The Journey — (Sasuke in Solo Leveling)

I don't own solo leveling or Naruto

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Bodies laid battered and buried on the grounds of the Raindrop guild, a guild of B-rank hunters boasting up to 30 members in their totality.

It is a rule that only 10 members can meet the minimum requirement to enter a gate and the Raindrop guild surpasses that number threefold.

However, that meant nothing in the face of two beings with beast-like features that attacked them out of nowhere. They were savage in their attacks and all their planning, formations and powers were useless before their might.

But none of them were killed, only incapacitated. The guild master of the Raindrop guild was slumped against a wall with his stomach ripped open and blood flowing out of him profusely.

"W-Why? Why all this destruction? Who are you people?" he gasped out with all the venom he could muster.

Daijo had his large clawed hand clutched around the head of a small petite woman. Her name was Cha Binna and she was a B-rank healer, she had joined the Raindrop Guild after being rejected by the Hunters guild. She never would have expected this to happen to her in a million years. As a hunter she was prepared for the bloodshed and carnage that came with the profession, but to be at death's door at the hands of other human beings was not a reality she was prepared for.

"She can heal you know. I kept her in just good enough condition for her to cast a healing spell on you." Daijo explained, while his partner, Seven, lazily took a seat on an incapacitated hunter's back. He seemed spent with the day's events, whether that was due to the fight or just his general feelings of the situation was up to anyone's guess.

"However, since you're the leader of this guild I'd like to make a deal with you in exchange for this offer, Mr. Jae-kyung."

His grin was malicious and conniving.

Jaekyung was not going for what he was offering and spat in his face.

"Fuck off!"

The blood trailed down his cheek as a frown quickly adorned his features. He increased the pressure around Binna's head causing her to whimper and cry out in agony, tears rolling down her face.

"This is your best friend's sister, isn't she?" He pulled her face towards him as tears dropped onto his bleeding face. "You see I've done my research on you and I know that you have a close bond with her. I'd go so far as to say that you two are very 'intimate' with each other."

His satisfaction brewed at the pathetic face that Jae-kyung made at him revealing that information.

"W-What do you want, you piece of shit!" He glared at him venomously, but his face immediately softened when Binna let out another whimper.

He strained to raise his hand and wipe her tears away, leaving streaks of blood run across her cheeks. "It's gonna be okay, Binna. It's gonna be okay, you hear me." He tried comforting her as a wave of pain shot through his abdomen forcing him to grunt in pain.

"Your skin is getting paler. You're running out of time man."

"What do you want!" Jae-kyung screamed.

"I want you to waive your control of the Raindrop guild to us in exchange for your life and the life of your little girlfriend." Daijo explained.

Jaekyung hesitated when he heard his demand, "What d-do you mean by that?"

"You don't have a lot of time to ask questions, man. Either you say yes to controlling the Raindrop guild or you die and then your girlfriend dies and then everybody else dies. You have the power to stop that if you just say yes."

"You're a sick bastard!" Jaekyung shouted out, his pride as a man not letting him back down even in the face of his own death. However, it wasn't just his life in the balance. The life of his guild, his best friend and his beautiful sister whom he wished to marry someday.

He knew what his choice was from the moment their lives were in danger.

"Fine." he bowed his head in shame, much to the glee of Daijo and Seven's exasperation.

"Finally! Can we get outta here now? I'm so freaking done with today and thanks to Eclipse all my bones are aching." Seven complained.

Daijo turned back to him, "Yeah, yeah, you couch potato I hear you. We're almost done." He smiled back at Jaekyung, letting go of Binna. "Now you can heal your boyfriend. Hehehe."

Binna quickly scrambled over to Jaekyung's side and forced a radiant green light to come all over him. The tears in his stomach and all the bloodloss were magically restored, bringing him to top condition.

"Thank you for your time, Jaekyung. And welcome to the first day of the rest of your life!"

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The next day

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It was early in the morning and Sasuke was taking another dunk into the pool after falling to successfully stand on water. He swam up to the surface and let out a frustrated breath with his wet raven hair clinging to his cheeks. The goosebumps that formed on his skin due to the cold water slowly faded away as the exercise warmed him up.

The reason for this was to gain a firm grasp of the mana flowing throughout his body. It was unlike chakra which didn't really exist until he started to manipulate his mental and physical energies to create it. Mana was always there, just sitting but at the same time it filtered through every pore of his body, which is why he was in this state of being 'enhanced' all the time.

'Having physical attributes this high without kneading chakra? Is it really just because I have mana?' Sasuke questioned.

As a byproduct of using chakra for as long as he did he constantly swirled the mental and physical energies residing inside of him even if he didn't really create the chakra. But with mana sitting inside his body he noticed that the mixing of his internal energies was disturbed. It was confusing to wrap his head around it but it was like mana acted as a barrier against his ability to create chakra.

'Does that mean if my mana is completely used up then I won't die?' Sasuke theorized, a hand on his chin. It was a possibility since he wasn't using his physical and mental energies (basically his life force) to create any energy for jutsu, but a completely new source of energy. 'No, rather is the chakra I'm trying to create mixing with the mana? It will be something I'll have to look into…' Forming a counterpoint against his initial theory.

He shook his head from all those thoughts and closed his eyes. Letting out a calm focused breath, he pushed his arms against the surface of the water as if it were solid ground. It was working slowly but surely and he was getting better and better at manipulating his mana to do a very basic shinobi skill like water walking.

He wobbled on the surface of the water like someone who had just finished an intense leg day. A thin, visible green outline appeared on the soles of his feet, acting like footholds on the water's surface. His face was the picture of concentration and exertion as he tried to focus on taking one step after the other.

Each step he took seemed to lessen the foothold he had on the water as its surface changed constantly with every distortion and disturbance. Before he could sink however, he jumped into the air and flipped back onto solid ground. As he finished his graceful display he clicked his tongue in frustration.

"It's still too hard. I still need to get used to the 'weight'." He took the towel off the bench and dried himself off. The 'weight' being the mana he was trying to manipulate, more specifically the noticeable pressure it had compared to chakra. It just felt heavier and he still wasn't used to it yet.

He found channeling magic to his feet to be a very simple task and to create a suction like force to walk on walls was equally as simple. However, when it came to water walking, that was a task that proved to be difficult even with all of his experience.

'It's not something out of my reach.' He thought fiercely and jumped back into the pool for another 30 minutes training.

Although after the 24th time taking a dunk in the swimming pool, he decided that a break from proceedings was in order.

Leaving the pool room, he walked down the still empty corridors of the Hunters Guild headquarters. He headed over to the gymnasium, a state of the art gym that was slowly becoming a new home away from home for him. A place where the majority of his training took place and it is where he'll be meeting Cha Hae-in for their training session this morning.

Suddenly he heard a vibration on his thigh and dug into his pocket for his phone. It was a message from the woman herself.

Running late! Robbery gotta deal with.

Sry:(

'Robbery?' Sasuke was perplexed for a moment but shrugged his shoulders and decided that it wasn't something to worry about. Putting his phone back into the gym bag he was carrying, he walked through the gymnasium's doors and set his things off to the side.

He changed into some comfortable, loose clothing and did a couple of stretches and warm up exercises to warm up. As he stretched he let his mind wander as to what he would do while he waited for Cha. 'Until my mana manipulation is at a good level I don't think working on nature transformation will be productive. Maybe I should try and work on the new techniques that I can use for now.'

After that idea set in his head he walked over to the control panel at the other end of the gym. Due to this being the gym of one of the most prominent guilds in the country it meant that it was equipped with all kinds of various technologies. He'd learnt to use them quite proficiently over the past months.

As the spots all along the floor opened up to reveal a host of various training dummies, each of varying size. He usually used the other feature where targets appeared on the wall but for now he wanted to test out his spells.

As soon as all the dummies were set in place by the mechanisms of the gym he made his way over. 'The great thing about mana is that I don't have to use hand signs.' Sasuke noted happily. As the green mana swirled and swirled around his outstretched palm. A green magic circle appeared and out sprouted multiple vines from it. However, unbeknownst to him, his curse mark glowed a bright green before dimming out once more.

[Rooted]

The vines shot forward and wrapped around the first dummy he focused on. 'The first time I used this spell, I used it to restrain Hunter Minho. I wonder if I can do more than that.' He thought. He twisted his wrist and raised his arm and watched as the vines slowly ripped the dummy from the seams keeping it tied to the mechanism.

[Rooted]

He used his other hand and shot out a couple more vines but this time he made sure to direct them at more than one dummy and ripped them away too.

A drop of sweat poured down his head as he dispelled the spell.

"Damn, using more than one of those vines is tough." He cursed. It seemed that the more vines he summoned, the more mana it took away and that exponentially increased when he used two hands. 'I should be able to cut down on the efficiency of the spell the better my manipulation gets.' He figured. Right now it felt as if he was using 20% more than what was necessary for the spell but if he worked on it long enough he could cut it down to 5%.

He turned his head to the 8 remaining dummies. Ripping all out of the ground wouldn't be an effective way to get the job done. Suddenly he was reminded of a technique he originally created using his lightning chakra, the [Chidori Spear].He clapped his hands together and summoned a massive amount of mana, with a magic circle spreading under the bottom of his feet.

[Rooted: Spearheads]

A 3 meter AOE burst of vines shot out from the ground, each vine harder than the strongest steel. He stabbed through every single dummy in one fell swoop.

He let out a breathless smile, 'It seems like I've lost nearly all of my magic reserves from that one move. This spell seems to be more dependent on the range and toughness of vines rather than just the number.'

He looked around at the devastation he had wrought and sweat dropped, feeling sorry for the poor sod that had to clean it all up once they clocked in. 'Maybe I should help them out a bit.' Using what little mana he had left he summoned 8 vines and picked the dummies up off the ground and placed them off to the side.

'I remember Choi saying that a Hunter each had their own class suited to certain attributes of combat. A class makes you strong in one area but weak in another. Like Assassins are usually the fastest and hardest to detect but have the weakest constitution among close combat type hunters. Does having mana automatically give one a class? If that is the case then it seems my natural inclination is towards being a mage type hunter.' It certainly wasn't the worst class from the lot but he would have preferred a fighter class like Cha Hae-In. It would make the best use of all his attributes as a combatant, such as his Sharingan and incredible taijutsu skills.

He shrugged his shoulders, there was no use complaining about it. Besides, having more long range techniques in his repertoire was an okay trade off and as soon as he could manipulate his mana to an acceptable level then he could start using his other jutsu once more.

"What exactly happened here?"

Sasuke turned around at the voice of Choi reaching his ears. He had an expression of exasperation due to all the devastation in the training room.

"Choi? You're back from Incheon?" He addressed the bespectacled man.

"Yeah, I got back just last night and I thought I'd pop in for a nice gym session." He smiled whilst looking around, "Where's Hunter Cha by the way? Aren't you guys usually training around this time?"

"She told me she'd be running late. Something about a robbery."

Choi raised a brow at that, " Robbery?" Sasuke shook his head as if to say 'don't ask me'.

"I see. She's always doing too much, that one. You know I worry about her sometimes." Choi commented absentmindedly.

"Really? Isn't she stronger than you or something?" Sasuke raised his brow after making the blunt comment.

Choi held his chest in a dramatic show of mock hurt, "That hurts you know…" he pouted which forced a roll of the eyes from the young Uchiha. "But no, it's the same way I worry about you. I'm glad my two little prodigies get along."

"Yeah, at least, she's not annoying unlike you." Sasuke grunted, giving him a condescending side eye.

The jab didn't phase the fire mage, "Well that's mean. And here I thought we were getting along well after getting you that gift. How was your birthday by the way? Did you enjoy it?" Choi wondered with a genuine smile on his face. It was like an uncle trying to catch up with his slightly estranged nephew.

"Hn."

Sasuke wouldn't admit it to his face but the necklace he gave him really did touch him. He never even told him the significance of the symbol so he must have surmised it from all of their interactions together. It just went to show how observant the S-rank hunter was.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late. The law enforcement was a real hassle after I stopped that bank heist." Cha Hae-In burst through the training room doors, trying to catch her breath.

"Oh hey, look at you Hunter Cha. Long time no see." Choi gave her a friendly wave.

Hae-In looked up, surprised to find him there and addressed him with a small smile, "Uh, Master Choi? You're back from Incheon already? Was the guild that requested your services up to par?"

"It was all good but their premium raid team still has a few holes in it. They didn't need me for B-rank gates, but I helped them out with A-rank ones. They still need a few more high quality recruits and time before they can tackle an A-rank gate." Choi explained, recalling his brief time outside of Seoul to raid with another guild. They had paid a large sum of money for him to be there and help them out. It was a convenient opportunity to form a partnership with a rising guild along with improving the public perception around him.

Strong relationships between guilds made it easier to snatch up talent wherever it may pop up. It's how they learned about most of their A-rank recruits from a few weeks back. Too bad some of them couldn't make the cut.

"I see." Hae-In nodded.

She then walked forward and took a whiff of the air and immediately covered her nose. 'What is this unfamiliar smell? It's-' She scanned the only two occupants in the room. Her nose was already used to Master Choi's despite how overwhelmingly bad it was but this new one…

She shifted her attention to Sasuke. 'It's not bad… He doesn't smell bad, but why does he have a scent now?' She wondered to herself.

Ever since she had awakened as a hunter her mana smell has been a curse that she couldn't stand. It's why she just couldn't bear to interact with any of her peers because even though she really wished too. However, that all flipped on its head when she met Uchiha Sasuke, the boy with no scent.

The first time she had met him in that hospital room, she had caught the whiff of something nice. She liked it and wanted to interact with him some more, but thought it'd be weird since she was 5 years his senior— so she held off. That was until Choi brought him to her for sword training and she was able to start forming a bond with the boy. His personality was closed off and he was a bit rude although never to her, in the end she found she enjoyed his company and viewed him as one of the fellow hunters she really had a close connection with.

However, during all those times she was never able to pick up on a scent— not like that first time. But now it was back with full force and it was powerful but not overwhelming, it smelled like being enveloped by the calm vegetation of dense forest.

As all her thoughts raced she ended up saying what was on her mind without thinking.

"You smell."

Choi blinked, "Oh, uh, sorry. I know my scent is a little too much for you." He apologized, assuming he was the reason for her blurting out those words.

"Oh, uh, no, not you Master Choi!" She blushed, shaking her head vigorously. "I mean you smell bad, but i-it's not you…" She finished awkwardly as her face turned as red as a tomato from embarrassment.

The two males looked at each other and then back at the flustered female hunter.

"Are you talking about me?" Sasuke asked incredulously, pointing at himself.

"Um, yeah, but it's not bad at all. I just could never smell anything on you beforehand, so it just surprised me." She explained in her usual calm tone.

"Really? That's nice I guess." Sasuke said back awkwardly, not really knowing what to say to that. 'It makes sense that she's able to smell me now. I'm using mana not chakra anymore, but… ' He thought back to when he had first received his hunter rank.

'What did the magic sensors detect that time then? Did I always have mana?' He just assumed that since chakra and mana were similar in a sense that it was able to pick up on that but it still didn't seem right—even to him. It's honestly the first time he wanted to look into the science and theory behind mana.

"Well, I'll be leaving you guys to it." Choi clapped his hands together and made his way to the exit. "Enjoy your training and all of that!" He waved.

"I thought you were here to train?" Sasuke called out.

"I just remembered that I have something to deal with in my office." He laughed and left the room.

Once he left, Hae-In turned her attention back to the young Uchiha. She dropped her jacket onto the floor and went over to the rack where multiple practice swords were on full display.

She reached out to pick one but paused momentarily, a thought coming to her. She turned back to Sasuke who was prepping himself by doing some stretches.

'Because he didn't have a scent I was never able to tell how strong he was until we started to clash blades, and even then there's only so much one can glean from simple spars.' She thought, her thoughts trailing to her C-rank sword instructor, Song Chi-Yul. The mere fact that she was an S-rank and he was a C-rank should already show that sparring alone wouldn't give an accurate read on the other's true level of strength, after all her instructor did have the upper hand in their sessions because of his experience.

'Now that he does have a scent I think I have a better read on his level.' She had never seen him fight in a serious life or death battle so this would be the closest thing to that. She sniffed in his direction, 'Come to think of it, Master Choi did always say that he was closer to A-rank than B-rank.'

The question was, was he actually on that level now? She would find out.

"Why don't we practice with real swords this time?" She suggested.

Sasuke stopped his stretches and looked at her, "Real swords? I'm down for that."

He walked over to his bag and pulled out his trusty katana that was gifted to him by Master Choi. It was an A-rank weapon with an uncanny sharpness and made from extremely conducive magic materials.

She went over to her own bag and pulled out her sword and it too was made from extremely conducive magic materials.

She was already warmed up from chasing down the car speed down the road, evading arrest and Sasuke, judging from stacked up dummies, was warmed up too.

"This isn't going to be a spar. I want you to come at me with everything you've got." She announced.

Sasuke raised a brow, "You wish to make this a real life or death scenario? I wonder what your game is?"

"You'll just have to figure it out." She said very seriously.

She took a calming breath and closed her eyes as her golden aura flowed loosely around her.

Sasuke's own onyx orbs switched to a ruby red as a green aura of magic enveloped him.

They stood 5 meters apart with their auras close to clashing. Both of them shifted into similar battle stances due to their shared school swordsmanship.

Suddenly, as if by some form of shared consciousness, they dash at each other simultaneously—sparks flying between them.

It was a smooth dance between two experts of the blade. The only thing that could possibly separate the two would be their difference in raw physical power —which is where Cha Hae-In held the edge.

Sasuke was able to see her strike ahead of time thanks to his Sharingan, but still wasn't able to avoid the slash to his shoulder.

"Ack!"

He flipped away to gain some distance between them. Cha Hae-In decided not to hound him down and capitalize on the opening she created.

"Are you alright?" She asked in concern.

"If you're going to be worried about me after every blow you land then we may as well stop things here." Sasuke replied very coldly.

Hae-In blinked and then smiled, "No, that would be silly. We're just getting started."

He smirked, "Exactly."

'I can't afford another close quarters encounter, she'll just beat me up. It's too bad I used up almost all my mana before we started fighting.' he thought with a frown. It was honestly a good opportunity to test out his other theory.

He closed his eyes and lifted a hand sign as the mental and physical energies inside of him swirled and a new lease of life burst forth from his mana reserves.

Thanks to her sensitive nose Hae-In was able to notice his scent get stronger. "Was he hiding his magic power? Why'd it increase all of a sudden?" She murmured to herself.

[Rooted: Vinyl explosion]

Sasuke stretched out his arm and a torrent of vines shot off the magic circle he conjured. The S-rank hunter widened her eyes in surprise, not expecting this kind of technique from the Uchiha. She charged forward head on and slashed every single vine, each as thick as her own head, to pieces.

"Is that it?" She taunted.

Sasuke smirked and snapped his fingers as the pieces of vines on the ground exploded in a flash of brilliant green light.

She jumped at the last moment as she escaped the detonation of the tiny explosives although not completely unscathed. She grimaced, not in pain, as the edges of her white t-shirt were singed. The tiny explosives were not nearly enough to cause her harm so it was intended as a distraction from Sasuke.

'What's he up to?' She had her guard up as the smoke from the vinyl explosives cleared.

Suddenly she heard the unmistakable sound of something cutting through the air and whipped around to block the sword, arrowing straight for the back of her head. And then she parried away a wave of thorns, the size of a finger, coming straight at her as Sasuke aimed to close the distance between them.

Using more thorns he kept her distracted, he used his other hand and tugged on the steel wire attached to the butt of his katana, using it as a makeshift rope dart. It was the same tactic he used against Choi to cut through his long range defenses with his fire attacks. It was also useful in controlling the movements of a close combat fighter like Hae-In or a long range fighter like Choi. It's a move that forces the opponent to sacrifice getting hit by his thorns or getting sliced by his katana, potentially losing an arm or their head.

"Smart." The S-ranker muttered under breath, seeing through his scheme quite easily. She swiftly parried away all of the thorns and then with her superior speed caught the racing blade.

Stabbing her sword into the ground and wrapping the wire around the hilt of the caught blade, she dragged the Uchiha forward against his will.

'What?' Sasuke thought as he flailed in the air right towards a vicious right hook. However, he reacted quickly and flipped his body mid-air, using her outstretched arm as a mini platform to jump off of—landing behind her.

'How'd he dodge mid-air like that? And people say I'm agile.' Hae-In, internally, complimented Sasuke's incredible display of physical dexterity.

They were back to back at the end of the exchange and Sasuke switched gears by powering up as a giant magic circle appeared beneath their feet.

[Rooted]

Vines flew from the magic circle looking to trap the S-rank in their grasp. She grit her teeth jumping away from the fast moving vines. "Damn! He separated me from my sword!" She grunted, slapping away the vines hounding her down. A vine by itself was no problem to deal with, especially with her sword, but having multiple of them chasing her down became a problem. However, it wasn't one she couldn't deal with.

'Magic casters of spells like this usually can't maintain them for that long. Even more so than that, they are usually completely vulnerable.' She thought, noting the magic circle at his feet reduced in size and the profuse amount of sweat dripping down the side of his face.

'I'm impressed he's developed an attack. To be able to freely control vines on a scale this great. It is truly an A-rank worthy technique.' She lamented in her head.

She summoned more of the strength she'd holding back and raced in between each vine. Using all of her flexibility to its maximum, she danced past every single vine as they spun back around looking at a second attempt to capture her.

Every angle around her seemed to close off around her as she manoverd in the vortex of vines. Sasuke clenched his fist as he commanded the vines that surrounded her from all angles to compact into a ball. It was the same thing he did against Minho last night, but the problem was that he wasn't accounting for the extra boost that Eclipse was giving him.

'Still though, I doubt that will hold her. She is an S-rank after all.' Sasuke's apprehension was well founded as not even a moment later trinkles of golden light leaked from the ball of vines. A guttural war-cry escaped from Hae-In as she jumped out of the vines cocooning her.

He couldn't stand his ground against the shockwave and was sent tumbling. Although recovered instantaneously, he was nursing a bruise forming on his back. That woman was really something.

He tugged at his wire string and grasped his sword by the hilt once more. He looked pretty beat up with Hae-In not looking any worse for wear. In fact, she seemed to be barely winded whilst he looked in desperate need for a breather.

This was simply the difference between their strengths.

Cha Hae-In immediately blitzed the distance between them and looked to palm him with a hand infused with mana. His Sharingan was able to see her movements every step of the way but he could do little more than prepare for the incoming blow. He was sent flying into a wall and slumping down in defeat.

She pulled her sword from the ground and walked over to her fallen opponent, all the while the gleam of his scarlet eyes remained visible to her.

"It's over." Hae-In announced, having a sword pointed at his head as soon as he looked up.

"Yeah, I couldn't agree more."

[Sharingan]

The S-rank hunters' eyes were like saucers once Sasuke vanished from existence like a mirage in the desert. She felt the cold steel of his katana on her neck, holding his blade in a reverse grip behind her.

"An illusion?"

"Yes," Sasuke confirmed. "When the smoke was clearing you let your guard down for a moment which allowed me to place you under the effects of the Sharingan. Using genjutsu on people much stronger than me is difficult so the effects were only minimal enough to trick you at the last moment, that is when you were walking over to claim your victory over me. It's also fortunate that you still held back your final strike and I was able to prepare myself for the blow thanks to these eyes. That final step all worked in my favor and led to this outcome. If it were any other scenario I would have lost." Sasuke explained.

"Ah, I see… I suppose you win. I concede." Hae-In sighed after processing all the steps that led to his victory. When she thought back on it she was able to feel a strange sting in her head at the time but once it faded away she thought nothing of it. 'I suppose that was the difference today…'

She may have had the raw power and speed to win, but Sasuke had the tools and intellect at his disposal to win.

"Geez." Sasuke fell to one knee in exhaustion. 'The process of creating chakra seems to filter to creating more mana instead. So using my own stamina to create more mana does have an effect on my body. That makes sense.' He gambled on the fact that once his mana had run out he could use his chakra again, but that turned out to not be the truth as he ended up making more mana using his own stamina. It is what tired him out much more quickly.

'Still it's interesting that I keep my physical attributes despite being low on mana.' Thinking back to the brief clash of blades he had with Hae-In earlier in the fight. He only started to get weaker, physically, after using the chakra creating process, which ended up making more mana.

"Thanks Hae-In. This fight has taught me a lot." Sasuke said, accepting her hand and rising to his feet.

She blinked and gave him a soft smile in return. "Yeah, I learned a lot too."

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3 days later

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Minho tapped his foot impatiently in the backseat of the cab he was in. He kept glancing at his watch and outside as the car drew closer and closer to their destination. He was the picture of nervousness and apprehension.

The driver seemed to notice his agitation as he glanced at his rear view mirror, "We're almost there, buddy."

Minho's eyes snapped at him in mild irritation, "You don't think I know that? I didn't ask you to talk, just get me there as fast as possible."

"Alright, alright, I hear you, asshole." The driver muttered that last part to himself but, thanks to his superhuman senses, Minho was able to catch it. He was a man of reasonable temperament and a snide remark like that would hardly get under his skin so he elected to ignore it.

The cab pulled up next to the driveway of a modest looking house. Minho, almost, jumped out of the cab. He quickly paid the cab driver and ignored him when he offered him a friendly farewell. The guy seemed like a nice person but it was unfortunate that he wasn't in the mood to socialize at all.

"Please be okay. Please be okay." He repeated, insistently, under his breath as he walked through the gates all the way to the front door. He took in a shaky breath as his hand shook before knocking on the door, preparing himself for the worst beyond that door.

'You have to be here, you have to be okay!' He cried in his head as the seconds ticked by agonizingly with no response. It was torture for him like a knife slowly cutting through his skin.

Just as he was about to lose his nerve and kick the door down, he heard a soft click as the door was being unlocked.

"Hello?" It was the voice of a small boy, about 10 years old, with soft chestnut brown hair. The boy looked confused as he looked up at Minho. "Uh, hey uncle? What's going on? You look troubled." He noted his childish innocence.

Minho dropped to his knees and pulled the boy into a hug as he cried, "I'm so glad you're okay, Jisoo, I'm so glad. You have no idea."

Jisoo looked at his uncle really confused and honestly a little exasperated as the tears caused his shoulder to get wet. "Uncle… You're being weird again." He deadpanned.

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just really happy to see you." He sniffled, wiping his tears away as he pulled away from the boy. He held him by the shoulders and smiled at Jisoo's still deadpan expression.

"You wanna come inside?"

"Yeah sure." He nodded.

As they stepped into the modest looking house everything was exactly as he remembered from 2 months ago. It made him almost forget that he was on the run from the Hunters Association.

As he looked at the boy wandering to the kitchen climb up a step ladder to reach the high shelves for coffee. Jisoo was quite tall for a boy his age, he noted. "Uncle, you said you like your coffee black right?" Jisoo asked as he pulled out a mug from the cabinet. "Yeah, you got a steel tight dome don't ya, kid?" He joked, moving to get the kettle ready.

"Yeah, no one can beat me at memory games in class! The other kids call me a cheater when they're just losers!" He laughed to himself.

Minho just relaxed at the sight of the smiling boy. It was definitely worth sneaking out of the hospital to see this smiling boy's face. Despite still suffering from injuries of whatever he took from Ae-cha's satchel. His mood significantly plummeted at the thought of his deceased team leader. It only made his hatred against the man who took them from him that much greater.

'One way or another I'm going to kill that bastard.'

After those thoughts receded from his mind he continued to spend quality time with his nephew until his caretaker came back home from work. His caretaker was a young 27 year old officer worker that stepped in after his sister succumbed to Eternal Slumber due to his awakening 5 years ago. He was grateful to the woman who was taking care of his nephew and rewarded that by constantly provisioning his earnings from raiding to their wellbeing.

He would have taken in Jisoo if he didn't feel so guilty for being the reason his mother wasn't with him and being afraid he would cause the same thing if he stayed around too long. It was for those reasons he kept their contact to a minimum even if it pained him to do so.

"Leaving so soon?" Seo-yeon asked with a coy smile playing on her lips. The broad shouldered tank just gave her a sad smile, "Uh, I'm sorry I can't stick around. I gotta keep moving."

"You always do so much for me and little Jisoo. You should take a break once in a while. He brags about you to his friends, you know." She explained. Her eyes drifted to the boy in question, her eyes growing soft in a way only a mother could.

"I'm just glad he has a good person like you looking after him. You really stepped up when I needed you."

She turned back to him and gave him a sympathetic look, "Of course, you're my best friend, Minho. And I always loved working with children, they're just the cutest things aren't they?"

"Yeah, they sure are…" His eyes dimmed. He then took a deep breath and squeezed Seo-yeon's hand. "Seo-yeon, please, whatever happens or whatever you hear, don't ever doubt how much I love that kid. I'll do anything to protect him."

She placed her other hand over his one, "I don't doubt that for a second." She leaned over and gave him a little peck on the cheek. "Take care of yourself, Minho."

They shared a significant look with each other. As best friends since college, they had a nearly telepathic connection and understanding, however it was at times like this where it became really difficult for Seo-yeon to get a read on her large friend. He was always so boisterous and playful, stern when he needed to be and always ready to lend a hand whenever he could.

Even after he became a hunter these qualities were amplified as he took on much more responsibility, especially after the guilt of causing his sister to be in a coma. He's been borderline self-sacrificing for as long as she knew him.

As he left the house behind she couldn't help but pray that he truly took her words to heart and took care of himself. He honestly did too much.

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Minho walked down another alleyway as he continued to evade the public eye for as long as he could. He knew the Hunters Association constantly suffered from a shortness in staff and couldn't afford to stretch their forces too thin. He used this to his advantage and deliberately snuck around in areas of the city where their influence was the least felt.

He wasn't just sneaking around however, he was looking for sellers of the new hit drug called Eclipse. The same thing that landed him in the hospital in the first place. It's only been 3 days since he recovered from the effects of what was classified as an overdose and the drug already hit the ground running among lower ranked hunters. The numbers almost seemed superficial as nearly 15% of the entire E to D-rank hunter force used to drug with the number being 5% less with C-ranks.

Although, his memory from that OD was hazy he could very much remember the enormous power he felt flowing through his entire body at the time. He would've traded almost anything to reach that euphoric high again and feel like he had the power to crush all who stood before him. 'Especially him…'

He clenched his fists as he thought back to the event that led up to him taking this drastic course of action in the morning.

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His bones were aching and his head was spinning as he rose from the hospital bed, throat parched and rough from misuse. He didn't enjoy the uncomfortable feeling and decided to walk over to get something to drink after a few minutes of deliberation.

He climbed out of bed and nearly fell to his knees as he stumbled over to the open bathroom in his hospital room. He eventually made it over to the sink and drank from the tap as the much needed liquid somewhat refreshed him.

"Argh my head…" He complained, grabbing his head at the sudden throbbing. "What happened?"

Suddenly he heard a phone vibrating on the nightstand next to his bed. The noise wasn't doing him any favors so he willed himself over and turned it off.

Not a second later the phone rang again and again he rejected the call. And then it rang again. And again and again until he finally decided to answer it.

"What is it, dammit!?" he yelled.

(Oh hoh? Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed?) The voice of a mysterious man sounded out from the speaker. It was familiar to Minho.

"Who is this?"

(Ah, Kyo Minho! I'm honestly hurt by your words. To think you would forget someone like me so easily? I suppose that would be best for both of us wouldn't it?) The man's tone was playful and nonplussed, he wasn't truly disparged by Minho's words.

"I'm not in the mood for games." He grumbled.

(Hahaha! I'm sure you aren't which is why I'm going to keep things brief. You see the first aid kit in front of you?)

He looked up at the red container posted up on the white hospital walls.

"Yeah."

(Open it and in it you'll find a healing potion which should cure most of your grogginess from being in a coma for 3 days.)

Minho widened his eyes, "I've been in a coma? For 3 days?"

(Yeah, but that's not important right now. You see my friend you are in a particularly terrible situation. Being the prime suspect of the massacre of your entire party.)

"WHAT? My party?" Suddenly the memories of 3 days ago came rushing forth all at once and he couldn't help but come to his knees and vomit. He knew that voice very well now.

"Kang Taeshik."

(Ah, now it clicked! Hello again.)

"You fucking bastard! I'm going to kill you."

(That'll be particularly difficult if end up behind bars now wouldn't it?)

"I'll just tell them the truth, there's no way I'm letting you get away with this." He said venomously.

(Haaa.) Taeshik sighed over the phone. (I didn't want to have to pull this card but it was inevitable. You're a good man Kyo Minho and it's for that reason I know you wouldn't recklessly endanger the lives of your cherished ones.)

"What are you talking about?"

(Kyo Jisoo. Does that ring any bells?)

The C-ranker jumped up to his feet in fury, "Don't you even dare touch or I swear to-"

Suddenly he heard the sounds of distant laughter from a child and a woman. His heart raced as the implication of where he was and what he could do in that moment flashed through his head.

"Please, please, just do anything crazy." He pleaded, doing a complete 180 from his aggressive behavior.

(I'm not going to do anything unless you come and meet them for me. I'm honestly giving you one last chance to see them as a free man before you go behind bars for a long, long time.)

"Why are you doing this?"

(Because I enjoy this lifestyle. I've got a pretty good thing going on with this gig and you're my first slip up. I gotta fix it somehow.)

"You want me to take the fall for you?" He more stated than asked. Him running away from the hospital upon waking would only make things much more suspicious for him.

(I've made sure that the security around is very lax. You can add those poor agents to the corpses of your teammates as well.)

"You killed your own colleagues?"

(Never knew them anyway. Time is ticking, nurse is on the way for routine morning checkups.)

Minho gritted his teeth and got to his feet and picked up the medic kit from the wall. He tore it open and drank the healing potion that was lying there as promised. He almost found a pair of black clothing that seemed to be his exact size. 'The bastard had everything set up for me in this room. If I had woken up a little bit earlier would my escape be as assured?'

He shook his head.

It was useless to think about that as Jisoo's life was in danger. He likely would have used that threat much sooner to keep him quiet. He was, ultimately, trapped from the very moment he opened his eyes.

'What a perfect frame. Awol Hunter escapes from hospital after killing his whole party! I can see the headlines a mile away.' Minho grumbled as he stepped up to the window. He was up on the second floor of the 3 story hospital, it wasn't a big jump down.

(Be safe and try to evade arrest as much as possible. It will make the things that much hotter.)

The line cut away after that teasing remark. Minho crushed the phone in his hands and dashed down to the ground and started to run for the hills.

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And we are finally done! I hope enjoyed this chapter well and truly.

This is honestly the most effort I think I've put any single one of them and I think things are coming along nicely with the introduction of Minho (ironically he was the factor that I struggled with most over my past month of writer's block).

The biggest thing was to figure out the relationship chakra had with mana (it was a bit of an info dump in this chapter tbh)

You see the thing about Naruto's ninja is that they are essentially normal humans until they start to create chakra using physical and mental energies (like I explained in the chapter). Chakra doesn't 'exist' until they do this process of creating chakra. (Gonna get powerscaly) It's the main factor as to why things like Kunai and shuriken are still a threat and cause major bodily harm to most ninja, while I do agree (for the most part) that weapons scale to the user that is only partly the truth we start talking about a character like Minato being harmed by wooden shrapnel or Zabuza being cut by a Kunai from Naruto (who is significantly weaker than Zabuza atp).

Next I want to talk about Mana in solo leveling and how it works from what I could extraborlate. Mana comes from the gates (maybe) and magic beasts which when killed release magic into the atmosphere of Solo Leveling Earth which is the absorbed by Earth itself to strengthen its integrity. Humans and most beings in SL seem to have this property to absorb and take in mana to a certain extent and strengthen themselves and do all kinds of crazy shit.

(if you got this far into the yap, thank you!)

Mana the way I view is that it doesn't directly affect the physical statistics of the person (even when run out) as in losing it over time doesn't make you weaker rather you lose access to certain spells (i.e., Stealth 200 MP. Reserves 150/250 MP left) This is most prominently the case with SJW because multiple times in story he runs out of mana to regenerate his soldiers yet is completely unaffected physically.

This also brings me to regular hunters as SJW could be different as he has the system. In SL:Ragnarok Hunter Lim (S-rank hunter for the Fiend Guild) was afflicted with a poison which locked away his ability to use magic as he was using it to suppress the poison. However, in his fight, he was still able to exhibit superhuman strength beyond a human despite not being able to use mana.

This led me to conclude that 1 mana is a supernatural source that exists in magic beasts and humans absorb it by killing them. 2 Mana and physical stats aren't related to a certain extent (buff spells are different) so losing mana or not having access to it doesn't affect one's physicality. And 3 I theorized that mana seems to inherently buff the physical body of the one possessing it as well as in the case of SJW, when he runs out his physicals aren't affected and in the case of the S-rank archer he still has extremely good physicality.

That's all for now and I'll be updating the next one hopefully very soon!