"I thought that was a myth," a skeptical voice sounded in the dark silence, "The Devil's Gift, The Ultimate Weapon, The Soluroid or whatever it's called. It's a myth."
"It's every bit real, Kisame," his companion said, unfazed by his partner's doubt, "As real as you can imagine."
"And how are you sure of that?" Kisame asked. He was still not convinced.
Itachi gestured to the ancient mechanism behind them, its Holy figure standing tall and eerily in the dimness. Kisame had noticed the thing when he entered but didn't bother to think twice about it until now.
"We have one of the seven pieces," Itachi said, "The Sloth."
Kisame chuckled as he observed the giant statuette glowering over them in interest.
"Well I'll be damned... I stand corrected; it's not a myth after all," the shark humanoid said. His partner, Itachi, never failed to impress him. The young man, 11 years Kisame's junior, was every bit the Uchiha that ran through his veins.
"Where are the six others?" Kisame asked.
"Still hidden."
"So that means we've got to find them right?"
"Mm."
"Have you told Orochimaru about this?"
"He was the one who sent me after this one."
"Huh, finding the very thing that has the power to end the world and he doesn't tell anyone other than you?"
Itachi gave no response.
"Bastard."
He sat there rolling the orange in his hands, discerning every curve, bump and bruise. 45 degree curves, 96 small bumps, 3 bruises. As he continuously repeated the move, he put the tiniest pressure and the orange felt more malleable with every squeeze.
The teacher's droning about Ancient Runes and Latin was a mere buzz in his ears as he put all his concentration on to the fruit in front of him. He stopped the rolling motion after the hundredth roll and let his grip loosen before sending the familiar warm sensation through his palm. Multiple cuts appeared on the orange's skin and slowly grew for every second he channeled his energy.
He watched closely as they inched closer to the north and southern poles of the fruit, like ink bleeding on paper, and stopped the flow right when the citrus skin looked like it was about to collapse.
Sasuke had been doing this ever since he discovered the mysterious energy that was residing inside him. As a younger child, he hadn't bothered to find explanations as to why his toys broke when he got too excited, why he'd cracked another child's arm when he held on to her playing a game, and why certain electronics came to life at his touch. He was too naïve as a child.
His parents were long dead for reasons unknown, so there was no one to notice his abnormality. The teachers were too busy caring for less able children to pay attention and other kids had tended to stay away from him. It wasn't a challenge for Sasuke to hide his talent at all… as if he actually wanted to tell anybody.
Now, seven years after his discovery, he managed to tame and manipulate the energy however he wished and used it every opportunity he saw fit. He'd learned how to keep his phone running even with the battery dead, how to exert more force in his physical training, and also how to peel oranges without moving a muscle. It was a power he came to find multiple uses for.
However, Sasuke knew no one with the same ability other than the Imperial Soldiers, the government's robotic military and police force who powered their own weapons, though that aptitude was not publically known. Sasuke had used his leisure time breaking into the library's unknown forbidden room that held the Old World and New World's arcane information and discovered details of the government that wasn't taught in class.
Imperial Soldiers were bred separately from Nius's citizens and specially selected in that already exclusive group. Rejects were incinerated to protect their body's secrets. They were trained as machines and disposed of when they hit the age of 40. No wonder they don't teach us this stuff, he had thought as he read the transcripts. Everything in that room was kept from the public, hidden deep in the city's library's basement.
Sasuke had also discovered that what made them special was the ability he, himself, had. But that was odd; ordinary Nius citizens weren't specially bred and the last time he checked, they were ordinary human beings that had opposable thumbs as their special ability. He was classified one of them, it said so on his ID, so he didn't understand why he possessed the same power as the Imperial Soldiers.
With that, Sasuke knew he couldn't tell anyone of his ability. If the government chose to keep their information on the Imperial Soldiers top secret and regulations strict, then all he would get from revealing himself is a one-way ticket to being incinerated. And the idea wasn't appealing to him at all.
Sasuke placed the orange on his desk and finally gave his attention to his Ancient Runes and Latin teacher. It annoyed him when he realized that they were still two chapters behind his own pace, feeling unchallenged and bored. This was the whole reason why he'd decided to snoop around the forbidden room in the library- it at least offered interesting information that was actually useful.
"Sasuke," his teacher piped from the front of the room, "Please translate vi et animo."
"With heart and soul," Sasuke replied without hesitation, "Or, with strength and courage."
"Good," his teacher smiled and continued on to the next student. Sasuke went back to ignoring the lecture and back to his own thoughts.
He felt too smart for the academy's curriculum; he aced everything they threw at him and even held a spot at the top in physical education. Sasuke was a prodigy, as the teachers put it. He spent his time in class either getting ahead or merely being there for the sake of attendance lest he'd be punished. It almost drove him insane.
"Hey," he felt someone tug on the back of his collar, "Sasuke, are we still going to work on the Runes project after class?"
Sasuke slightly turned his head to look at the pink-haired girl behind him from the corner of his eye.
Sakura was the girl's name and she was the only one who dared to talk to the Uchiha prodigy, let alone approach him. With the guts that she had, they'd grown to be good friends the last few years that silently came to each other's aid when it was needed. They were two loners that had made an alliance to escape the loneliness. No one dared to approach her either, for her temper and intelligence were things to reckon with… especially when both were in play.
But even with their skinny friendship, Sasuke kept his ability to himself. He trusted the girl, yes, but he didn't find it practical, in any way, to tell her. He even kept his adventures in the forbidden room to himself, though he knew Sakura would have indulged in it more than he did.
"Hn," Sasuke grunted in reply before turning to face ahead again. Sakura rolled her eyes at his usual lack of response.
"I'll take that as a yes," she grumbled.
"Alright, class," the teacher said as she tapped her tablet to shut off the holograms, "Our time is up for today. Your assignments are posted online so you can access them with your tablets at home. I'll see you all tomorrow."
As students packed up and shut off their electronics, Sasuke was already ready to leave; he hadn't bothered to take any of his things out as usual. Sakura quickly followed him out with a couple of other students.
"Your place or my place?" Sakura asked as they walked down the white halls of the academy with the crowd. It was the end of the day and the students itched to go home before the Imperial Soldiers started their twilight patrol.
"Whichever," he replied bluntly, uninterested in working on the project.
His limited responses annoyed Sakura to no end but she pretended that she didn't mind it- he was her only friend after all.
"Alright, my place then," she said. They walked in silence as the rest of the students laughed and talked on their way out.
They had barely made it out of the black gates of the campus before being stopped by a brown haired man with peculiar black eyes. His sights were transfixed on Sasuke as he stood a few feet in front of them with his hands behind his back.
The two eyed him, not the least bit intimidated but rather suspicious. The man was wearing a black suit that only agents of the government wore, the right bosom gleaming with the eagle crest that distinguished their status.
What did the government want with them?
Sasuke suddenly felt alarmed when the idea that they had caught on to him sneaking around the forbidden room came to mind. Were they here to punish him, take him to the Proto Gates where they banished criminals to Oblivion? Or to the incinerator to burn along with the Imperial Soldier rejects? The government's methods of punishment were an endless, fearsome list.
"Uchiha Sasuke?" the man asked, ignoring Sakura's presence next to the said boy. Sasuke gave a small nod and tightened his grip on his bag.
"What do you want?" he asked, trying to retain his usual collected demeanor despite the adrenaline rushing through him. Sakura merely looked back and forth between Sasuke and the man in the black suit.
"On behalf of Lady Tsunade, I come here to give a message. You are summoned to make audience with her," the man said officially, his eyes never leaving Sasuke.
"Lady Tsunade?!" Sakura exclaimed, "The Lady Tsunade? What does she want with Sasuke?"
"The Lady prefers to keep her intentions secret from irrelevant audiences," the man said boringly then gestured to the black hover car that was next to the sidewalk, "Now, Uchiha Sasuke, if you would come with me-"
"No," Sasuke interjected, "I want to know what the Lady wants with me before I agree to anything. Tell me or I'll refuse to go."
The man in the black suit started to look uneasy as his eyes glanced at the people milling about and hurriedly heading home. The twilight patrol was to begin soon; there were already a couple Imperial Soldiers in their armored suits and weapon-ready pacing the streets.
"I cannot disclose anything at the present time," he said quickly, the uneasiness even more visible, "Now, if you please-"
A loud explosion suddenly blew up in their ears, the black gates and dark marble wall behind them flying in pieces. The three and others close to the explosion were thrown a few feet as a high pitched alarm split the air. Sasuke was in a fit of surprise and confusion with the smoke clouding his sight and a loud ringing from the blast deafening his ears.
"Rebel identified! Rebel identified!"he vaguely heard an Imperial Soldier's robotic yell, "Yamato, Identified Rebel #026! Yamato, Identified Rebel #026!"
Sasuke, still disoriented from the explosion, felt hands grab his shoulders and violently dragged him. He squirmed and fought against the hold but another pair of strong hands clamped onto his arms. He heard inaudible yelling from his captors and the roar of the hover car before being thrown into it head first. His head banged against something metal, sending a throbbing pain down to his ankles.
"Sasuke! Wh-where are you?!" he heard Sakura painfully yell from outside the car before the door quickly slid shut.
"Go! Go!" he heard the man in the black suit bellow. The driver forcefully pulled the steering wheel back, making the hover car thrust forward in a jolt.
'What's… happening?' Sasuke thought before slipping into the darkness.
"He's coming to. His heart rate accelerated to normal."
"Anything fatal?"
"Slight concussion, minor cuts and bruises… that's about it. Nothing fatal."
"His hearing? They told me that the explosion wasn't a significant distance away."
"Fixed."
"How slight the concussion?"
"Moderately slight."
The faint voices without faces continued to exchange words while Sasuke's consciousness started to regain itself. He heard the faded beeping of the EKG and the distant rustling of people in the blackness.
"Where… where am I?" Sasuke thought.
He slowly opened his eyes but was only welcomed by a bright blur as they tried to adjust to the blinding light that strongly shined. He tried to move his arms but felt pain shooting through his entire body, stopping his attempt. His head throbbed immensely and he recalled banging it up against the metal in the car.
Wait. That wasn't all a dream?
The voices and the rustling of people suddenly start to grow clear, Sasuke absorbing sound even better than he had before in his life. Every word, every clang of a metal tool slamming onto a metal tray, every step someone took overwhelmed his ears. Crystal clear… maybe too crystal clear.
Sasuke shut his eyes, sat up from the bed and covered his ears with a grunt as if someone had amplified the world's noise by the hundreds.
A hand came and gently touched one of his wrists.
"Hey, take it easy," a woman with short black hair said soothingly, evidently careful of how loud her voice was in contrast to the rustling around her, "I fixed the arrangement of your ear's ossicles. It'll take a few days for your hearing to go back down to normal."
Sasuke cracked open one of his eyes, the noise still making his eardrums throb. The woman was looking at him with a small smile.
"Yamato sure got you in the worst situation," she laughed nervously, "But you're completely fine… a minor concussion but completely fine."
Sasuke observed her before glancing around the setting. He was in what looked like a small hospital clinic, much smaller than the typical ones in the city and a lot less equipped. The walls were white and the light shone so brightly that it made the black attire of the other busy medic personnel glow grey.
He looked down on his own body and saw that he was still in his school uniform, though singed and dirtied. There were wrappings around his head and torso and EKG electrodes were stuck to his arms and chest.
"Where am I?" Sasuke asked aggressively, ignoring what the woman had just said. The woman looked taken aback by his sudden bite but softened her face after a moment. She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off.
"Shizune, is he fit to be released? Tsunade wants his presence in the briefing room," an old man whose voice Sasuke recognized from earlier said gruffly.
The woman turned to him and nodded, "Yes, he's fine."
"Alright, come with me boy," the old man said, motioning Sasuke to follow him, "We need to get you into a better change of clothes first."
Shizune pulled the electrodes off his arms and chest before helping him out of the bed. Sasuke was about to retort, saying he could help himself, but right when his bare feet touched the ground he felt the seething pain shoot through him again. He didn't complain as Shizune wrapped her arm around his waist and slung his arm over her neck.
They followed the old man out of the white clinic and into the darker setting of the rest of the place. Its metal halls were lit with just the right amount of light, narrow and the metal ground cold. They came up to a door just a few feet away from the clinic's and Shizune slowly led him in.
The old man walked over to one of the many shelves that held stacks of clothes, armor and shoes and pulled a black shirt, black turtleneck track jacket, and matching black pants from the stacks
"Here, wear these for now," he handed them to Sasuke, "Find a pair of shoes in your size over there at that shelf. Socks are in the bin right below it. I'll wait outside."
And with that, the two medics exited the room and the door slid shut behind them, a pneumatic sound hissing as it did.
Sasuke stood there with the clothes sitting on his hands. He seriously did not what was going on. He was walking off campus with Sakura and the next thing he knew he was standing in a room in tattered clothes at who-knows-where. He remembered being approached by the man in the black suit, the explosion, the Imperial Soldier's robotic chant, being wrestled into the hover car, and blacking out.
Where was he now? And what did they want from him? Who were they?
Sasuke saw no choice but to change into the clothes he was given. He found a pair of black shoes and socks and put them on, almost eager to see what was in store for him but confused all the same. There was nothing to do but follow orders.
The door slid open as he approached it and saw that the old man was waiting for him just like he said. Shizune had apparently gone back to the clinic.
"Come," the old man said, walking down the hall. Sasuke followed him.
"What is this place?" Sasuke asked. Shizune hadn't had a chance to answer his question earlier. The old man glanced at him form the corner of his eye but kept walking in a brisk pace.
"I'll leave that explanation to Tsunade."
It sounded odd for the man to say the Lady Tsuande's name so easily, and without the term of superiority. The woman previously worked for the government but remained a powerful woman in Nius, her influence well known to its citizens.
So Lady Tsunade was the boss here. The man in the black suit, Yamato he was guessing, worked for her. But the Imperial Soldier had called him a Rebel. #026. The Rebels, as far as Sasuke cared to know, were Nius citizens that defected from the empire, believing the government to be too totalitarian and tyrannous. They'd be occasional attacks here and there in Nius cities but their threat didn't look too significant to Sasuke.
He decided to keep his questions to himself and expected them to be answered in the next few minutes since they were heading to the "briefing room" as the old man said. He wasn't one to obnoxiously let his curiosity take over- that was Sakura's job.
Sakura.
She was caught in the explosion with him but he remembered hearing her yell his name in the midst of the chaos. He faintly and inwardly sighed in relief knowing she was still alive even after the outburst. But what bothered him was what came of her after he was taken away in the hover car.
He didn't doubt that the Imperial Soldiers had seen her with him conversing with Yamato. That act alone could have been taken to suspicion, Yamato apparently being a rebel and all. Sasuke tried not to think about Sakura being dragged away by the Imperial Soldiers and being sentenced to punishment as other suspicious characters or Rebel-affiliated people were.
He hoped nothing had happened to her.
"Here we are," the old man said as they reached two thick metal doors. He put his wrinkly hand on the scanner to the left and the doors slid open.
"In you go. They're waiting for you."
Sasuke slowly entered and felt the soft gush of wind behind him as the doors slid shut. The room was enormous and dim, with a large screen at the head of the room, three rows of computers on the adjacent walls, even more rows right below and a large round table smack in the middle. The place looked like it could be doubled as a operations room, seeing that there were enough gadgets, seats and screens to accommodate such a purpose.
"You took long," a strong female voice sounded.
Sasuke tore his observant gaze from the room and looked to the head of the circular table where the voice came from. The woman was blonde, dressed in forest green, and lips crimson. Her aura felt warm but chilling at the same time. So this was the all-famous Lady Tsunade. Sasuke recognized her from the research he'd done during his leisure time.
There were three others at the table sitting far from the woman, a girl with long blonde hair and bangs that covered her right eye, another with purple hair and odd white eyes and a boy with black hair that spiked up from the back of his head. There were six others standing about or leaning against one of the large computers on the side. Sasuke recognized none of them.
"Looks like Yamato did a careless job with recruiting you… you look like you took a hit," Tsunade said with scrutinizing eyes, "Come sit."
Sasuke walked closer to the table but stayed a distance away.
"Recruiting? Where am I and why am I here?" he asked, his smooth voice ringing through the spacious room.
"Yeah, I'd like to know too," the boy leaning against one of the computers said. He had red upside down triangles on his face and an armored dog lying at his feet.
Tsunade chuckled and leaned forward on the table.
"An impatient bunch of kiddies, aren't you?" she said. Her face suddenly turned solemn.
"Every one of you has been recruited for your special abilities and in accordance to your strength and intelligence, though some more than most."
"How do you know about our… 'special abilities' as you say?" a boy with bowl-cut hair and thick eyebrows asked.
"Our scouts have their ways of detecting nins. They've been watching you since the very first potential sign."
"Nins?" the boy with black glasses and a hood interposed. Tsunade's lips creeped into a small sly smile.
"I know that some of you have noticed that you're different and can do certain things that others can't. You feel a foreign kind of energy residing in your gut and I also know that some of you have learned to utilize it. People with that ability, including Imperial Soldiers, are called nins," the woman said smoothly, "But before we get into all that, let me start from the beginning before you all lose your heads in confusion.
"I am Lady Tsunade, former Executive Contractor for the government, now an honest business woman. Aside from that I am also, as you've probably guessed, a leader of the Rebels-"
"Rebels?!" the girl with two brown buns exclaimed, "What-"
"Keep your question till the end of this briefing," Tsunade interrupted her with a snap, "Yes, I am a leader of the Rebels and you're thinking, why in the world would one of the most influential people of Nius be a Rebel?"
She scanned their faces and saw confusion and apprehension.
"The government is planning something astronomical and has been keeping it form the citizens and even its lower ranks. You've been taught of the Soluroid in your classes, have you not?"
A couple of them nodded.
"The Devil's Gift… said to be left by Devil after his defeat by God," the boy with the spiky ponytail said, "A mythical weapon that was intended to be passed down to finish his job. I've only heard stories."
"Correct," Tsunade nodded, impressed with the boy's clarity, "Though it is not a myth- it's as real as any of us in this room right now.
"As you all know, this earth's civilization is run on energy we call chakra. We power everything and anything we have with the earth's energy force and we harvest it to our use. However, the earth's not the only entity that's able to produce that vitality."
She paused for a moment to let it dawn on them.
"Imperial Soldiers," Sasuke said, "And us."
Some of the others looked back and forth between Tsunade and Sasuke, looking befuddled.
"Oh ho, someone's done his homework," Tsunade laughed, fascinated by the fact that this boy knew of the Imperial Soldier's secret caliber, "Yes, indeed, Imperial Soldiers and you children have the same ability as the earth's.
"Imperial soldiers power their weapons- their propulsors- with the chakra they produce in their bodies and it makes them superhuman, if you will. That's the reason why they're so exclusively bred and their regulations kept extensively tight. Only a handful of Nius citizens, including you ten, carry some of the same recessive genes."
"But what does that have anything to do with the Soluroid?" a chubby boy with long, spiky brown hair said with a hint of impatience.
"The Soluroid is giant chakra harvester that's designed to turn into a lethal weapon. It's made of seven pieces, with the namesakes of the Seven Deadly Sins, and they are scattered throughout the planet to hide it from the world until the Devil's spawn could later come find them, as so the myth says," Tsunade continued, her voice cutting the air like a blade.
"When in the wrong hands… well, you can imagine for yourselves of what might happen."
"You want us to find these seven pieces because you believe the government is going to use it for a purpose," the spiky pony-tailed boy said bluntly. Another small smile formed on Tsunade's red lips. The boy was sharp.
"Correct, though our eyes in the government tell me that one of them has already been found."
"But what could be government's purpose for possessing the Suloroid?" the boy with long brown hair and white eyes near Sasuke asked.
"Neji, you're an Imperial reject with Miss Hinata here," Tsunade looked at him straight into his eyes, a small glint shining in the dimness, "I think you two should have an idea."
The boy, Neji, still retained his calculating look on his face as Sasuke and everyone else looked at him. After a few seconds, his face lit up in what could be interpreted as shock mixed with anger.
"Natural selection," he muttered. Spiky Ponytail nodded and the purple haired girl's face paled as white as her eyes.
"What? What does that mean?" the blonde haired girl asked, the confusion evident in her voice.
"Exactly what he said: natural selection, survival of the fittest," Tsunade said, her eyes boring into each and every one of them, "The government plans to eliminate the weak and breed the strong, restart the human race with the most able… however you want to put it.
"Which is why we need to find these pieces before they do and that's going to be your kids' job. Nins are rare if they're not Imperial Soldiers and you ten are already half of the nins we have. We've been silently assessing Nius's citizens in the shadows, gone through mountains of files, and have come to find the ten of you as the strongest.
"Well, there were also other candidates for recruitment but we all know that the young are the liberal and the most likely to rebel," she added, "We will train each of you on how to track the six remaining pieces and in physical combat with your own propulsors. I think that about wraps this briefing up."
Tsunade allowed silence follow to let the words sink in. Some broke out into murmurs and grumbling to each other but the rest just remained silent.
"The mission is simple," she raised her voice to cut the silent chatter, "Find the Soluroid pieces and bring them back to this base so they can be destroyed. Any objections?"
"We have a choice?" Sasuke asked, almost amused by the fact that she was asking their consent with having already explained the entire issue.
"No, not really, I just wanted to see who was stupid enough to refuse," Tsunade grinned. Silence filled the air once again.
"I, Hyuuga Neji, accept," Neji said.
"Yamanaka Ino, accept."
"For justice! Rock Lee, accept!"
"Hmph, troublesome. Nara Shikamaru, accept."
"… Ten Ten, accept."
"I guess I'm in, too. Inuzuka Kiba, accept."
"Aburame Shino, accept."
"Er... Akimichi Chouji, accept."
"H-Hyuuga Hinata, accept."
Sasuke clenched his fists as everyone sounded their agreement. He didn't know what was keeping him from immediately sounding his own too but then realized it was because of how quickly things were escalating for him. He had just gotten out of school and was now in one of the Rebel's bases with the Lady Tsunade just assigning him a mission that carried the safety of the world.
What the hell; he was bored of the academy's mediocre curriculum anyway.
"Uchiha Sasuke, accept."
Tsunade slammed her palm on the table with such force that it shook the ground beneath their feet.
"Alright! It's agreed upon. This is a mission you must not fail, you understand?" All ten nodded.
"The fate of the world is in your hands."
I hope you all liked this! It was something that I'd been planning to publish and the first chapter is finally finished. I would really love to hear some feedback about my writing and also the plot itself (from what you know of this chapter). It would be a great help if I got some tips, comments and critiques so please drop one!
Also, I'd just like to clarify that this isn't a story revolved around the SasuIno pairing (even though there will be some of that) but this is more focused on Sasuke.
Thank you for reading! Until next chapter~
