Good Afternoon All!
I was surprised to see that this story is coming up one it's one year anniversary! It seems crazy to me that a year ago I decided to take a stab at writing on here for the first time, and I cannot thank you faithful readers and reviewers enough for your support in this endeavor.
As always, please see chapter notes at the bottom for some explanations on the chapter events, as well as a general story note that I wanted to clarify.
Please do enjoy yourself.
It was nearly dusk as the two lanky figures began their warmups out in the barren training grounds. Sasuke quietly chuckled as he saw the new welcome sign someone had put up in full view of all the trainees. With the usual large, cheery lettering it simply said "Hello! Welcome to" and had a space for the destination's name to be pasted in. Some discerning and darkly humorous soul had simply scratched the word "Hell" in the appropriate space, while another had scratched "abandon hope all ye who enter" further down below. It stirred Sasuke's sadistic heart to no end that the trainees had become so fond of the place they unanimously dubbed "Uchiha Hell" when they thought he wasn't paying attention.
Centering himself back to the present, Sasuke completed his stretches and withdrew one of the training bokken from the racks even as he lazily tossed another to Kiba. Sasuke grimaced as he caught himself reaching for his absent katana hilt to stroke, an odd habit he had developed over his many years of active service. Sasuke truly felt sorrow for the loss of his katana, and was even now in a search for a suitable replacement. His next sword would not be a priceless museum piece though; part of him still felt guilty about destroying such a significant part of this world's human history. Besides, human made swords were simply never forged to combat the supernatural. In truth, he was surprised that it had lasted so long from all the action it had seen. If he was unable to nose up anything in the underworld, Sasuke hoped to speak with Andromalius on the subject if he could discover a way to reliably contact the Old Pillar Lord from whatever limbo that he currently resided. Ever since the one time Andromalius had contacted him, the old Devil had been silent; he had likely expended the last of his energy reserves to make even that scant contact.
The two swordsman slowly circled, in no hurry as they both patiently searched for weaknesses in their opponent's technique. Suddenly Sasuke blurred as he met Kiba in a rush of speed, the two bokken making loud thwocking sounds as they strove against each other for dominance. Sasuke was impressed; Kiba's base technique had definitely improved from his time spent sparring with Xenovia. Ratcheting up his speed and strength a hair, Sasuke proceeded to push Kiba around the training ground in an effort to find his limits. Finally, Sasuke trapped Kiba's bokken with an advanced locking maneuver and back handed him across the clearing.
A sullen Kiba conceded the match as he picked himself up off the ground under Sasuke's watchful eye.
"Acceptable proficiency. I can see that you have been working extensively on your base technique since Xenovia is now around for you to train with."
Kiba accepted the mild praise with a short bow of his head, obviously pleased at receiving recognition from the advanced swordsman.
"Now, let's see what you can do with that sacred gear of yours."
Kiba gave a bloodthirsty grin as he activated sword birth, instantly creating his favorite opening combination of fire and ice swords as Sasuke assumed the ready stance with the bokken.
There was no warning as Kiba attacked using his knight speed, the elemental swords sending out gouts of fire and ice towards Sasuke as he effortlessly dodged the projectiles before he appeared directly before Kiba. His bokken whistling down in a powerful overhand blow that caused Kiba's eyes to widen as he crossed his swords in a block that barely managed to stop Sasuke's blow. A kick from Sasuke forced Kiba to disengage as the two once more acquired distance from each other and began circling.
"Disappointing."
Kiba's eyes narrowed in anger at Sasuke's casual dismissal of his skills.
Before Kiba could even blink, Sasuke had appeared at his side in a blur and kicked him hard enough to crash through a nearby obstacle course barrier.
"You're slow."
Before Kiba could even raise himself up to a fighting stance, Sasuke appeared before him once more and swung the bokken down at his head as Kiba desperately parried the blow with all his strength.
"Weak."
Kiba's eyes widened as a massive crater formed from the power of Sasuke's blow, from a bokken of all things.
"And you were defeated before we even crossed swords."
Sasuke firmly rested his foot on Kiba's chest, making it clear he could crush it if his opponent moved an inch. Kiba hastily surrendered even as Sasuke grunted and began to walk away from the downed knight.
Sasuke pointed to the dreaded "pushup corner" as he assumed his usual position in the throne overlooking the training ground. Sighing gustily, Kiba dismissed his swords as he began mechanically pumping out pushups in the designated area, adding extra weight after every 100 repetitions. Minutes passed as Kiba sweated in silence, Sasuke merely watching the training with the detached air of one deep in thought.
"Tell me Kiba, why do you fight?"
Kiba paused for a second in surprise before he resumed his exercises.
"It is my duty as a knight of the Gremory house to-"
"I don't want your scripted answer, I want the truth."
Kiba seemed to mull over the question for a full minute before responding.
"Why do you wish to know?"
Sasuke vacated his throne as he began pacing before Kiba in parade ground fashion.
"To put it simply Kiba, you are involved in too many important aspects of my life for me to not know these things about you. You are the personal knight of Rias Gremory, my current fiancé, and have recently began to pursue a romantic relationship with my invaluable bishop. Is it so strange that I would seek to know more about you?"
Kiba grunted as he continued to do his pushups, obviously collecting his thoughts as Sasuke once again resumed his lounging seat on the throne.
"Duty, and love."
Sasuke nodded as if he had expected these answers.
"But that's not all that you fight for, is it?"
Kiba gave Sasuke an odd look.
"I have seen your reaction to members of the church and I sense that their is something more there, something darker."
Kiba's face immediately went blank as he stopped doing his exercises.
"That is none of your business."
Sasuke immediately dropped his casual facade as he left the throne and stalked over to Kiba so that they were face to face.
"Isn't it though?"
A silent battle of wills erupted between the two of them, neither willing to give an inch.
Finally, Kiba sighed and once again resumed his exercises.
"While you make good arguments, particularly regarding our being bound together by the women in our life, I hardly know you. How can you expect me to tell you the most intimate details of my life when we are practically strangers?"
Sasuke remained silent, clasping his hands behind his back as he stared off into the night. Minutes passed as dusk became more pronounced, the automatic lights Sasuke had installed for night training turning on as they detected nearby motion. Kiba continued to work himself tirelessly, almost angrily doing weighted pushups as Sasuke remained lost in his thoughts.
"Swear an oath to me, that you will not tell anyone of what I will tell you unless you have my permission. Swear it on your power."
Kiba snorted.
"I thought Sona-san already educated you on how rude such a request was; what is it you are going to tell me that would require such a ridiculously binding oath?"
Sasuke sighed.
"You make a good point; how can you trust someone who is a stranger to you? I will not tell you much of my story, you have not earned that right. There is a part of it I can tell you though, that will perhaps help you understand just how similar we are. How I once saw that some dark, hungry look of revenge every morning I woke up and every night as I went to sleep."
Kiba looked shell-shocked; literally no one above or below the earth had any information to speak of on Sasuke Uchiha. The man was a ghost, both on paper and even on the internet past a few brief records dating back a few months. There were information brokers in the underworld that would literally sell their own mothers for this kind of opportunity.
"I, Yuuto Kiba, do swear upon my power that I will not divulge any of the information Sasuke Uchiha conveys to me this evening."
Kiba closed his eyes and shuddered as the binding took place, locking in the oath.
Sasuke nodded in silence as he felt the oath take place.
"Very well; let me tell you the story of a young boy, who loved his brother very much..."
Sasuke proceeded to give Kiba the bare bones story of his and Itachi's relationship growing up. Stories of the endless hours they spent together and their incredible, unbreakable bond as children. Obviously, he carefully edited out any references to his previous world, doctoring the story to where it could have easily taken place anywhere in this modern world of technology. Finally, he told Kiba of the betrayal, of how his beloved nii-san had taken away everything he cared about in a single night.
"After that night...everything changed. Revenge became my everything; the only reason for my continued existence. Every spare second of the day, I trained. My teachers and instructors praised my endless dedication, even as I ignored them. My comrades and peers all sought my favor, even as I belittled and ignored them. What use had I of them, when my vengeance was still unsated?"
Sasuke looked up from his story to see a white faced, haunted Kiba staring at the ground.
"In the end, I sacrificed everything in the name of revenge. What few friends I eventually made were sorely betrayed as I walked my path of vengeance; eventually, I even betrayed my entire country in order to gain enough power to seek revenge. I willingly walked into the arms of our most hated enemy, became his apprentice for years as he committed the most unspeakable horrors upon helpless victims. What did I care though? They were obviously too weak to help me gain my revenge."
Kiba looked visibly shaken but finally asked a single question.
"Did you get your revenge?"
Sasuke nodded slowly.
"I did; only to realize that everything I thought was true was a lie, and that I had killed the wrong man in my blind quest for revenge."
"WHAT? But I thought your brother killed your entire family?"
Sasuke grimaced.
"He did; he was ordered by our country's military to execute our entire clan for treason, which turned out to be an accurate charge. He agreed; his price was my life to be spared. In exchange for his grim yet utterly selfless service to his country, he received eternal shame and exile."
Kiba sat down hard on the ground, totally paralyzed by Sasuke's story even as Sasuke continued.
"After I was told the truth regarding my brother, the need for revenge grew only stronger, not weaker. I began targeting powerful men and women, ones I felt were ultimately responsible for my brother's horrible, impossible choices he had been forced to make. I killed most of them."
Kiba looked at Sasuke with dull eyes as he paused the story, looking out into the darkness for a full minute before continuing.
"There was a reckless idiot that constantly stood in my way as I carried out the executions; always did he try to save me, even as I spat upon his efforts. In my mad quest for revenge, I tried to kill him many times before we were forced to work together to save the world. After the enemy was defeated, I still tried to kill him in an effort to create "the perfect society", where powerful shadowy figures couldn't create another Itachi down the line. But that's a story for another time."
Sasuke turned to Kiba.
"Do you feel as though I qualify to hear your story of revenge now?"
Kiba chuckled.
"Yes Sasuke-san, you have more than earned that right. It all began with a group of us orphans that were rounded up by the church..."
Sasuke listened intently as Kiba spilled out his story of abuse, of the church's sick experimentation on young children in the hopes of creating wielders for the many holy swords that were currently without an owner.
"Finally, it all came to an end on that last night. We had lost many of our number to experimentation already, but apparently the Cardinals had gotten wind of the operation and were looking for grounds to shut the project down. Since what few survivors remaining clearly qualified as evidence, the project leaders decided we needed to be disposed of as quickly as possible."
Sasuke's blood went cold and anger overtook him as Kiba described the final night of horror; how the children had awoken to a cloying gas that killed them in a slow death by suffocation.
"I was the last to fall; I managed to stagger outside even as I looked back and saw the bodies of my friends laid out inside the facility. I later discovered that we were the lucky ones; many of my friends had been vivisected while they were still alive to obtain the most information as to the experiments effects."
Kiba took a moment to compose himself before carrying on.
"There is one name at the top of my list, the man responsible for the entire program: Valper Galilei. It is only after this man is dead that I can obtain some measure of peace for myself, for my friends."
Kiba looked to Sasuke.
"I had hoped that the Excalibur shards would lead to him, but your quick execution of Freed Sellzen likely scared him off, coward and murderer of children that he is."
Sasuke nodded in agreement before gesturing at the pushup corner again, Kiba resuming his exercises without complaint as Sasuke assumed a meditation position and began to think.
Kiba was drenched in sweat by the time Sasuke opened his eyes and stretched the lethargy from his limbs.
"Kiba."
"Yes, Sasuke-san?"
"I would like to offer you a job."
Kiba chuckled.
"That is certainly not what I expected Sasuke-san; I hardly have time for a job between my duties at school and as knight of the Gremory Peerage."
Sasuke waved the argument away impatiently.
"It would only be after school and on weekends; I will coordinate with Rias to make sure your peerage duties are covered by another member."
Kiba raised an eyebrow.
"I see that you are serious about this Sasuke-san; what is it you had in mind?"
"I would like for you to be in charge of the military branch of the organization I now lead."
Kiba's eyes got large.
"That... is quite the offer Sasuke-san. Though I have to ask, what was the point of proving how weak I was just now if you wanted to offer me such a prestigious, martial based position?"
Sasuke shook his head.
"I have no doubt you will grow into the position; I was harder than usual on you today because I wanted to drive home how much further you have to go. You have seen the enemies that regularly challenge me; how long do you think you would fair against the likes of Vali Lucifer?"
Kiba paled.
"My point is not to scare you, but to prepare you. I will need you to be more than a swordsman if you are to lead the military forces of my organization. You must be strong, yes, but more than that you will need to be tactically minded. You must become accustomed to the troops, mingle with the Yakuza toughs to where they trust you without question. All of my lieutenants would answer to you, and you would answer to me."
Kiba cleared his throat.
"Not to be rude Sasuke-san, but how would you compensate me? Obviously, money isn't that important to me given who my king is."
Sasuke gave a sinister smirk.
"How does a one on one session with Valper Galilei sound as payment? I would provide disposal services as well of course."
Kiba gave Sasuke a crooked smile.
"I thought the whole point of our conversation was to discourage me from seeking revenge?"
Sasuke chuckled lightly.
"Hardly. The entire point of our conversation was to show you that allowing revenge to consume you is utterly wasteful. Growing powerful enough to where you can eventually crush the object of your ire like a bug is perfectly acceptable, even cathartic in its own way."
Kiba gave Sasuke a firm handshake.
"If you can work our the logistics with Rias, I'm in."
Sasuke shook his hand once before walking towards the exit of the complex.
"One last thing Kiba; I'm warning you now that you will always treat Asia-chan with respect. You seem like a decent man and i'm sure you will do right by her. If it at some point you both mutually decide to end your relationship, that's fine and that will be the end of it. But if I discover that you ever mistreated her..."
Kiba gulped at the sudden overwhelming killing intent that wafted off Sasuke.
"We will be having one, final conversation."
A bit melodramatic on the ending I know, but I would hope that after Sasuke had a daughter and granddaughters in his previous life he would gain a bit of a protective streak. Among other things, for some reason Boruto also dropped the ball on Sasuke being a father and has him portrayed as a typical "deadbeat dad" from what few clips I have seen. I get that they are trying to highlight the next generation, but I hate how they nerf/trash the older generation to do so.
It always surprised me that no other fanfics drew some of the revenge parallels between Sasuke and Kiba; I guess because most of them are just Naruto inserts and the two characters rarely interact in any fics at all. I always liked the idea of Sasuke becoming a mentor, and being drawn out of his anti-social shell as a result of others needing his assistance and guidance. Honestly, the gang from High School DxD needs A LOT of guidance if we cut out all the BS powerups the original author used to overlook how completely outgunned they should have been in nearly every fight.
As to the general note that I wanted to make, I guess it just hit me when I was writing this fic that its very much going to be a "young adult" fic more than a high school fic. To me, this really seems more appropriate though given the characters. I aged the characters a bit so as to not make anything squicky, but even looking at the original text they should have still been significantly more mature than they were portrayed as being. Rias and Sona in particular were heiresses raised in a society where Rias was expected to marry at 16; I get the feeling she would have been a lot more mature if her parents were preparing her to get married at 16 and likely would not have been enmeshed in "high school drama" that typical kids like Issei would have participated in (since they are looking to get married likely in their 20s or 30s, and thus entitled to clowning around in their teenage years). Guess I just wanted to make a note somewhere on here since the characters will eventually start pairing up in fairly serious relationships and it doesn't really fit the "High School Drama" theme that the original show ran into the ground. Between that and the brutal violence that will no doubt be present, it will be a much more mature fic than the original in some ways so I am glad to have updated the rating when I did.