Chereads / Itachi in Solo Leveling / Chapter 8 - A-rank Gate

Chapter 8 - A-rank Gate

I don't own solo leveling or Naruto

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"Hn"

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1 month later

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Itachi after getting his hunter license went out into the world of dungeons and monsters. Mai recommended for him to start off slowly and get adjusted to the procedures involving hunter work.

He found out from Mai that, he had to book for gates on the internet, which at the time Itachi had no idea how to use.

Mai looked at him strangely when he stated that and muttered, "A teenager that can't use the internet...that's a first."

Itachi didn't let it visibly bother him even though it did, because he didn't like not being knowledgeable on topics required in whatever line of work he was undertaking.

The system that the Association had in place for hunters that hadn't joined any guilds was very simple. All a person had to do was book a gate, whenever the Association released information on new gate appearances, which was pretty much everyday.

Simple however didn't translate to easy, because booking a high ranking gate (B-rank to S-rank) involved absolutely ridiculous amounts of money, which is why they were mostly handled by guilds that could afford those bookings no problem.

It frustrated Itachi, because he was stuck with doing low ranking gates for weeks that didn't test his powers the way he wanted. The low ranked raids did provide good money, it just wasn't the money Itachi needed at the moment, because he wanted the debts hanging over Izumi's debts to be dealt with quickly. He didn't want Izumi to end up having to sell most of her possessions to pay back the loans she took from the bank when he could prevent that. 'Loan sharks are dangerous people in every universe,' Itachi thought to himself as he was walking out of the Uber that reached his destination. He actually started to like meditating near the balcony garden, the smell that permeated from the flowers were refreshing to his nose because of the pollution produced by the concrete jungle of Tokyo.

He wondered if he'd never woken up in the boy's place what would have happen to Izumi, thoughts like those caused him to become a brooding edgelord as Izumi liked to put it.

Itachi didn't want to admit that he was growing really fond of Izumi as he thought about her teasing him on his serious demeanor, it reminded him of how Shisui could see right through Itachi whenever something weighed heavy on his mind.

...

Itachi was standing behind Association's black and yellow tape as he observed the glowing blue portal humming softly underneath darkness of a halfway constructed ground floor level of a hotel.

He booked for this A-rank gate online after searching all night on the Association website. He was excited because even though it cost him most of his finances he knew the returns from the gate would be worth it, especially if he found the essence stones of an A-ranked monster and sold those.

—Note—

Doing dungeon raids as a non-guild entity is not the most profitable way to raid dungeons. Because dungeons have many materials that can be used to make magic imbued equipment like essence stones, monster corpses and item drops from the monsters, it is more efficient to raids as guild.

Because guilds have hundreds of members that are put into different teams such as Mining teams for mining the essence stones in the dungeon, the Collection teams for collecting all the monster corpses and other interesting materials and the most important part, the Attack Force that kills all the monsters during the raid making it safe for the other two teams to operate.

Non-guild entities don't have this luxury in numbers so are forced to do this as a group of 7 or 8 and such a small number cannot maximize the profits of the dungeon like guilds do.

—Note—

Itachi was wearing a black hoodie with red interior designing, navy pants and black combat boots. There was a strap on his right leg that carried his kunai and shuiriken that he has so familiar with as a Shinobi, it took him longer than he cared to admit to regain his previous skill he once had with those tools, but once he did clearing low ranked gates became so much more efficient for him.

"Yo! Itachi, what are you doing here?" A familiar voice questioned from behind Itachi's back.

"I could ask you the same question, Mai. Besides I'm the one who booked this raid so that makes me the leader," Itachi responded without turning his head back.

"I know that obviously I was just trying to make conversation," Mai deadpanned at Itachi.

"I thought members of the Association weren't allowed to raid dungeons," Itachi explained, while staring straight at the glowing blue portal.

"My position in the Association is...well let's say it's unique," Mai informed whilst scratching the back of her head and laughing lightly.

Itachi merely grunted in response not particularly caring for an explanation, but shoveling the information away for later investigation.

"An A-rank gate is serious business...are you up for it?" Mai asked with a calm smile on her face, standing next to Itachi.

"I'm always ready," Itachi said very seriously whilst eyeing Mai from the corner of his eyes. He noticed she was wearing a blue and black light weight armored body suit that protected all her vital areas. She had dark blue gauntlets on, likely to compliment the destructive force she is capable of doing with her techniques.

"That's good to here!" A loud confident voice shouted while aprroching their location.

"My name is Tanaka Kenjo," The spikey brown haired man grinned. Mai's eyes widened when she saw the man's face and heard his name.

'The Tanaka Kenjo from Draw Sword guild! What's such a prominent hunter like him doing here?' Mai thought alarmed.

In comparison Itachi's thoughts were much more muted. The tall, broad shoulderd man wearing a grey tank top as well as simple cargo pants and black combat boots told Itachi many things about this man.

'Judging by Mai's rection he's a big deal and from his body type I'd say he's a tanker or a very bulky fighter,' Itachi surmised his thoughts on the man who had a huge grin on his face.

"I'm Draw Sword Guild's manliest A-rank Tanker. A buddy of mine asked me to fill in for him cause he had other plans going on. Since I'm such great guy I don't mind clearing this puny gate," Tanaka explained his reason for being here.

"Since I'm the most powerful I think it's clear that I should be the leader, alright!" He declared daring anyone to object his decision.

"I'm Itachi Uchiha, A-ranked Assassin," Itachi introduced himself to the bulky Tanker and not bothering to argue with him on the matter of the leader.

"The others better be arriving soon, I'm dying for some action right now," Mai told them in an aggravated tone with her gauntlet covered hands on her hips.

"We're here! Right on time if you ask me," A young obnoxious seeming man announced approaching them with one other person trailing behind him with his hands in his pockets.

"Finally! Just tell us you're names, rank and type so we can get going!" Mai very rudely told the two arriving hunters.

"Woah now! I'm the leader so I decide when we get going, okay," Tanaka explained to Mai. He turned to face the two newcomers and said,"So what are your names?" He questioned seriously, Mai just sweat dropped because his serious face looked very off putting and he asked the same question she did.

'He should definitely stick to laid back, being serious is way too weird for him,' She thought.

"Denki Fuma, B-rank Ranger," Denki said in an excited tone. He had dirty blonde hair, sea green eyes and a scar on his cheek.

"Ken Fuma, B-rank Healer," Ken said in a bored tone. He had black hair, droopy brown eyes and frown set, almost, permanently on his face.

They both wore identical grey hoodies with grey combat pants. The only difference between them was that Denki had a silver necklace around his neck.

"You're brothers, huh," Mai stated.

"Yep! This guy's had my back since as far back as I can remember!" Denki explained to Mai.

"We should probably get going now," Itachi stated with no emotions as he purposely ignored Mai's slowly forming grin because she realized he was becoming very impatient.

'I didn't think you were as excited about this raid as I was, Itachi,' Mai chuckled lowly as she thought this.

Itachi's face showed slight irritation knowing Mai read his mood so easily.

"The kid is right we should get going. So as the leader declare this dungeon raid...a go!" Tanaka shouted with so much enthusiasm it made everyone else pumped up for raid.

After showing their hunter licenses to the Association agents in charge of monitoring the gate they entered the dungeon with purpose in their steps.

"Let's do this!" Mai shouted

—Note—

*The Team composition is as follows:

Tanaka Kenjo (A-rank) - Tanker, the self declaraed leader

Itachi Uchiha (A-rank) - Assassin, the youngest

Mai Kazama (A-rank) - Fighter

Denki Fuma (B-rank) - Archer

Ken Fuma (B-rank) - Healer

This team is very strong in terms of magic potential, but can they work well as a team is the question.*

—Note—