A few days in the Hospital passed by, and Sasuke was cleared to leave. A nurse entered the room with a decorated gift box signed by Edgeshot, "For you, Uchiha."
Sasuke stopped wrapping his bones in energy and accepted the box, opening it to see his sword. The note read: They told me you lost this back at the camp, so I recovered it for you. Pass the upcoming license exam in less than a couple of weeks, and then come back to my agency again. You'll earn the best sword we have, and I'll teach you how to use wires."
'There's a license exam happening? I can't slack off much longer then… before I leave though, maybe this hospital has some public records I could somehow access. The staff should know.' Sasuke removed the gown and put back on his normal uniform. He exited his room and bumped into someone who fell. He looked down to see a familiar red hat and said, "Kota?" He kneeled and Kota looked up with a smile, "Sasuke! You're ok!"
Sasuke's expression lightened and a faint smirk rose on his face, "Of course I am. Did you come here for me?"
"Yeah. I heard you went head-to-head with AFO himself! That's badass!" Kota pumped his fist.
Sasuke looked away for a moment and thought, 'I sure got my ass beat badly...' He turned back, "Yeah... Just so you know, when I told you about my revenge, AFO was the main guy responsible."
Kota's big eyes got wider, "Really?! So he's like Muscular?"
"Way worse. Imagine if Muscular's IQ was 160 instead of 75. And he also had a couple dozen other quirks making him twenty times stronger. That's AFO.
Kota gulped and Sasuke continued, "Yeah. I'm just gonna have to get stronger."
Mandalei passed by, "Oh, Kota. There you are. We gotta go now."
Kota turned away, "Do we have to? I wanted to talk to Sasuke more!"
She smiled, "Yes, besides someone else is waiting to talk to Sasuke."
Kota grunted and ran off waving, "See ya, Sasuke!"
Sasuke waved back, but then a chill ran down his spine. 'AFO!' He jolted around glaring at the figure behind him, but eased when he saw it was just an old man with three jagged lines going down his face.
Sasuke eased and straightened up, "Who are you?" He sized him up, noticing the X scar on his chin.
The man smiled, showing off even more wrinkles, "You may call me... Hiruzen. I'm with the Hero Public Safety Commission. I'm the one that opted for you getting sent those government checks every month."
Sasuke stayed tense, 'The HPSC? On the forums, they called this organization pretty shady. Compared it to some old American agency a lot. What was it called? The CIA I think?' He spoke, "Oh... Are they gonna get canceled now since I'm old enough to work?"
"Heh, no not at all. The confidence we have in your future as a... Hero will guarantee we provide for you until you officially become one."
"Ah, nice, so what are you here for then?" He crossed his arms.
"Let's go inside your room first." They both strolled back into the room as Danzo closed the door. "I'm here because I've been paying attention to a lot of your choices... One of which being the time you were... "ambushed" for example?"
Sasuke's eyes widened and his mouth tensed, but Danzo continued, "And I completely support what you're doing"
Sasuke's mouth dropped, "Huh?"
"I support it. You've taken matters into your own hands and accomplished something the police never could."
Sasuke regained his composure, "Well they gave me their location."
"That's beside the point, your actions caused the drug trade to move out of that city since their chain of command deteriorated. The police with all their annoying laws and regulations simply slow them down from achieving justice like you did."
Something clicked in Sasuke's head, "Yeah... but aren't you in the HPSC? You guys have helped push for a lot of dumb laws."
Danzo sighed, "Our previous leadership was very poor, but that's changing... One thing that'll end up changing is Public quirk-use laws. I imagine that if someone competent could have used their quirk at that mall, then Shigaraki never would have gotten away."
Danzo closed his eyes and Sasuke slowly nodded, "Yeah..."
"I've been organizing a team of sorts... a black ops. Would you"—
Sasuke held up a hand, "Slow down there. It's cool that you support what I'm doing, but I don't intend on joining some shady government agency. All I care about is AFO, and since you've been watching me you should know that."
"I know, but let's be honest, Sasuke. I doubt you planned on doing normal basic hero work or flipping burgers your whole life. That Academy... it's nothing but a means to an end, am I right?"
"... I guess, so?"
"So I think you'll want to do something more meaningful when you graduate. A lot of the corruption in our system is what has allowed someone like AFO to maintain so much power in the first place."
The two maintained strong eye contact for a minute until Danzo sighed, "It's just something to think about. You're not being forced into anything." He clenched his fist under his robe and turned around.
Sasuke's mind flashed back to what AFO told him, "Wait before you go. I need to know something..."
Danzo turned back to him, "Yes?"
"You've been keeping track of and investigating me since losing my parents, right?"
"... Correct."
'It was probably just a lie... why would it matter?... No, I have to know.' Sasuke's mouth opened for a minute before he spoke, "Since you've been watching me for a long time, do you know if I... if I had a brother?"
Danzo's breathing froze and his heart jumped, but he remained calm on the outside. "A brother? Where is this coming from?"
"AFO mentioned it when I fought him. If everything you've been saying is true, you would probably know then."
"... Yes."
Sasuke's eyes became saucers and he gripped the chair next to him. He looked down, "It's true... What happened to him?"
Danzo swallowed, "He... was... kidnapped as a child. The records will officially say he was stillborn, but in reality, AFO wanted a stronger version of your mother's quirk, and he kidnapped Itachi to get it."
Sasuke's brow twitched and he could feel his mouth tensing.
Danzo continued, "Although we have to assume that his quirk developed in a way that AFO didn't like."
Sasuke's eyes slowly met Danzo's, "Why would you have to assume that?"
"Because... he killed him. We believe that he set up your family specifically to get to you in hopes of you developing the quirk he wanted all along. It's a miracle he didn't get it. That's the main reason why my group has kept a close eye on you. He would try to snatch you up otherwise."
Sasuke was dead silent and tried to take a deep breath. He stared off at nothing, "So it's true..." He rubbed his temples and blinked a few times, "He... lived... at the same time as..." Sasuke couldn't hold it in anymore, and he let out a scream as he threw the chair at the wall, impaling the legs through it.
He stomped over to the glass and slammed his palm against it; he gritted his teeth and stared out beyond the horizon, 'As if he didn't ruin my life enough! I had a brother?! A sibling?! And not a single person knew about him?!' He clenched his fist and jolted his neck to Danzo, "Hiruzen. If you can help me get stronger to kill AFO, then I'll consider joining whatever group you have going."
Danzo felt the edge of his lips try to curve up, but he suppressed it. He stretched out a hand from his robe, "It's a deal."
Sasuke shook his hand without hesitation. Danzo handed him a card, "Meet me at this spot later this week. Oh, and when you go out in public, you should wear a mask for a while, people have been viewing you like a celebrity after that fight."
Later that week, a winged hero strolled through the HPSC nonchalantly to the front desk. "Hey, is Madam President in? I had to talk to her about some important stuff."
"Hi, Hawks, you haven't heard the news?"
He kept on his smile, "What? She went on an early vacation?"
The Secretary met his eyes, "She was replaced."
His smile disappeared, "Replaced? What? By who? Why?"
She stopped typing on the computer and turned her chair to face Hawks fully; she leaned in, "She was... exposed for doing some backward things, including extracting funds from this company for her wants. The council saw it fit to replace her with... Danzo. The one who found out what she was doing."
Hawks was silent for an excruciatingly long moment before smiling, "I see. I understand. Thank you."
Hawks turned away and ambled out of the buildings doors, as soon as the sun shined down on him he gritted his teeth, 'Danzo of all people?! After what he did?!... This isn't right. I have to find out what's going on here. I'm not taking orders from him!'
At the same time somewhere else, the consistent tap of Danzo's cane echoed under the bridge as he and Sasuke sauntered about, "Millions of people saw you fight AFO on TV."
Sasuke kept his hands in his pocket, "Millions saw me get my ass kicked?"
Danzo chuckled, "Yes, although people were impressed to see a teenager fight AFO at all. Many have complimented you."
"Calling it a fight is a compliment on its own."
"That's a good outlook. Most people aren't critical enough of themselves. That's part of why you sit at the upper echelon of teenage quirk users."
"Well, it's not like there's a lot of competition."
"I will give you that. The fact that kids like that boy with the tail, the invisible girl, and the other one with the purple-ball hair got accepted at the most prestigious school in our country is a disgrace."
Sasuke snickered, "Yeah, I don't have any idea how any of them besides the tail guy could have got enough points to even get here."
"Yes, but never mind that I noticed during your fight with AFO that you shot balls of energy at him, what were those?"
"Those were my Magatama beads."
"Is that your strongest attack?"
"Yeah, they just got slapped away though." He looked down.
"You should develop a more lethal weapon"
Sasuke's eyes scanned over the river they passed by, "... Probably, although I have a very anti-killing teacher." He thought, 'Speaking of that... damn, I better not get expelled for what happened.'
"That is of no matter, develop it in secret if you must. If you shot... let's say an arrow at AFO, that's not something that could be slapped away; it would be a lot faster too."
Sasuke was silent for a minute, "That's... a decent idea... an arrow..."
The next day Sasuke woke up to the sounds of people outside his apartment. He groggily stood up and peeked out the window to see multiple people with cameras and notebooks looking up at his apartment.
He receded into the apartment adorned, 'When the hell are they gonna give up?' He got his clothes on and snuck out, jumping across buildings to get to the train station with a mask on.
Later once he was at UA, he lined up with Class-1A as they stood outside the new dorms building with Aizawa. Midoriya smiled, "Sasuke! We didn't know you were cleared to come out."
"Yeah, I wasn't hurt too bad."
Mina gave a light punch to Sasuke's side, making him wince, "Yeah just a broken rib, basically a flesh wound right?"
"Tch... maybe a little worse."
While Aizawa started talking and Kirishima gave a light slap to Sasuke's back, "Glad to see our local celebrity is back up and running!"
"The celebrity part almost makes me want to stay at the hospital. I wish people would get over it already."
Kaminari approached, "Not for a couple months at least, have you not seen all the memes people have made of you? You're the most popular teen in Japan right now!"
"Memes? Seriously?"
Sero popped up from behind, "Yeah! Especially since Kaminari has been"-
-"EHEM!" Aizawa stared at them and they shut up.
He stated, "I'm gonna give a quick review of your dorms, but before that... The training camp was meant to earn your provisional licenses, and that's still the goal. Todoroki, Kirishima, Midoriya, Tokoyami, Iida, Ashido, Yaoyorozu. On that night the seven of you headed out to rescue Bakugo and Sasuke."
The rest of the class tensed up and stared at them as Aizawa continued, "I think that all of you understand the consequences of your actions. The issue has been swept under the rug so far, but let me be clear about this. If not for All Might's retirement... I would have expelled every single one of you besides Bakugo, Jiro, and Hagakure. The chaos is sure to continue since he's retired now, and with the League's activity, expelling anyone is ill-advised. The seven who went, including the rest of you who were aware of this and didn't say anything... your reasons aside, the fact remains that you betrayed our trust. From this point on as long as you follow procedures and behave properly, you may regain our trust. That's all! Now look lively and get a move on!"
Aizawa turned away, leaving them in silence. 'So I won't be expelled? He didn't even ask to talk?' Sasuke walked up the steps to the building with his hands in his pockets; Tokoyami walked alongside him.
"Good morning, Sasuke."
"Hey."
"Those drugs that were going around Musutafu have come up again."
"Quirk enhancing drugs?"
"Yes. It's not a guarantee but... they might have come out of hiding."
Sasuke glared, "Well if it is them then I'll be ready this time."
Tokoyami side-eyed him, "We'll be ready, you mean?"
Sasuke met his eye, "Yeah. I won't repeat the same mistake next time I see them."
Later at night Sasuke rode down the elevator in thought, 'Why hasn't Aizawa questioned me at all? Feels almost like nothing happened. Maybe the other students said something? That's the only thing that would make sense.'
The door dinged and he walked out to the common area. After turning the corner, Uraraka spotted him, "Oh, Sasuke. You came out of your cave."
"Hn. Tell me... did you guys talk to Aizawa?"
Uraraka put a finger under her mouth, "Hmmm... well we all talked to him today."
Mina spotted the two talking and came over to pull Sasuke towards the rest of the class.
"Mina!"
She and Uraraka snickered, "Look who we found!"
The other students around the couch turned to them. Kirishima said, "I starting to think he was gonna stay upstairs all night."
Mina patted his back, "So what's up?"
Sasuke sighed, he sat down and glanced at everyone, "Are you guys the reason I'm not expelled right now?"
Iida adjusted his glasses, "That would be correct!"
"I see... What happened?"
Midoriya straightened up, "Aizawa asked us a lot about why you were fighting AFO and what we heard, we uh..."
Uraraka cut in, "We lied, said it was just self defense while he tried to take your quirk."
"Which was kinda true anyway," Kirishima added.
Sasuke put his hands together, "So you guys know the truth then?"
Momo nodded, "Yes, we pieced it together."
Uraraka giggled, "Yeah you can only yell about revenge against certain villains so much before people start to piece stuff together."
Sasuke looked down, "Yeah... I don't know what to say..."
Mina put a hand under her chin, "You know... they recently invented this phrase to show appreciation to people when they do something nice..."
Sasuke let out a light chuckle and looked up, "... Thank you, everyone."
Iida replied, "You're welcome. None of us have an interest in you being kicked out. Just ensure that you won't do anything like what I did."
"I don't intend on it," His eyes met briefly with Mina's and Tokoyami's.
After a moment of silence, Uraraka announced, "Well anyway, me and Mina came up with an idea. Why don't we peek into each other's rooms?"
Midoriya and Tokoyami panicked; Sasuke sighed, "Why not?"
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I'm finally back. I'm sorry for being gone so long, I was just dealing someone that was trying to ruin my life and get me labeled a felon. Messed me up for awhile and I wasn't in the right mindset for quality writing. Hope my writing quality hasn't deteriated. I should have the next chapter out this same month, still getting back into it.