXIV: HPSC President

Chapter 24 - Chapter XXIV: HPSC President

Within an old bar, two teens were alone strapped to a chair next to one another. "Hey, dumbass, wake up."

Sasuke drifted in and out of dreams, thinking about training. "Hey! Wake up!"

Sasuke's eyes slowly opened and the first thing he felt was pain in his side. He looked down and saw bandages crudely wrapped around his torso. 

"You're finally awake. About time."

Sasuke turned to the source of the voice to see Bakugo, "Bakugo... where are we?"

"Probably their trashy hideout."

Sasuke observed his surroundings. It was a brown wood and brick room with nothing of note besides a bunch of alcohol on shelves, a TV showing the news, and a doorway leading seemingly nowhere.

On the news, the reporter stated, "Things seem to just be getting worse and worse. The Rank 3 hero: Crow, is still missing even after 2 months. The Hero Commission has come forward and reported it as the young hero retiring early, but the general public suspects a much darker reality. Onto our main story of the night, it's been one day and the search for the two missing UA students continues with no progress so far. The people are enraged by what is once again another failure to prevent an attack on the future heroes in the making. UA High School staff has announced that they will be sending one of their staff for a hearing tomorrow night. All we can hope for is that these students won't have suffered any permanent injuries or worse by the time we find them. Moving onto happier news. A Capybara born in a zoo has recently been discovered to have a quirk—"

Sasuke stopped paying attention to the news and glanced back at Bakugo, "Looks like they succeeded and captured us..." He thought, 'Sorry, Edgeshot-Sensei. I really have to work on my awareness better. I might not have been caught if I just paid more attention.' 

Sasuke tried to straighten up in his chair, but he felt a sharp sting in his side and curled back over. He winced, but managed not to make a noise.

Bakugo stared at him, "Hey, the hell is up with you?"

"I think one of my ribs might be poking into one of my organs right now. It's making it hard to move much."

Bakugo grunted, "Well isn't that fucking great? Guess I'm gonna have to do everything myself since you're useless right now."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, "What the hell is your problem?"

Bakugo glared back, "What the hell do you mean what's my problem, huh?"

"Are you ever not an annoying idiot throwing a tantrum?"

Bakugo turned his chin up, "Like I need lecturing from a crappy extra."

"Tch, extra? Alright idiot, get us out then since I'm so useless."

"Gladly," He smirked and spread his hands as little sparks started going off, but he was instantly shocked for a moment.

"No use of your quirks is permitted, doing so will be met with appropriate levels of shock. All attempts to escape will be nullified and you'll be restrained in a more uncomfortable position by me."

"Guess you're just as useless as me, huh?"

Bakugo seethed, "First thing I'm doing when I get out of here is kicking your smug ass!"

Sasuke smirked, "Considering I'm tied to this chair, that's probably the only way you'd be able to beat me."

Bakugo tried to jump out of his chair, "You got lucky at the festival! If we were untied right now, we'd see who's really stronger."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Copium." 

He popped a vein, "The hell does that even mean!?"

"That you're lying to yourself..." He stopped smiling and stared at Bakugo seriously, "That stupid superior attitude is only gonna work on people afraid of you, it's not gonna get you far."

Bakugo sneered, "It's gotten me to UA and a top 5 hero agency, so I'll keep doing whatever I wanna fucking do."

Sasuke grunted, "Ugh. That stuck-up shitty attitude is why Midoriya is gonna surpass you."

"That loser could never beat me! He's never been stronger than me in our fucking lives and he never will be!" His voice cracked.

"Yeah yeah yeah shut up I don't care anymore."

Bakugo's snarling face relaxed to a normal default glare and he turned away with an inquisitive expression. 

Another day passed and Midoriya woke up with a cast on every limb except for his left arm. A doctor noticed he had woken up and left the room. Soon after, most of Class-1A came to see Midoriya.

Kaminari asked, "You see the news? The media's all over the school."

Mineta held a melon above his head, "Want a melon? We all pitched in."

Midoriya stared at them all with a blank expression, "Is everyone from class here?"

Iida stepped forward, "No. Jiro and Hagekure are still unconscious after being exposed to the gas, but besides those two..."

Uraraka finished, "All fifteen of us are here."

Mina looked down, "But Sasuke and Bakugo aren't… since neither of them were saved."

Midoriya's eyes lost focus as he turned to the ceiling, "Recently... All Might told me something about how sometimes we just can't reach people who need saving. That we gotta do our best to save those we can reach... But I could have reached them!" His face contorted as tears welled up, "They were within reach, I could have gotten at least one... But it was as Aizawa said... My body couldn't move..."

Kirishima stated, "Then let's save them now."

"Huh?" Many of the students shouted in unison.

Mina said, "Me, Todoroki, and Kirishima ran into each other and found All Might and the police talking to Momo. She gave them the tracking device for the tracker she had Awase put on the Nomu, but she could make another for us."

Iida thought back to all the trouble he caused back in Hosu, "Absolutely not! We should just leave it to All Might and the pros! It's not our place to interfere!"

Kirishima clenched his chest and furrowed his brow, "You think I don't know that?! But still, I couldn't do anything! When I heard they were after my friends, I couldn't do anything! If I don't act now, then forget being a hero, I'm not even a man!"

Kaminari put a finger up to his lips, "We're in a hospital, dude!"

Asui stated, "In this case, Iida is correct."

"I know he's right, you all are, but..." Kirishima turned to Midoriya, "Hey, Midoriya! They're not beyond our reach just yet."

Midoriya stared at him with hope in his eyes. Mina stepped up, "Even if that's true, it doesn't matter! They could be killed at any moment! If Sasuke died when I could have done something then..." Her mouth tensed. "I couldn't be a hero... Me, Kirishima, and Todoroki are going."

Iida clenched his fist, "You have to be joking!"

Shoji said, "Hold on, calm down. I get their regret and pain over not being able to do anything, but this is no time to let our emotions get the better of us."

The trio stared at him and Aoyama shook, "Let's just leave it to All Might, besides, we're not allowed to fight anymore."

Tokoyami stared at the ground, 'I helped save Sasuke once before... Then he saved me from hurting anyone at the camp. Is it my turn to help save him once again?'

Asui stated, "We're all still in shock over their kidnapping, so we have to think about this calmly. It doesn't matter how righteous our feelings are. If we start another fight and break the law... we're no better than the villains."

"My my, how black and white of you. So some of you wanted to save your friend?"

The class turned to see a brown-haired hero in a red and white outfit. Todoroki narrowed his eyes, 'A pro! Did she hear everything we said?'

Mina's face lit up, "Tenten!"

She greeted her with a smile, "Hey Mina!"

They gave a high-five to each other and Sero asked, "Who's that?"

Tokoyami answered, "She's one of the people who taught Sasuke for his work-study."

Mina added, "And she's the rank 15 hero too!"

Mineta tried to sneak under her for a peek under her skirt, but a shiver ran down Tenten's spine as she felt a malicious presence behind her. She instinctively punted Mineta through a wall and Shoji said, "She shows the mark of a true hero."

Tenten cleared her throat and put her hands on her hips, "I heard everything you guys said, so no reason to try and hide anything. Let me get this straight, the three of you planned on infiltrating the villain hideout with a tracker, and somehow saving Sasuke and Bakugo?"

Todoroki stepped forward stone-faced, "Yes. We're not idiots though, it's a covert mission. Don't try to stop us."

Tenten frowned and thought back, 'Man, the teens these days are rebellious... if they're anything like Sasuke, they'll try to go whether I let them or not... Oh well.'

"... Who said anything about stopping you guys? On the contrary, I planned on helping."

Everyone's eyes went wide and Iida's mouth twitched, "H-h-how can even a pro hero be on board with this nonsense!?"

A doctor knocked on the door, "Sorry to interrupt, but it's time for Midoriya's examination."

Most of the students left and Sero said, "L-let's go. I'm worried about Jiro and Hagakure too."

Kirishima went to Midoriya's side, "If we're gonna do it, it has to be tonight. If you can move in your current condition, then you're welcome to join us. This is probably hurting you more than the rest of us. We'll be waiting outside the hospital tonight."

In a lab, a blonde-haired blue-eyed father and daughter duo examined the scans of Sasuke's body. "Hey Dad, now that I think about it... Where would his quirk factor be contained?"

"Well his power revolves around manifesting constructs he imagines, so what does that tell you, Ino?"

"It's in his brain?"

"Correct, his brain scans have to be compared to that of a normal person, and the Nomu." The scientist entered all of the necessary data and stared at the screen for a long time.

"Interesting... Do you see what I see?"

She leaned in, "Well the Nomu's brain is the smallest and least colorful. It's clearly the most deteriorated one, particularly in the prefrontal cortex."

He smiled, "A clear sign of brain decay caused by quirk overload. Good."

She narrowed her eyes, "Sasuke's brain doesn't look any different from a normal person's brain though. Besides having more micro-processors at least."

The old man interlocked his fingers in front of his mouth, "Yes, but that's just a sign of intelligence. Nothing to do with a quirk... do you know anything about philosophy, Ino?"

She put a hand under her chin, "Uh, I'm taking a course on it in school right now, haven't learned much so far."

"I see. Well, dualism is most well-known for this idea. It's basically the idea that the body and soul both affect each other. We don't have any current technology that can observe the soul, but there must be something non-material influencing his brain and stopping it from decaying."

"Ooohhh, that sounds pretty cool! Like some Astral ability?"

"Exactly! We can't see it, but maybe his quirk has an Astral element that prevents it from overloading."

Ino put a hand under her chin, "So like... if a glass was soul storage... and water was quirks... he has more glasses allowing him to store more without overload?"

"That... is a really good analogy!"

"I agree." 

Both of them jolted around and saw an old man with black hair and three jagged lines going down his face step into the room. He wore a black and white patterned suit and held a cane. The Scientist shot up out of his seat and blurted out, "Danzo!"

"Hello, Inoichi."

Ino leaned into her dad's ear, "Who's that?" 

"That's a higher-up in the Hero Public Safety Commission." Inoichi held her close.

Danzo smiled, "President of the HPSC now actually. Don't be alarmed, I've just taken an increased interest in the Uchiha."

Inoichi's expression hardened, "An interest, huh? What for another brainwashed secret soldier?"

"Uchiha is 16, he's not a child. If he decided he wanted to help pursue the prosperity of the country, then what's so wrong with that?"

"If it were up to you, he would have been taken as a child! We saw how that went last time though." He glared daggers at him and Danzo stared back into his soul.

Danzo approached them with a smirk, "Such a beautiful daughter. Young lady, what's your name?"

Ino hugged herself, "I-Ino." 

"Don't talk to him, Ino... For what you've done to Crow... You should be in Tartarus with the rest of those criminals! He was a good hero, I'm not gonna stay quiet about this!" Inoichi clenched his fist.

Danzo turned his gaze back to Inoichi. "Inoichi. You're a smart man. The only reason you're still alive is because you're the country's leading Nuero-scientist. However, your daughter is not... Her Mind Transfer quirk would be a shame for Japan to lose... I hope you understand where I'm going with this."

Inoichi's eyes went wide and Ino hid behind her father, "You keep your shitty hands away from my daughter."

"Oh, it wouldn't be my hands. Although, as long as you keep quiet, then it'll be no one's hands. Is that satisfactory for you?"

Inoichi gritted his teeth and stayed quiet. Danzo's expression hardened and he spoke in a more firm tone, "Do you understand?"

Inoichi met his eyes with a tense mouth. "I understand."

"Good."

Ino thought, 'What's going on? Who are they talking about? Did he just threaten to kill me? Is this guy like one of those evil politicians Dad's always talking about?'

"Why are you even here?"

"I wanted to confirm if the boy's quirk really overcame the toll of multiple quirks or not. Now that I have my answer, I know for sure this is the child I have been waiting for. He won't be another fluke."

Inoichi's eyes narrowed, "He was not a fluke. He was a better man than you'll ever be."

Danzo turned away and strolled out of the room, "Despite your age, you are quite naive," Danzo stopped and turned back to Inoichi one last time, "Itachi Uchiha was a complete failure."

------------------------------------

Stopped writing for 3 days just to plan out this whole additional plotline that popped into my head. It will all work, don't worry. More Naruto characters being integrated and more world-building with a better fleshed-out commission plotline. A bunch of people say the Commision was a missed opportunity in the main story so hopefully, I can improve on that somewhat. Hope everyone can look forward to it.