Inside the prison clinic, as bland as the rest of the prison, The pale-skinned doctor treated Nagant's cheek with a smile, leaving his hand on the scar longer than he should have, "I've done all I can for you normally; the scar on your cheek should fade eventually."
Nagant avoided making eye contact with his snake-slit eyes and stared at the door, "Thanks... was that blonde guy dead?"
"Yes... I personally disposed of his body. You were very thorough."
Nagant thought she saw him liking his lips in the corner of her vision, "Am I cleared to leave now? I feel fine."
"Yes... you know you could have been fully healed the day the incident happened if you had just let me take you to the more private intensive care I provide."
"Yeah... no thanks... not a big fan of the weird fluids." Nagant grimaced, making her way to the door as the doctor chuckled.
At the Hero Commission building, Danzo stared at the plane through the window of his office as it flew west with a smile. "Finally."
His phone rang and he picked it up, "Yes?"
"Nagant's scheduled execution has been successfully moved up from 8 months to 1 month from now."
Danzo's smile widened, "That's great news. Everything is falling into place. Continue your work."
As the sun set west, Edgeshot strolled back to his agency, gripping the kunai in his pocket. He arrived back at the dojo to see Sasuke successfully pulling back thrown shurikens with cables.
They made eye contact and Edgeshot eye-smiled, "Quick learner as always."
"Yeah, just gotta work on making it an unconscious effort." Sasuke went back to throwing and pulling shuriken as Edgeshot stared at him. Thinking back to what Hawks said earlier, he thought, 'I gotta pay a lot more attention to Sasuke.'
He approached Sasuke, and he stopped training, thinking back to the visions He had after taking the needles. "Edgeshot… Can you get me in contact with Hawks?"
Edgeshot paused, "Hawks? No, he won't be back in the country for a week or so, why?"
Sasuke sighed, shaking his head, 'Something just doesn't feel right.' "It's nothing important. Did you need something?"
Edgeshot cleared his throat, "I think you're ready for the most intense training I can offer you."
Sasuke stuck his chin up, "Show me."
Sasuke's expression swapped from anticipation to deadpan as he soon entered a room with Tenten sitting on a couch watching Mina play Beat Saber. They could see her active game on the headset through the TV. Sasuke side-eyed Edgeshot, "Are you trolling?"
"Dead serious."
Mina lost and yelled, taking off the headset, "What the hell! How are people supposed to beat this?! Oh, hi, Sasuke."
Tenten turned to them, seeing Sasuke, and gasped, "Mr. Edgeshot! You think Sasuke is ready for this?"
"Yeah, it's time."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, "It's just a VR game."
Mina said, "You shouldn't underestimate it. This is harder than fighting a Nomu," she offered the headset.
Sasuke grabbed it, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is stupid. Just give me the hardest level so I can go back to normal training."
Edgeshot shook his head knowingly, "You'll regret this, but alright." Edgeshot chose the level for Sasuke and loaded it up.
Sasuke held his hands up, ready for whatever came his way, "You just hit the red and blue targets at a certain angle; there's nothing hard about this," the targets showed up, and Sasuke reacted to them, "When this is"— Sasuke missed a target and the song ended.
Edgeshot crossed his arms, "You were saying?"
Sasuke frowned and reloaded the level, "It's my first time, so—" he failed again. Mina could be heard failing to hold in a laugh.
Sasuke glared at the screen and gave it a few more tries, getting a little further each time but never getting further in the song than ten seconds, the targets were simply too fast. He took the headset off, "What's wrong with this game?"
"Nothings wrong with it, Sasuke," Edgeshot uncrossed his arms, "You've gotta have more faith in me as your sensei, do you really think I'd just call a basic game training?"
Sasuke's expression softened, "Then what is it? Fast reaction times for the average person should be a breeze."
"Me and other heroes around the world were given specially made editions of the game specifically meant to be a challenge for the fastest people around... personally I have beaten the hardest level... although it was on one of the easier difficulties, I'm still getting better at the game myself."
Mina asked, "Cool, does the game have a leaderboard you're ranked in?"
"Of course. I'm ranked 3rd globally right now. 1st place belongs to the number 2 hero in America."
Sasuke turned to the screen and rubbed the back of his head, "Alright, yeah I get it now, but how is this gonna translate to fighting?"
Edgeshot held up a finger, "Gamers have faster reaction times than non-gamers. Now just add hero before gamers... are you following?"
"Uh... yeah."
Edgeshot chuckled and patted Sasuke's shoulder, "You'll still continue your normal cable training, but we'll incorporate this every now and then with the routine."
Sasuke nodded, "Alright, now then what level should I do?"
While Sasuke was helped with selecting a level, the diverse hero team flew across mainland Asia. The black jet cut through the sky while its occupants conversed. The team of five sat on either side of the cockpit seats, with Minato and Tsunade on the left side and the other three on the other. Tsunade stared out the window at the storm while Minato played games on his phone. Hawks made sure to stay close to Kabuto who was more than eager to sit next to him.
Kabuto cleared his throat, "We should discuss how this mission is gonna go. This should go without saying, but we're gonna try to maintain some form of stealth as long as possible. We have three main goals: one is to save Alan Kay, the man who exposed the location of their secret base. Our second goal is to take down the leader of the group, Flect Turn. And our third goal is to secure the bombs to make sure they never get put to use."
Minato asked, "Who's standing in our way?"
"Publically, we only know about their forces being quirkless civilians, which aren't any trouble; although, thanks to Alan Kay, we have info on the real fighters." Kabuto pulled out cards and showed them to everyone, "First is a woman named Beros. She can manifest her own bow to shoot homing projectiles, but can't make her own ammo. Next is Sidero, he makes iron balls from his knuckles he can manipulate the size of."
Tsunade smiled, "Sounds like pushovers so far."
"Well, they get stronger from here. Next is Leviathan. A huge... beast with immense strength. He also uses those red tendrils to fight. After that are the Serpenter twins who both use huge bellow sword quirks to kill. Lastly, of course, is the leader Flect Turn himself. He's never been in a fight, so we don't really know, although they say everything reflected off him as a kid."
Hawks said, "Doesn't sound too bad. Just gotta figure out who goes with who."
Tokoyami spoke up, "Actually, I think we should start out close together, doesn't it make sense that once we find Alan Kay, he could instantly tell us the locations of the bombs and Flect Turn?"
Kabuto smiled, "You have a smart student, Hawks."
Hawks fake smiled back, "Yeah, I really do."
Later in the day, three of the group of four ate pizza in the VR room while it was Tenten's turn to play.
As Sasuke took a bite, he saw a block that Mina fiddled with while chewing on her food. "What is that?"
Mina smiled and answered in a muffled voice, "Modified Teflon."
"Oh, like to train your acid, that works well."
Mina choked on her food and coughed up the chunk. Sasuke side-eyed her, "You ok?"
She nodded thinking, 'Why does he know more about acid stuff than me when I have the acid quirk?'
Tenten passed the level and cheered, "Yay! Whose turn was next?"
Sasuke stood up and accepted the headset, selecting a hard difficulty level. Edgeshot said, "Oh? Moving up from medium this fast?"
"Of course, I already beat a couple levels of the lower difficulties," Sasuke fitted the headset.
"Well why don't I give you some motivation then?" Sasuke lifted the headset, looking back at him.
Edgeshot slipped a finger under his mask, "Beat this level on your first try, and I'll take my mask off."
"Ooooo," Mina and Tenten reacted in unison. Sasuke mentally locked in and his eyes flared red, "Deal."
He put it back on and started the level. He went to hit the first target, but his timing was off and he immediately failed.
Silence befell the room until Mina burst out laughing followed by a small giggle from Tenten. Edgeshot patted his back, "It's like that sometimes, Sasuke."
A week passed, and the jet hovered 12,000 meters in the sky over the location of the Humarise base inside the howling winds and aggressive rainfall of gray clouds. Hawks focused on navigating his feather through the underground base as everyone watched his feather's movement through the halls via a camera.
Minato stated. "The base has a pretty interesting structure." The entire base was like a faded mix of gold and brown and there were holes that something likely shoots out of everywhere in the halls.
Kabuto replied, "Yeah, although everything important must be locked behind doors considering we haven't found anything. Someone's coming!"
Hawks hid the feather in a high corner of the hallway as Sidero strolled down the hall to a door. He held up a key card, opening the door. In the small span, the door was open, Hawks slipped the feather inside what seemed like a lab judging by the math equations, bomb sketches, and flasks everywhere. Everyone observed the room. Sidero asked, "Yo, Alan. How's the bomb going?"
Alan turned with a gloomy look and an eye patch. "I've told you before that one still won't be ready for at least a month. Once one is complete, the others can be produced very quickly."
Hawks said, "Bingo. That's where we gotta go." Hawks hid the feather and stood up, "Are we ready to deploy?"
Kabuto answered, "Just about, we just need the ship to find a safe place to land after we disable their security... in the meantime, can I talk to you about something?"
"Hm? Sure."
Hawks analyzed Kabuto's troubled face and followed him to the front of the jet behind a door. Once alone, Kabuto turned to him and said, "Hawks, there's something you should know about Danzo... the four of you could have completed everything on your own, but he sent me here cause he wanted me to kill you."
Hawks glared and spread his feet, "That so? Not even gonna try to hide it?"
Kabuto held up a hand, "Wait! I don't want to kill you."
"Huh?" Hawks' eyes widened.
"It's not like you've actually done anything wrong. Danzo is just really paranoid, he's been getting out of hand."
Hawks thought, 'What the hell is going on right now? Is he trying to make me trust him? Or is this legit?' "Yeah... I guess I see where you're coming from, but aren't you part of his more private personal group? Why would you turn your back on him?"
"Because he's a fool, and for all his talk about saving Japan and making it an even greater country, his actions do the exact opposite! Like having Itachi killed."
Hawks's breath got caught in his throat. He stared at Kabuto, looking for any hint of deceit. Kabuto held his arms wide open with a serious face. "You're saying that Danzo had Itachi killed?"
"Yes! I personally saw him make the order."
Hawks couldn't help gritting his teeth but quickly regained composure, "Is this mission we're on even legit, or just a cover-up to kill me?"
"The mission is a legit problem, it was just convenient timing for him to have you killed at the same time."
Hawks looked east out the rain covered window, "Why would Danzo ever want to have me killed anyway? I haven't done anything."
Kabuto paused, staring at Hawks with peered eyes as the light of the jet buttons blocked sight of his own through his glasses, "Because he's suspicious of you knowing his plans, considering you were with Itachi when he had him killed. Anything in the way of Sasuke is a problem."
Hawks turned back to him with a raised brow, "Sasuke? The student who won the sports festival? What would he want with him?"
Kabuto scratched behind his ear, "It's... hard to explain, but due to the nature of Sasuke's quirk, he'll be able to heal Danzo's current illness."
Hawks thought, 'I didn't even know that... that's super vague. Sasuke's quirk has nothing to do with healing... but whatever the case...' "In that case, we gotta stop them from making contact."
Kabuto smiled and approached him, "Exactly," he offered his hand for a shake, "I get if you don't trust me, but I wanna help you."
Hawks stared at his hand for a while before accepting it, "I don't trust you at the moment, but we can work something out."
They stared at one another, slowly shaking until there was a knock on the door. Tsunade called, "Hey! Are you two ready yet? A landing spot has been found!"
Kabuto answered, "We're ready," they both nodded at each other before going back with the rest of the team. Tokoyami stared at the two of them as Hawks approached him with a smile, 'No time to tell him anything... maybe it's better that way anyway,' "Tokoyami, ready for another flying lesson?"
Tokoyami tensed up as the jet bridge lowered. He peeked out and saw only thunderclouds. "Do we not have any parachutes in here?"
Everyone walked to the edge of the bridge and Tsunade answered, "No, that would leave evidence of intruders. Not that we could use one in a thunderstorm anyway."
Tokoyami gulped and forced his legs to stop shaking, "Remind me why we had to wait until a thunderstorm?"
Minato prepared a Kunai and practiced the motion of throwing, "Cause my flying Raijin would probably be suspicious to see if it didn't blend in with lightning."
Hawks patted Tokoyami's back, making him almost stumble, "Come on don't back out on me now, Tokoyami."
Tokoyami took a deep breath, "Alright... I'm ready."
Minato said, "Then let's go!" He jumped out of the plane first, followed by Tsunade and Kabuto.
As Tokoyami saw them disappear into the dark clouds he backed up, "I change my mind I'm not"—"LET'S GO!" Hawks grabbed him and jumped out of the plane into a free fall.
The rain and wind made Tokoyami close his eyes until Hawks slipped goggles over them. Tokoyami gazed at the other 3 enjoying their free fall. "I can't fly, Hawks!"
"If your quirk can fly then why can't you?"
Tokoyami gripped tightly onto Hawks jacket and Hawks positioned his wings in a way to dive faster. Tokoyami resisted the urge to scream and tried to regulate his breathing, "I... I don't know."
"You'll figure it out, Tokoyami. I'll be counting on you to watch my back during this mission." Kabuto stared up at them as they caught up with them and Hawks gathered all of them together with feathers drawing them in.
Minato drew his kunai and aimed precisely between the gap in the vents. He timed when to throw it past the spinning blades of the fan and finally flicked his wrist. Everyone turned into a beam of lightning, and in an instant, they stood inside the large vent.
In the security room, two guys watched the cameras. "Woah! That was a big one."
"Hope that doesn't mess up the vent functions."
In the vent, everyone got a bearing of their surroundings and wordlessly traversed through the vent until they found a grate. "I'll rip it out," Tsunade grabbed the vent, but Minato put a hand on her shoulders and showed her a screwdriver.
"Let's avoid making so much noise for the time being," Minato knelt and undid the screws faster than a power tool and lifted the grate.
They dropped down and nodded at each other, following Hawks to Alan Kay's lab.
At the same time, back in Japan, where it was daytime, Sasuke finished meditating and went to the dojo with targets in it to continue his mastery of cables. He turned away from the targets and threw the shuriken, then pulled onto the cables to send them dicing through the air behind him at the targets. He practiced different tricks with the shuriken for a couple of hours until Edgeshot knocked on the dojo door before entering. "Sasuke, we have an important mission to take care of."
Sasuke turned to him, seeing a strange aura surround him. "Yeah?"
"Tenten's cat Tora is on the run so I need you to catch it."
Sasuke deadpanned, "Seriously?"
"Completely."
"Someone else can't get it?"
"We're about to leave so only you have the skills for it."
"It's just a cat."
"And Beat Saber was just a game, wasn't it?"
Sasuke paused, then sighed, "Fine. I'll take care of it."
Edgeshot eye-smiled, "Thanks." He disappeared, and Sasuke wiped away some sweat before leaving and hopping onto the roof of the dojo. He kept his eyes peeled until he finally caught sight of a brown cat licking itself on a roof. He surrounded himself in purple energy for his Savitar mode, "Let's make this quick."
He attempted to blitz the cat to grab it, but it somehow reacted and jumped out of the way of his grab attempt, running away. Sasuke blinked, staring at the cat, "Huh?"
He ran at it trying to grab it again but failed. 'Did this thing eat All Might's hair?'
He chased it across the rooftops to the edge of the agency and summoned Susanoo arms trying to surround it, but it jumped in between its fingers and hopped over the agency walls out in the city. Sasuke gritted his teeth and gave chase, dashing past the people. The cat turned into an ally and jumped up on the trashcans. It then jumped off the wall onto half a ladder to get on the catwalk, but Sasuke rattled the catwalk with a hit, making the cat fall off so he could finally catch it, "Got you!"
Tora meowed at him like he was mocking him, but didn't try to scratch him. He began making his way out of the alley, but he saw Hiruzen walking past with a cane and mask. "Hiruzen?"
Danzo turned to him coughing, "Oh, Sasuke. I was just on my way to see you. *cough.*"
Sasuke stared at him. Most people had a normal blue aura, but he had a sickly green aura with hints of red surrounding him. On top of that, he was very pale and walked wobbly. "You look horrible."
Danzo chuckled then wheezed, "Yes, getting a quirk seems to do that. How has your astral training been going along?"
"I think I have it down, although I'm not sure... I can see people's auras if I focus; yours is atrocious."
Danzo's eyes lit up. And he wobbled towards him on his cane. Tora hissed violently and jumped out of Sasuke's arms, running toward the estate. 'Damn it, hope it goes back where it belongs.'
Danzo asked, "I think you may be ready to heal me..." Danzo paused, "Then, as soon as you can, you should be able to perform the same thing on Midoriya."
Sasuke stared at him more then looked down, "Before I do that… How did Crow die?"
Danzo froze and his voice sharpened, "Where is this coming from?"
"Does it matter? I'm just curious. With all the other stuff you know, you should know how that happened too."
Danzo was silent for a while, his fingers making micro movements on his cane. "Crow died *cough* from a sniper shot on an important mission with Hawks to take down the villain Nine. A servant of AFO."
'Whoever Nine is, that checks out with the memories… Was I worrying over nothing?'
His brow scrunched briefly before relaxing and exhaling.
Danzo wheezed harshly and wiped blood off his mouth. "Sasuke…"
"Alright, just let me focus." Sasuke raised his arm as transparent purple energy surrounded it and touched Danzo's cracks going down his face. Its transparency was much more ethereal than usual, and Sasuke tried to envision his quirk factor like an overflowing cup; he molded the cup-like clay and increased its size to try and accommodate everything in there. The process felt natural as if Sasuke experienced it himself at one point. The cracks on Danzo's head seemed to slowly fade away as Danzo's cough got less intense.
Sasuke separated his hand and observed Danzo's aura as the green slowly faded, leaving hints of blue. "You should be good now; those cracks are gone, too."
Danzo remained silent and felt his forehead where he remembered the three cracks being. A huge smile crossed his face, hidden by his mask, and he straightened up, testing how well he walked without his cane. The cane no longer supported him as his legs stabilized as much as anyone else's to carry him out of the alley. and he turned to Sasuke, "Thank you. I shouldn't hold you up any longer."
Sasuke couldn't explain it, but he felt an odd sinking in his stomach as they parted ways. "Yeah…"
----------------
Hello everyone, today's my birthday and I enter the senior age of 20. As a gift to myself and you guys I have this chapter right now, and I will post another chapter just as long later in the day. Sorry it took so long but I started grinding for platinum trophies in ever Soulsborne game. Hope you guys still enjoy everything, writing these scenes was fun.