AN: Next chapter, a long one, enjoy!
I have decided on the general direction of the story, thank you to all who offered their opinions and suggestions!
Couple quick points, a few reviewers have brought up the subject of Sasuke's as well as the RWBY character's heights to my attention. My short answer to this is that at least in this fic the RWBY cast will not have the Giraffe height they were given for some reason in canon with exceptions being characters like Junior or Yatsuhashi whose height is kind of a defining trait. Being sixteen Sasuke will be growing some during the course of this fic, but it's not really going to be a big point. I'm not going to change everything; all the short and average people are going to be the same and the character's relative heights to each other are still going to be the same. But Pyrrha, Sun, Glynda, Ozpin, Oobleck, Neptune, and Coco are all going to have a few inches removed. Pyrrha, Neptune, Sun, and Coco are all still growing themselves, so I don't see why they have an excuse to be over six feet tall just yet. Maybe in a year or two, but not yet. Not sure why Rooster Teeth made the decision to have half their characters show up the Dutch on a height chart, but it makes no sense to me considering basic demographic averages so I'm going to ignore it.
A couple people also countered my Team Ten vs Sasuke vengeance argument by suggesting that Konoha may have learned from Sasuke and chose to sanction the mission to avoid having some of it's most promising shinobi leaving the village and dealing with the official fallout. I'll admit it's a perspective I had not considered, and makes a certain amount of sense. Even so, it doesn't change the fact that Team Ten was at the gates of Konoha ready to leave before it even became a mission. The shinobi villages are essentially military dictatorships who punish deserters by capturing or killing them on site. Even if Team Ten was too important to execute or disband there still should have been some kind of disciplinary action after they returned. It is still just as true that it was a missed opportunity to have Team Ten empathize with Sasuke a bit. Hell, even when Naruto was mourning Jiraiya and feeling the pain of loss he only compared his situation to Sasuke's once from what I can remember. That part at least could have been made much better relatively easily.
NightmareKnight1- I will correct or not correct your assumptions, but I'll do it later if you keep reading. Thanks for the support!
LordAzrael1- Kind of obvious Sasuke is going down the underworld route for now, but you may still be surprised.
Master of Challenges- You're getting your wish.
KnightofZaku- Yeah, I ripped BoneSaw right from the first Spider-man movie. Guilty as charged. I'm with you on the whole Gods thing, not sure why Ozpin would be eager to have them return.
AC3Rarin- Thanks for the opinion on my fight scenes. Still kind of takes some effort to plan them out and put it in writing, but I like to think I'm improving.
The Ayy- Most of your review can be answered by the explanation above regarding said argument about Team Ten and Sasuke's vengeance. You have really good English by the way. Hell of a lot better than my Filipino.
Beta117- Don't try to predict things, you will only be disappointed.
jexcel- You're reading this fic and haven't seen RWBY? Dude, you're missing out. I recommend it!
Timothy Burr- I have to ask, did you have to use a calculator to figure that out or not?
DeMightyLubu- Yes it is. I shamelessly ripped it off.
The Baz- … a light bulb just appeared over my head.
Reasonable Man- Power balance is going to be an iffy thing going forward, please refer to the beginning part of this chapter if you want a hint of what's coming. But yeah, with the exception of Remnant's Gods, Salem and pre-maiden Ozpin the mid-to high tier Naruto characters can practically solo the verse. Though before the Gods left it bears mentioning that Salem and Ozpin's magical powers and abilities were common. Hope I keep you interested regardless.
Fanfictions4ever- See the chapter below and the footnote.
Danish78- I have a couple ideas for what to do with Orochimaru, but I'm leaning toward a rather… unorthodox use for him.
The Jingo- Great to hear from you as always. Dude, you updated your story only a few hours before I did. Don't know how that was timed.
Attttth- Thanks for the praise. You and I are kindred souls on this site, I think.
alaude hibari- When am I updating? Dude, if you had waited three hours your review might have been posted after I put this chapter up! I have read both of your suggested fics, already favorited them! This fic might be dead, but The Devil's Dark Knight Revamped is a pretty damn good one. Keeping my fingers crossed the author hasn't died in a car crash or something.
'thoughts'
Uchiha of Remnant
Chapter 6: Impressions
'Would a Water-style Tortoise Shell be the best base to use, or would it not be solid enough to handle the chakra strain? I suppose I could modify a basic Oxen array, surely that would be rigid enough? But that one is rather temperamental and doesn't work very well if more than two or three additional sealings or modifications are added, and I'm probably going to have to add at least ten or twenty modified arrays to make this work.'
It had been almost two days since Sasuke agreed to his dual employment. Ironing out the details with Mr. Slate and Junior had been simple and quick, and the fighting ring owner had been kind enough to let his new champion stay the night in a VIP guest room once he learned the Uchiha did not yet have a place of residence.
The following Saturday morning the Uchiha wasted no time in using his winnings to cover the down payment on a modest single bedroom apartment. It was on the fourth floor; allowing him to wall walk or jump out if he needed to flee for any reason and not worry about being immediately followed. At nighttime he could also just jump out the window and jump between rooftops to get to any destination much faster than he would walking on the street.
He had thought he would have to get ready to go to Junior's Club for his first night on the job later, but he had been texted by the larger man on his scroll that his first shift would be Sunday evening starting at six o'clock.
There were several reasons for the delay. Junior knew that Sasuke did not yet have housing, so decided to give him an extra day to get that taken care of as well as any other errands he needed to get settled in. The second reason was that Junior wanted to have Sasuke's fake identity ready to give to him the moment he came in, and whoever his contact was needed some time to get it ready. Saturday was also the busiest evening of the week for any club or bar, and Junior had decided that it was better if Sasuke had a less strenuous first day so he could learn the basics of the job without being overwhelmed.
The delay suited Sasuke just fine- he preferred a more spartan living space void of décor, but he still needed to get groceries, a few pieces of furniture, as well as some toiletries and kitchenware.
He was not going to be eating cheap take-out food for all three of his meals on the floor with his bare hands. His mother had raised him better than that.
It was now the following afternoon, a rather beautiful Sunday, and the clear sky and slightly straighter rays of sunlight betrayed the fact that for all of the snow still on the ground in both Vale and neighboring Patch, Spring was on its way.
Most people would use this relatively nice day to buy spring-season clothing early, or just socialize a bit. But Sasuke had a job to do.
He still had a few minutes before he had to be at the club, and he intended to use every second to begin crafting his seal home. It was going to be a long and difficult task, especially with no source material at hand to aid him. He was going to have to come up with the correct formula from nothing more than his own memory about the art of Fuinjutsu.
'Maybe I should just have a basic summoning array and make it large enough to have additional seals both inside and outside the main array. But in that case, I would need an additional source of chakra applied to different parts of the seal in addition to the central one I will be powering to keep it stable.'
That would be a problem. Aoda and Garuda would have to be inside the main array with him when the seal was activated, and wouldn't be able to lend their chakra to different parts of the seal. When he had been doing basic research on this world he had come across the subject of Dust, a naturally occurring crystalline mineral with various appearances used as a source of various energy. He had considered using it to help power the array and had stolen a small amount to see if he could manipulate it in the same way that the Huntsmen here could, similar to activating a seal or tree walk with his chakra.
Unfortunately, his results were rather poor. All of the crystals he had taken had refused to yield their energy to him. He had kept giving small amounts of chakra to the crystals with no manifestation of their power until he had apparently overloaded them and had exploded in his face with rather impressive force that he had barely been able to avoid injury from. Apparently, his chakra was not as compatible with Dust as the aura that Huntsmen used nor whatever technological means civilians used to exploit the dormant power of the mineral.
On the other hand he could manipulate Lightning Dust, release its latent power, and control the resulting electricity flawlessly using his Kirin ability. Regrettably the amount of Lightning Dust he would need to adequately fuel the seal was far beyond what he could be reasonably expected to acquire, even a millionaire's fortune would be hard-pressed to cover the bill. Stealing it was out of the question- it would take too long to get the amount needed and it would only paint a target on his back. It wasn't worth the risk.
'If I can't get another source of power for the seal then it will all have to be arranged around a single inlet of chakra, and that's going to limit its size and complexity; two of the things the array I'm making will almost certainly need.'
The vast majority of seals had a single point of activation; the focal point where the shinobi's hand or finger either activated a seal that was already drawn or where the shinobi drew out their chakra to create and activate a seal almost simultaneously. That point of contact was where the chakra needed to activate to seal came from. For a large seal, such as the one he was going to be making, having such a large quantity of chakra flow into the seal from a single point risked having the seal be overwhelmed, the equivalent of a short circuit. As such there would often be more than one person inputting chakra to the array.
Without Dust, he would have to power the array by himself using a single point to inject chakra, limiting its size and complexity. The seal had to also be large enough to be complex enough to do its job. It was a paradox he had no doubt he would spend hours trying to overcome.
Some seals, such as storage seals or seals that served as simple barriers or tripwires, were extremely simple in their design and creation due to the straightforward nature of their function, and could be very small and easily hidden as a result. His wrist seals holding extra kunai and shuriken being excellent examples of such.
Large barriers, summoning, and reverse summoning seals were far more complex. The arrays necessary to crack the fabric of space and time were complex enough, and making sure the breach was stable and safe enough to actually transport a person or object through only added to what was needed. They had to have components to connect the seal and its user to the intended destination, something to allow the seal to determine where the destination even was, a solid enough base to handle the strain of tampering with space itself without disturbing the integrity of the seal, and the list went on. It was why summoning in general was relatively rare and was usually only performed by Jonin level shinobi or greater.
Coming up with solutions to the many obstacles he faced was forcing Sasuke to confront a rather uncomfortable truth about himself- he wasn't particularly patient. It was a flaw that had its roots in his genius nature; he was simply used to understanding new concepts and learning new things at a quick pace and was unaccustomed to progressing slowly or getting stuck. There was no doubt in his mind that he would eventually succeed. He was moving slowly, not stuck completely. Nevertheless it was obvious this would be a long-term endeavor.
And that was an issue because he would be working on the seal for long time. Over the course of an hour or two frustration and irritation over his relatively slow progress would gradually creep into his thoughts. This extra stress would cause him to think even less efficiently, which only increased is frustration even more, and so on in a positive feedback loop that would do more harm than good in accomplishing his task.
This hadn't usually been a problem for him when he was training under Orochimaru. He had learned almost all concepts and jutsu incredibly quickly anyway. The few occasions it did happen though, Orochimaru had saw fit to start or continue a new lesson that was easier to understand and calm his frustrations or just give him a quick break or bite to eat. Any time Sasuke was teaching himself (out of sight of his teacher that he intended to kill) and found himself having learner's block, he usually took a few minutes to activate the wings of his Curse Seal and soar through the sky, leaving his worries and problems behind and allowing his mind to truly relax and bask in the freedom of the air.
It was the only true hobby he had during his years with the Sannin. Every other moment was spent training either his body, mind, or developing new techniques. Even the time needed to eat and sleep had been slashed to their absolute minimum to maximize the time spent improving himself. Looking back, Sasuke could honestly say he had not wasted a second of his time save for the brief flights he took. Even the time spent running to a new hideout had been used to brainstorm new jutsu or practice chakra control.
He did not have many of those options here. The Curse Mark couldn't be activated for some reason, probably a lack of Nature Energy that Aoda had pointed out. Spending his chakra to practice new jutsu would only waste it.
Sasuke did fully intend to keep up a training regimen even if he couldn't waste chakra to create seals to make training weights like the ones Rock Lee had. But there was an abandoned manufacturing plant a few blocks away with plenty of abandoned and heavy machinery over several floors that could serve his purposes adequately.
One thing he was looking forward to learning in his breaks creating the seal was the knowledge this world possessed in technology, physics, and chemistry. It was obvious just looking around that humanity here was far more advanced technologically than his own. The shinobi world did seem to hold the edge in general physiology knowledge, medicine, and biomedical science even without the advanced instruments such as X-rays aiding them (one of the few fruits of generations of fighting, healing, and killing their fellow man), but that was the only field this new world did not overshadow his own.
The drive to learn more and improve what he had was a trait Sasuke and Orochimaru both possessed, and one of the few qualities he was proud to share with the Sannin. Part of the reason he wanted to learn the modern technology here was to have a better understanding of his host world for as long as he was here, but a part of him was planning to perhaps 'borrow' a few innovations and create them in his home after he killed Itachi and returned to Konoha (if they would take him back). He had been left the entire Uchiha fortune after the massacre, and the laws set up determining rights of inheritance by the founding clans prevented it from being liquidated or transferred unless he was labeled a missing-nin, a step that had not yet occurred. Even with his relative fortune adding a zero or two to his treasury account wouldn't hurt, not to mention the positive reputation he and his clan would receive for 'inventing' such revolutionary creature comforts in the decades to come.
His interest in physics and chemistry was far more practical. He had delved briefly into the subject on Patch in a school textbook and had come across several very interesting sections that had him as giddy with anticipation as he could probably get.
His Fire-style jutsu could potentially be greatly improved by applying some of the chemical principles of combustion and exothermic reactions that were unknown to his land. The section that informed him that a flame's color and more importantly it's temperature could change depending on the fuel, air quality, and speed of combustion was almost begging him to invent new jutsu based on the information it held. And that wasn't even mentioning the brief explanation of Magnesium fire that was apparently immune to any attempt by water or carbon dioxide to put it out.
And the electricity chapter… if Sasuke could pull off half of the ideas this section alone gave him Itachi was as good as dead- Mangekyou Sharingan be damned. Circuits, capacitors, amps, electric fields, electromagnetism, electrochemistry, electromagnetic levitation, electric power, ions, electric auroras, electric heating, plasmas, and the list went on. It was undeniably complex, and putting it into practice with either his lightning-style chakra or any Kirin-acquired lightning would be more difficult still. If it was possible at all.
Still, he was optimistic. If the Second Hokage could figure out how to reanimate the dead and Orochimaru could create a jutsu to form a new body from scratch in mere seconds then simply applying established laws of nature to his own abilities was well within his capabilities.
The fact he was stranded in a foreign world and forced to delay his quest for vengeance was still not something he was going to make peace with anytime soon. But if he could utilize the information that was exclusively available to him here to create all original jutsu and abilities that no one from his home would have a chance of replicating or even understanding he would consider it a pretty damn useful delay.
It would have to wait for another time though. Six o'clock was fast approaching and it wouldn't be in good taste to be late, a lesson that was drilled into him firmly by both of his parents and most certainly not Kakashi.
'This can't be the right place.'
It seemed a reasonable assumption. The address he had put in his scroll was correct, and it was close to downtown as Junior had said. He had also boasted that his place was the best club in all of Vale, but the rather discreet entrance surrounded by a more industrial-themed border section of the city did not exactly sell the reputation of a high-class place. A place like this normally would have been surrounded by other similar bars and nightlife establishments, but this one was fairly isolated as far as he could tell.
Still, he was here. And after double checking Junior's text and confirming he did have the correct location he decided to knock on the door anyway. Even if his employer was exaggerating, so long as he got a full-proof fake ID and the promised paycheck he wouldn't complain.
A small sheet of metal slid away to reveal what appeared to be a pair of eyes covered by red sunglasses.
"What are you here for, kid?"
"I'm a new employee here. Junior hired me the day before yesterday."
"Oh, that one. Sasuke, right?"
An affirmative nod was his only reply.
"In that case you won't mind confirming what your last name is too."
The Uchiha's eyes narrowed- he wasn't sure why Junior saw fit to tell his doorman to confirm his identity when he would just be meeting him himself soon.
'Is he worried about a snitch or sting operation? If that's the case he probably has some illegal or shifty activities going on. People don't put security up like this if there's nothing to hide.'
If that was the case, he had chosen a terrible place for his business- a more crowded area would be more difficult to monitor and law enforcement would be more hesitant to use force with so many people who could be caught in any crossfire.
"Uchiha" he replied, pausing his thoughts on the matter.
The doorman quickly nodded his head before unlocking the door for his new co-worker to reveal several men in rather sharp black suits with matching top hats and red sunglasses and ties.
'They aren't part of a clan, are they?' Even accounting for their similar attire, they had an uncanny resemblance to each other.
"Follow me," one of the suited men asserted "I'll take you to the boss."
"Hn."
Sasuke hadn't finished making his first step inside before he realized it almost felt like he was walking into a different world.
Outside the club door was a drab and rather depressing environment that reeked of decay. Rusting pipes, cracked and graffiti-covered surfaces, and gray, aged asphalt dominated the senses of anyone outside. Inside, however, the excess dirt and grime vanished. The walls, floor, and ceiling were black in color and had a smooth, polished appearance. The floor in particular looked clean enough to eat off it.
He followed his guide further into the building down a hallway dimly lit by red light that echoed the pulse of what was probably a popular dance song played at various dance clubs.
The sight that awaited him when the doors to the club's main room fully convinced him that Junior's claim of having the best club in Vale was not an exaggeration. The ceiling was three stories tall, either for show or to prevent excess body heat from building up on the snow-white dance floor when it got crowded. An enormous array of fog machines, lasers, and lights of all kinds no doubt synchronized with played music sat on the edge of the ceiling and directly above the dance floor. Several glass columns rose from the floor in what must have been a purely aesthetic design choice accompanied by several holographic trees that varied in shade from white, to black, to bright red. Stairs located all around the edges of the room led to several balconies and adjacent rooms, further emphasizing the size of the establishment. A curious feature about the place was a preference for glass or transparent surfaces and construction. All of the tables and stairs he saw except for the main entrance that he hadn't come from were completely see-through and as spotless as everything he had seen so far. He had no idea who was cleaning this place so effectively but he hoped Junior was paying them appropriately for a job well done.
On one of the walls was the largest bar Sasuke had ever laid eyes on and was likely the zenith of one of Tsunade's fantasies if the stories he heard about her love of alcohol had a grain of truth to them. The length of the bar in feet was either in the triple digits or damn close to it, and the wall behind it was covered by shelf after shelf of tightly packed alcohol bottles intricately organized by type, brand, and size.
It was at the bar that Sasuke noticed Junior talking to one of his employees, likely making a few last-minute checks before patrons started to arrive.
"Ah, Sasuke, glad you could make it," the man stated upon seeing him, dismissing the other man. "I hope you found a good place to stay?"
"I took care of it."
"Finishing your business quickly? That's a good attitude, if you keep it while you're here I think you and I will get along just fine. But first, I imagine you want to make sure I kept my end of the bargain."
Junior removed a large yellow envelope from his breast pocket before opening it and showing its contents to the Uchiha.
Whoever had done the work knew what they were doing; the documents all had official embroidery and titles from what he could tell, and even had the thicker, official parchment and raised writing that could likely be felt by any fingertips brushing the surface. His photograph was flawless as well, complete with a fake expiration date.
However, it was impossible to miss the fact that Junior was still holding all of the documents and was not making any move to hand them over.
"I did agree to give you a fake ID, but you'll get it after you finish your first day here and show me you can do your job. It's nothing personal, but I have to make sure I didn't go to the trouble of getting this made for nothing."
It was slightly frustrating, but it was understandable. Sasuke would have done the same thing in his shoes.
It didn't matter anyway, the Uchiha was fully intent on delivering his end of the deal. Even if his stay in this world was only temporary, the thought of having a reputation as lazy or useless left an intolerable taste in his mouth.
"That is acceptable."
"Wonderful" Junior remarked, placing the envelope back in his pocket. "Now I'm only really hiring you as specialized security, essentially. If there's any Huntsmen, Huntresses, or a large group of people making trouble I expect you to be the first to step up and handle it. My regular boys can handle most of the lone drunks that want to start something, but if you're around I want you to take the initiative or at least watch and make sure they don't need back-up. I should let you know that as far as night clubs go, this is a clean one. Drinks are obviously allowed, but no one is allowed to smoke or bring any kind of drugs in here, and anyone who starts to doze off from too many bottles needs to be shown out as well. As for behavior people are gonna grind on each other all the time here, but that's as far as things go. You see anyone start taking any clothes off anywhere in here you kick them out. If the patrons get that horny, they can bang each other at their own place. It's difficult enough to keep this place clean without worrying about wiping up… fluids."
The Uchiha suppressed a shudder at the thought, his sympathies briefly going out to whoever was unfortunate enough to have the task of cleaning up aftersex on their job description before returning his attention to his employer.
"We open at 7 o'clock Sunday through Thursday and close at two in the morning, but on Friday and Saturday the doors open at 6:30 and last call is at three. We do have a kitchen that serves food, but it closes at 9:30 every evening. You are being hired primarily as a bouncer, but if it's busy and we're falling behind somewhere else you might be doing another job to help out. Any questions so far?"
A shake of the head was Sasuke's only reply.
"Alright, now let me show you around."
Sasuke was then given a comprehensive tour of the place around and outside the main dance amphitheater. There were obvious bathrooms and supply closets, but located on the second floor were several large rooms that hosted larger groups that reserved them. The third floor was host to much of the music and lighting controls as well as several offices that seemed to have more locks than he would have thought necessary for a room that only held files and paperwork. The third floor also had two extravagant VIP lounges with their own mini-bars and DJ stands.
By the time they returned several customers had arrived and had already ordered drinks, but Junior instead led him toward two girls around his age dressed in white and red themed dresses respectively.
On closer inspection they appeared to be identical twins, though aside from the difference in their wardrobe the white-themed girl had much longer hair than her counterpart. Even to his untrained eyes it was clear every item of clothing was chosen to compliment their respective individual as well as each other. These two clearly took their appearance very seriously.
Curiously despite what their meticulous attention to their clothing might suggest, they did not make the mistake many women often made of overdoing makeup. In fact, cyan and red colored eye shadow were the only examples of such he could see. No base or blush to be found.
The Uchiha's senses were not fooled by their fashionable appearance. He may not have been as skilled as Karin, but his chakra-sensing abilities were modestly developed- and even if it wasn't chakra as he knew it he could still sense the subtle presence of aura around both of the girls as well as Junior.
"Melanie, Miltia, I'd like you to meet your new colleague."
The twins directed their attention to him, briefly glancing up and down to assess him.
"This is Sasuke Uchiha," Junior continued, "Sasuke, this is Melanie and Miltia Malachite. They're the two I told you about that you'll be helping relieve."
Even considering their aura, Sasuke wasn't too impressed. As fashionable as their attire was, it was clearly meant for show instead of practicality.
"If you're vouching for him, I guess he's worth something. Still, we were expecting someone a bit… older" Melanie remarked.
The Uchiha bit back a remark he would have not hesitated for a second to retort with if Naruto had uttered those words. He needed the job and the favor from Junior, so it was better to not to take part in pointless arguments.
"You told us he didn't have aura, so how is he going to compensate for that?" Miltia added.
"Don't make the mistake of underestimating him. The previous champion of Slate's fighting ring thought the same thing two nights ago and lost his title in two minutes."
"Hn. If you say so" the longer-haired twin asserted, though the tone of her voice still reeked of doubt.
"I want you to shadow them for the night, Sasuke. Find me when we close and we'll discuss our deal."
In other words, 'stay where they can see you so I'll have a reliable source tell me if you're worth keeping my end of the agreement.'
"Fine."
With that Junior left toward the bar, presumably to oversee the area with the most transactions. He had scarcely made it out of earshot when Melanie and Miltia turned toward him with expressions that could not have stated more clearly that they did not appreciate being stuck with the new guy.
Normally he would have been slightly annoyed at the thought of being forced to work with people who had such an attitude, but for some reason he couldn't identify it was instead provoking feelings of relief and satisfaction.
"Hn" the sisters huffed in unison before turning around and walking toward the stairs, clearly expecting him to follow.
'You know from the other end that word is kind of annoying to hear.' The irony that they were using what some would call his favorite response on him did not escape Sasuke's notice.
"I really hope you meet Junior's expectations. Although I can't say I'm… optimistic about your chances" Melanie confessed. She seemed to be the more skeptical and confrontational of the two from what little Sasuke had observed. Miltia was not sold either and still had a healthy amount of doubt like her sister, but seemed to be less passive-aggressive and was a bit more polite.
"We were expecting someone that had a bit more… impressive appearance" she finished.
"So was I" Sasuke retorted, having had quite enough of their attitude. He hadn't planned on actively getting on their bad side but it was time he drew the line. It was a bit of a risk, but respect wouldn't come to those who didn't stand up for themselves.
Both twins spun around abruptly and fixed him with heated glares. They weren't sure if Sasuke had been criticizing their appearance in a professional or fashionable context, but it didn't really matter. Like most women, they took insults to their looks very seriously.
Sasuke could not have cared less.
"Excuse m-!"
"I didn't come here to listen to the opinions of people who don't know what they're talking about" Sasuke interrupted, cutting off Miltia's retort and wresting the initiative of the conversation from the twins. "From what I was told you wanted another hire to take some of your slack so you could have more time off to yourselves. What you plan on doing with your extra personal time is your business. Go out with friends, shop for clothes, see a movie or two, set up a date night with your boyfriends, whatever you want."
"But if you want that time off," the Uchiha continued, stepping forward to the edge of the twins' personal space to loom over them, "you might want to stay on my good side. I don't know how you were raised but your passive-aggressive routine is no way to behave to someone doing you a favor."
With that Sasuke ended his retort, disregarding the twin's personal bubble to walk straight past them to let them know in no uncertain terms that he was not going to be another lackey to boss around.
Regaining their composure, the sisters turned around to catch up with him.
"Hn" they replied in unison again, though with audibly more force than last time that betrayed their temper. "You had better be able to back that attitude up. It will take more than good looks to be worth keeping around here" Miltia countered.
It was at that moment Sasuke figured out why he had a strange feeling satisfaction earlier from being doubted by the sisters. For most of his life females around him had seen him as nothing more than a pretty face and wanted to be around him for no greater or deeper reason. These were the first women in a long time that were mature enough to judge him on his merits (or lack thereof in this case) and place his physical appearance as secondary importance.
If he wanted to obtain their approval or respect, he would have to earn it by his own efforts and skills. The normal way, in other words.
It was… refreshing to be treated as an ordinary person as opposed to the mindless praise and approval he usually got by people who had never met him. Despite their earlier rude behavior and their still present doubt of him, his opinion of the twins instantly skyrocketed to heights he never would have thought possible so soon after meeting them. If they consistently based their actions and opinions on personal character as they had done with him, they might be more tolerable company than he had first assumed.
Still, the Uchiha knew better than to tell them that.
"Don't worry about my qualifications, I can assure you they are more than enough. Hopefully I'll have an occasion to prove it by the end of the night and put an end to your baseless conjecture."
It may have been too much to hope for. It was a bit after one o'clock in the morning and so far, nothing had gone wrong. It wasn't too busy a night in relative terms, but there were still roughly fifty people still present either drinking, dancing, or trying to socialize at the last minute to find a partner to go home with.
His time spent so far with the Malachite twins had been mostly in silence. All three had agreed to spend most of their time on a second-floor balcony that was restricted by an employees-only velvet rope to prevent any customers from trying to socialize with them. The twins occasionally pointed small details out to him, but for the most part occasionally monitoring the patrons on the floor below while conversing amongst each other while sipping on their acquired cocktails. Their difference in preferred drinks; a Raspberry Mule for Melanie and a Bloody Mary for Miltia, further emphasized that the twins were far from carbon copies of each other.
Sasuke was all business. To any onlookers he was passively watching the people below with an almost lazy expression, but that appearance hid the truth. For all of his nonchalant appearance, he was taking in more detail than most people would believe possible. Who had come in when, accompanied by who, the nature of the relationship they seemed to share, what mood they had arrived in with and any changes thereafter, the number and type of drinks each customer had, their clothing and probable background, who looked anxious for more acquaintances to arrive, who looked ready to leave, who was wanting to talk or not talk to who, and so on. For the past four hours Sasuke had been mentally cataloging his observations for dozens of individuals to ensure that he would have a good chance of spotting a potential problem before it happened and knew as much relevant information as he could.
One of Junior's men had come up a couple hours previously and offered him a cocktail to help pass the time, but the Uchiha had requested only water instead. There was no way one drink would affect him, but it would be a better first impression if he made it clear he was there for the job instead of free drinks.
A flash of movement too deliberate and quick to be simple hand gestures of casual conversation grabbed his attention. His gaze came upon a towering man in his mid-twenties built like an ox who was beginning a rather heated discussion with a more average sized but still large male that was starting to involve pointing their fingers in accusation as well as other body language signs of conflict. The larger of the two seemed to be the primary aggressor, though the smaller one was taking no steps to diffuse the situation.
Neither of these two had come in together and were likely complete strangers to the other- but a quick glance at the group surrounding them explained everything.
The larger man was backed up by what he had observed to be a couple who were standing behind him. Based on their expressions they were hoping there wouldn't be a physical confrontation, but had no doubts of who they would be supporting if things went that far.
The smaller man also had support from someone he had entered the club with; another male who was standing next to the reason for their quarrel.
'A girl. What else would it be?'
It was actually a pair of women, close friends from what he could tell. One of them was standing next to the smaller man's friend- they had been flirting with each other for over an hour now and had decided to pair up for the night.
Her friend, by contrast, had not had the same luck to find a potential partner early on. Which was resulting in the two men who had both talked to her at earlier points in the evening to clash for the right to earn her favor.
"I'm going down, a fight is about to break out" the Uchiha informed the twins.
Melanie and Miltia broke off their conversation to follow Sasuke's gaze to the verbal argument taking place below them. It didn't take them long to recognize the situation.
"Keep watching a bit, they might still settle down" Miltia contended, not quite ready to take action just yet.
"No, both of them have had five drinks in the past hour and a half. Neither of them is going to be thinking about calming down" the Uchiha countered, starting to make his way to the stairs.
"Looks like you've got your chance to show what you've got" Melanie added while both sisters began to follow him, placing their drinks down before continuing. Even if it was Sasuke's trial by fire, both knew they were expected to be around in case he needed help.
"You don't need to help me. But if you insist on coming just stand by the exit doors."
"Why?"
"You'll see."
As Sasuke made his way toward his target it was clear he had made the right choice to intervene. Scowls were present on both of their faces and all fours fists were clenched.
The larger male was in the middle of a tirade when he felt a painfully strong iron grip on his shoulder before he was spun around with surprising force.
"If the two of you are going to start something, take it outside."
Both men turned to the newcomer that had clearly addressed the both of them and not just the one whose shoulder he had grabbed. The speaker was only a kid- late teens to early twenties if they were to guess. His head barely cleared the chin of the larger one, nullifying the otherwise intimidating glare he was giving them.
Everyone around them silenced their conversations to watch what unfolded, a bit shocked that someone so much smaller would try to dictate anything to them.
"Haha!" the larger one chuckled, brushing the offending hand from his shoulder. "That's real cute, kid. It's also none of your damn business."
He took a step forward, attempting to intimidate the Uchiha with his greater size.
"Why don't you go home and jerk off to some porn or something like a good little boy before you get hu-!"
The collective eyes of the audience widened in shock as Sasuke dug his fist into the man's gut faster than any of them could follow, displacing several organs with enough trauma to force his victim to cough up blood from damaged right lung tissue the following day.
"It was not a request."
Sasuke reached forward to grab the throat of the man with just enough force to half-close his windpipe, ignoring the man's flailing arms he was throwing around in his panic and shock.
He turned to Melanie and Miltia by the door, jolting them out of their shocked stupor to give them a quick nod for them to open the exit door.
The twins had scarcely done so before the Uchiha stepped forward to throw with a single arm the almost 300-pound man twenty-five feet out the door straight into the concrete sidewalk outside with an audible thud that knocked him unconscious on impact.
"You son of a bitch!"
The man's friend was apparently still willing to step up to defend his companion. Multiple gasps were heard by the surrounding crowd as Sasuke turned around to deal with the second problem of the night.
'Shit!' The man had pulled out a small handgun. 'I didn't think he would snap like that, but he's had enough alcohol to impair his judgement.'
"Everyone behind me, get clear!"
He was going to have to rush the man and disarm him, but even with his command to clear out the crowd behind him was going to be moving more slowly with the alcohol slowing their movements down.
Sasuke dashed forward at blinding speed, but mentally cursed as the man's index finger began to pull the trigger- he wouldn't close the distance quite fast enough. Locking on to where the gun was pointed, the Uchiha focused his eyesight and brought his hands together.
The crowd watched as Sasuke dashed forward before unanimously flinching at the sudden report of a single gunshot. Sasuke's foot flew upward to kick the firearm from the man's grip a moment later before he could fire again, forcing him to take a step back.
The Uchiha had a grimace on his face with his teeth tightly clenched, his palms flattened together in a manner that looked almost like a prayer. The disarmed man looked at him in confusion.
'I thought I hit him?'
The Uchiha looked up, and the man was frozen in terror from the sheer venom on his face. His palms slowly opened, several drops of blood falling on to the floor.
The man's eyes opened and jaw dropped as far as they could go when he saw the bullet in Sasuke's hand.
He had caught it. He had fucking caught it!
The friction from the bullet's momentum had burned and scraped his skin almost to the muscle, but he had caught it.
The Uchiha casually dropped the bullet to the ground, ignoring the silent looks of utter shock and disbelief of the patrons, club workers, as well as Junior and the twins.
The disarmed man had no time to think anything else before Sasuke closed the distance in the time it took to blink and knocked him out with a solid punch to the face that removed several teeth.
The man's girlfriend he had come with had a scream die in her throat as Sasuke diverted his attention to her.
"Out."
She didn't need to be told twice. Not even bothering to try to carry her boyfriend with her, she sprinted out the exit door without looking back.
"You three," Sasuke said, snapping several of Junior's employees out of their stupor, "get him out of here."
The henchmen immediately went to grab the unconscious man while the Uchiha quickly made his way back to the stairs, ignoring the round of applause for his performance.
He had just finished taking a swig from his glass of water while trying to figure out from context what the word 'porn' the larger man had uttered earlier meant. It was clearly a noun of some kind.
'Maybe I'll look it up later' the Uchiha considered before hearing the twins coming up from behind him, having just picked up their drinks they left at the foot of the stairs.
"Hey, Sasuke?" an inquisitive but still very slightly demanding tone asked.
"What is it Melanie?"
There was a pregnant pause for a few seconds before the Uchiha turned around to see what they wanted. They appeared to be staring at each other in what some would term a silent conversation before redirecting their attention to him, their curiosity evident.
"How did you know it was me?" Melanie inquired.
"What?"
"How did you know it was me talking to you and not my sister?"
Oh.
"Your boots have a blade for a heel instead of Miltia's stilettos. They make a slightly different sound when you walk. If you must know your difference in drink choice also helped."
The girls looked between them, puzzled how that made a difference.
"Melanie has a rum-based drink, so has a sweeter smell to it compared to the vodka-based Bloody Mary Miltia has. Once you brought your drinks back up, I could tell from the stronger sweet aroma that Melanie came up first. The different perfumes you're both using betrayed you in the same way. After that I judged the speaker's relative position and figured it out from there."
The twins had to put effort into keeping their jaws in place, trying to comprehend the fact he could distinguish them by the smell of their drinks of all things.
"Even without that," Sasuke continued, gesturing to Melanie "you were more likely to be the one to come up to me with a question based on your personality."
"What are you talking about?" Miltia questioned. Both girls raising an eyebrow in curiosity, clearly wishing for the Uchiha to clarify.
"It surely can't be a surprise to either of you that being identical twins doesn't mean you are completely the same." the Uchiha started, wondering why the twins seemed to have trouble comprehending what should have been a blatantly obvious fact for them. "Even ignoring your visible difference in choice of clothing and palate, you two are different. Your character is very similar to each other, but Melanie is slightly more confrontational and aggressive in conversation. Miltia is similar too, but a bit more… agreeable and polite. Knowing that, it was a safe bet who would be the first one to ask a question."
The twins now had an unabashed look of surprise that could not conceal the fact they were impressed with his deductions.
Sasuke only replied with a look that made obvious his disbelief that they didn't already know the difference between them.
"Of course we know we're different!" Miltia contended, countering the Uchiha's implication before looking at him with newfound respect. "It's just that most people don't realize it."
Almost no one realized it, actually. It was part of the reason the two had decided to consistently wear differently-colored attire and have different hair lengths. It was endlessly aggravating to have people who supposedly knew them be unable to tell the difference between the two.
It was even worse on most dates they went on. Their standards for boys were high enough, but finding any that thought of the twins as anything more than a matched set of identical girls was next to impossible. They had lost count how many dates they had cut short when it was clear the men in question were only interested in fulfilling the popular male fantasy of bedding a pair of twins.
Neither Melanie nor Miltia knew how Sasuke had figured out their differences so quickly after meeting them, with almost no words spoken between them to boot. But they weren't going to complain.
It was… refreshing to be so quickly recognized for the people they were and not just pieces of a set. Despite his rudeness and overconfidence (who were they kidding, he had every reason to be overconfident after catching a bullet), their opinion of their potential co-worker instantly skyrocketed to heights they never would have thought possible so soon after meeting him. If he continued to treat them as separate individuals and be competent with his job, he might be more tolerable company than they had first assumed.
Still, both twins knew better than to tell him that.
A small gasp escaped Miltia's mouth as she saw the gentle oozing of blood from Sasuke's palms.
"Damn! You didn't tell us the shot did that to your hands!"
"It didn't even break the skin, it's not a big de-"
The Uchiha's retort was cut short by both twins forcibly grabbing a palm, leaving him no room to argue.
"What is it about men and refusing any and all help for injuries?" Miltia asked rhetorically as both twins pulled out small handkerchiefs to soak up the blood and start clotting the wound.
"Shut up and keep your hands still. This is happening whether you want it or not" Melanie scolded, refusing to allow him to leave his injury alone.
'Why is it that everyone in this world is obsessed with treating non-serious injuries? First Ruby and Taiyang, and now these two.'
Sasuke resigned himself to his fate- it wasn't worth the effort to get out of it.
"Why didn't you try to dodge the gun's line of fire? You were more than fast enough to, so what was the point of charging head-on like that?"
"And what would have been hit behind me if I had moved to the side?" Sasuke countered.
The twins' eyes widened slightly in realization- the surrounding crowd would have been at risk in that case.
"Why do you think I told everyone behind me to get clear?"
The twins now understood the reasons for his actions, even if they were still flabbergasted how quickly he had comprehended and addressed the shooter situation.
"So," both twins began simultaneously, before their subtle differences resulted in Miltia halting her question and allowing Melanie to continue, "how the hell did you catch that?"
"Nice work, Sasuke!" Junior called out, removing the envelope with Sasuke's fake identity from his pocket. "I knew I made a good choice hiring you."
"Hn."
It was 2 o'clock in the morning, and the last patron had just left the building to make their way home. Junior's other henchmen were beginning to count the books and start cleaning the place up, but Sasuke headed straight to Junior with Melanie and Miltia to finish their negotiation.
"I don't know how on earth you pulled that stunt off kid, but you earned your stripes as far as I'm concerned. Welcome aboard!"
It was a good deal as far as the Uchiha was concerned. If today was about the worst he could expect here this job would be a breeze. Unfortunately despite confirming Sasuke would continue to work for him, Junior still did not make any moves to hand him the agreed documents. He was holding it almost in an amused manner, as though teasing him with the prize was a mildly amusing joke as he stood beside one of the larger tables closest to the bar.
Sasuke was not about to be cheated and fixed a glare that promised pain if Junior kept procrastinating his end of the deal.
"Now, now, don't get upset. I did forget to mention one other condition you have to fulfill if you want this."
It was at this point Sasuke noticed all of the employees present, including Melanie and Miltia, start to surround the two of them in what seemed to be eager anticipation. Everyone, especially the twins, had knowing grins on their faces that betrayed their excitement for whatever was next.
"You see Sasuke, you don't formally work for me until you've gone through… initiation."
Two henchmen then arrived at Junior's side to place several items on the table next to him.
Upon inspection, they were revealed to be a tray of 30 milliliter shot glasses, a basketball, and what he identified as a growler of Devil Springs Vodka.
"…You're joking."
"No joke, no trick. I don't care if you're underage- if you want to work for me you have to go through this and humiliate yourself just like the rest of us did."
"What do I do?"
"You drink, of course! It's very simple, you take one shot every minute and place the shot glass face down by yourself with no help. In between shots, you dribble the basketball. Initiation ends when you're too drunk to place the shot glass down right. The rest of us take bets on how long you can go before you lose the basketball and how many shots you can down and how much of the gallon you can get through before you say goodbye to your motor functions."
"Hn. Get me a chair."
The surrounding crowd whooped and cheered, several henchmen writing down their colleague's bets as Junior poured the first shot.
Sasuke couldn't keep a small grin off his face. These poor fools had no idea who they were dealing with.
The last Beowolf had its head exploded, courtesy of Ember Celica's shotgun. This was ridiculous- Patch was known for its relatively rarity of Grimm. Even those that were found there matured far more slowly and were far more passive than anywhere else in the world. They rarely left the western end of the island. It was a main reason it was considered the safest place to live outside the four kingdoms' major cities.
Despite the island's peaceful reputation she had been told about her whole life, Yang Xiao Long could obviously see something had changed. She had been helping trying to track down some foreigner that her sister brought home almost exactly a week ago, but after days of coming up empty-handed the duo had decided to try their luck with the slowly warming but still frozen countryside. Normally she would have not worried too much about Grimm. They were few and far between on Patch, the large number of Grimm that attacked her little sister during her latest visit to Summer being an exception rather than the norm. Scarcely two hours since leaving their home, however, they had been attacked by large numbers of Grimm no less than four times.
This had been the largest group so far, well over one hundred and twenty. And they were tougher than usual. Normally both Yang and Ruby could take a single Grimm here out with one attack, but something had roided these Grimm up. It was nothing they couldn't handle, but for the first time in a while both she had Ruby had to pause to catch their breath.
"Doing okay, sis?" the younger of the two inquired.
"Great. You know me, always up for an adventure."
"Awesome, lets keep up the pace!"
Ruby's enthusiastic words didn't quite reach her tone as the half-sisters continued their trek through the snow. It was very late, well past midnight. The lantern-style flashlights they brought with them being the only source of light.
Yang adored her little sister. She was so optimistic, so pure. It never ceased to amaze the blonde how ruby was never sad for too long, or how quickly she could spread her contagious smile and brighten someone's day.
Ruby had smiled when Yang had gotten home from her slumber party. But for the first time in memory, it had been a forced one. And that had scared her.
Her father and Ruby had quickly told her the story about the mysterious Sasuke who had shown up out of nowhere to aid her little sister in a fight against a pack of Beowolves. He had stayed for dinner, went to bed, and come morning he was gone.
The only clue they had as to what happened had been an oddly-shaped and proportioned knife that her weapon-obsessed sister had immediately identified as one that was designed to be thrown. All of them had been amazed at how sharp it was, putting even Crescent Rose to shame, but the implications it brought were not ideal.
It was clear that Sasuke had decided to leave on his own free will, and had decided to leave the knife as a sign of either gratitude or payment.
For all three members of the family this was unacceptable. No matter what the circumstances there were unaware of regarding Sasuke's origin or destination, leaving the home of people who agreed to shelter you to walk to who knows where in the winter cold, and leave the host just guessing if he was still alive or not was unthinkable.
If Yang ever found him she would be having words with him about how he had worried them, and her sweet and caring little sister in particular, so much with his little disappearing act.
None of them knew where Sasuke came from, but in Patch and in Vale people didn't just abandon each other without a word or let anyone go into the winter wilderness where hypothermia was a greater threat than Grimm.
All of them had done what they could to find him. Their father had made calls to Ozpin, Qrow, and several other colleagues multiple times to see if anyone had any leads. Ruby had made rather crude posters to see if anyone had found him, and Yang had searched the whole town and surrounding rural districts of Patch on Bumblebee three times. All of it had been in vain.
When it was clear Ruby was taking Sasuke's disappearance hard enough to start losing sleep, Yang had become alarmed. It was like looking in a mirror.
Ruby may have been too young to remember, but Yang recalled every emotion and thought with vivid and terrifying detail as ten years prior she had been obsessed with finding someone too. Yang had thrown everything else she had to the side in her single-minded quest to find her mother and she had come a hairs breath away from loosing everything she cared about as a result.
If her Uncle hadn't been there, she would have died. Ruby would have died. Her entire goal would have been in vain, and her family would have lost another two of its members. She would have been remembered as some stupid little girl who didn't know any better, and her beloved little sister would have had her life cut short because of her self-centered endeavor.
Yang hadn't given up on finding her mother. Far from it, she asked around whenever she could. But she had learned her lesson to not let her ambition destroy everything and everyone else she cared about.
The blonde thought it was likely they were wasting their time looking for Sasuke- the chances of finding him were where the phrase 'needle in a haystack' came from. But the odds didn't matter. She would do everything in her power to make sure Ruby did not follow the same path she almost died in. If that meant following her in the frozen wilderness in the middle of the night well past the time her father had told them to be home, she would do it without hesitation. She was Ruby's big sister, and she would shield her from danger and protect her at all cost. It was the least she could do after her failure to do so those long ten years ago.
"Sis, you think he's in there?"
Yang's thoughts were interrupted by Ruby pointing excitedly to a small cave on the base of a cliff.
"Well, one way to find out."
Even before they crossed the distance it was clear there was no one inside. It was a shallow cave, only about thirty feet from the caves' opening to its back.
"Great. Another dead end. Literally." Normally Yang would have fired off a signature pun at such an obvious set-up, but it was clear this was not the time for that.
"Wait, wait, wait! Look at this!"
Ruby directed Yang's attention to the floor of the cave about ten feet from the entrance.
'A fire.' It was simple and small, surrounded by a ring of rocks. Multiple well-burned branches and logs were still visible in the middle along with copious amounts of pitch-black charcoal that had been half-spread by incoming gusts of wind.
"It's not that old, only a few days since it was made" Yang assessed upon squatting down to inspect it. "See all the ashes and stuff still in the center? The wind's blown some of it off, but there's a lot still where the actual fire was. If it had been here for a couple weeks or something the wind would have had more time to blow all of it out. And judging from the amount of wood used I'd say whoever made this only used it a few days before leaving."
"YES! It's Sasuke, it has to be! We can still find him!"
Her little sister's optimism was as contagious as always as Yang found herself forming a small smile. She wasn't enthusiastic about continuing to trek through the snow, but it was at least a lead.
Yang got up and walked to the entrance, directing her gaze to the remaining snow outside to see if he had left any tracks to follow. Her eyes widened in horror as she comprehended what she was seeing.
"Ruby…"
"Yeah, sis?"
The younger sibling made her way to the mouth of the cave to stand next to her sister before joining her in looking out toward the surrounding snow. It took Ruby a few seconds to comprehend what Yang was seeing, but once she did her blood turned to ice and instantly crushed any hopeful or optimistic thoughts.
The snow surrounding the cave more than a hundred yards out was flattened and packed solid. Rock solid, almost. Such snow out here could only be the result of being stepped on by large numbers of animals… or Grimm. And a brief inspection of the snow's surface revealed very faint traces of tracks- Grimm tracks. Beowolves, Ursa Minor and Major, Deathstalkers, every kind of Grimm they knew about that existed on Patch had too many footprints to count in the snow outside the cave. There were even a few spots where car-sized Nevermores had landed on the snow itself. Every Grimm they had fought so far had likely come from here.
The implication was obvious.
Tears began to drip from Ruby's face as she began to sink to her knees in despair.
"Sasuke… no…"
Her voice was barely more than a squeak. But Yang heard it.
Yang didn't bother trying to say anything. There was nothing she could say to make the pain go away.
Instead, she wordlessly wrapped her arms around Ruby in a comforting embrace. Silent support and sympathy were the only things she could offer.
Both sisters lost track of time as the younger of the two continued to shed her tears. The slowly dimming halo of their flashlights forced Yang to break the embrace before gently placing Ruby on her back in piggyback fashion. It should have been a happy, nostalgic moment that echoed their carefree youth when Yang had carried Ruby on her back as fast as she could to fight or catch whatever monsters or bad guys their innocent imaginations could conjure. But there was nothing happy about this occasion. Yang began to carry Ruby on their long trek home.
The thought of their Father's punishment and/or lecture for coming back at such an hour was at the back of Yang's mind. All she could think of was what this experience would do to her little sister.
Ruby was happy, innocent, and pure. Yang desperately wanted to keep her that way. Their Father had never been the same after Summer had died, he had lost some of his life that day. Despite the time that passed, it was clear the wound never truly healed. Yang Xiao Long prayed to whatever deity was listening to spare her sister such a fate.
Ruby by contrast, was thinking only of the friend she had probably lost. She had wanted to eventually talk to him, at least through a translator if nothing else. Ask about his weapon, where he was from, if he liked cookies, and other such trivial things that were objectively pointless but formed the bedrock for the bonds of companionship and friendship that people shared.
'Sasuke, I hope you got out in time. If you're… still alive, still out there, I hope you stay safe.'
No words were passed by anyone observing the spectacle. No, it wasn't a spectacle, it was a blasphemous impossibility. They simply had no way of articulating their shock and disbelief of what they were seeing. It was impossible, inconceivable! No laws of nature could explain what their eyes were showing them.
It had been a bit over an hour since Sasuke had begun his initiation. At one shot every minute, he had gone through 62 shots in that time. All the while, he kept bouncing the basketball without a single error, not even pausing for when he took another shot.
Nothing, absolutely nothing had happened. No slurring, no impaired motor functions, no loss of balance, no change in pace with his dribbling. Absolutely nothing.
Miltia poured the last drop of Vodka from the bottle into the final shot glass with a look of overwhelming awe and amazement.
Sasuke took the shot glass with no hesitation, swallowed it down without so much as a hiccup, and placed the glass face down next to the previous one.
That was it. Sasuke Uchiha had downed a full growler of Devil Springs Vodka by himself.
It was impossible for anyone watching him to tell, but Sasuke could tell he was ever-so slightly tipsy. Five seconds later, however, the sensation was gone. Replaced by the razor-sharp senses and thoughts of his sober mind.
He hadn't cheated, he had simply exploited one of the lesser-known fruits of his training with Orochimaru.
The sannin had developed training methods for making subjects immune to almost all poisons. It was incredibly useful given how popular poisons were amongst shinobi. If wielded properly a shinobi with access to poison could fell an enemy much more powerful than themselves with the smallest of cuts. Depending on the poison used it could be made and used extremely cheaply, making it an extremely common threat both on and off the frontlines.
The process to give him poison immunity had been a grueling and miserable process, even by Sasuke's standards. It had taken months of injections of various kinds of poisons in non-lethal doses among other things to achieve the results he wanted- but they had been worth it.
There were several factors that made his immunity possible, and amongst them were tailor-conditioned liver and kidneys; the organs that were responsible for detecting, isolating, neutralizing, and excreting any toxic substances in the body. The organs had been trained to superhuman levels by Orochimaru's immunity regimen; designed, forged, and polished by the heavens themselves for all intents and purposes.
They were so effective in fact, that they were capable of neutralizing all toxic substances at rates and efficiencies that most mortals would deem ludicrous. And alcohol, technically being a toxin in and of itself to the body, was also subdued at the same incredible rate. Sasuke's body could effectively process and metabolize alcohol almost faster than he could drink it. He would die from hyperhydration before he lost any motor function.
The Uchiha had been at a loss for words when the Sannin had confessed to him that before he abandoned Konoha, he had taken part in various drinking contests after his immunity had taken hold to earn a little extra money to pay for some of his laboratory supplies.
The words 'Orochimaru' and 'drinking contest' were never ones the Uchiha thought he would hear in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence. But he had been proven wrong.
His new colleagues had been proven wrong too. The most generous amongst them had guessed over an order of magnitude off the end result.
Quite done with their little game, the Uchiha stood up and lightly tossed the ball to Junior. The man looked like a fish slowly opening and closing its mouth, still processing what had just occurred. The Uchiha walked up and took the envelope containing his fake identity from the man's hand.
"Give me a call with my schedule when you get it, I'll be around."
The Uchiha turned around and left without another word. He had spent enough time here as it was.
There was another reason for his exit. His body could metabolize and process alcohol with unbelievable speed, but that didn't mean what was left of it wasn't still there. His bladder was already starting to protest; not at all amused by the overwhelming quantity of fluid sent its way. He was going to have to take a hell of a piss in a few minutes. Still, the amusing looks his onlookers had started to give him as his initiation continued on was worth it.
Junior's staff only looked on in bewilderment as their new colleague walked out the door without so much as a misplaced step.
"He's an alien."
Everyone turned to the lone henchman that had broken the silence.
"What? All of you are thinking it! Never mind the catching a bullet with his bare hands thing, there's no way in hell any living thing on the face of Remnant could pull that off!"
"Aliens are ridiculous, why the hell would an alien cross the galaxy just to work at a damn nightclub!? He's clearly a superior life form designed by the government to be a super-soldier that can fight Grimm!"
Junior only looked on as his henchmen, as well as Melanie and Miltia, started to argue and offer ever-more outlandish theories.
'I wonder if I can persuade him to come to a drinking contest or two? Should be some easy money.'
AN: Aaand done! Whew, this chapter went on way longer than I had planned.
I improvised a lot when describing the nature and mechanics of seals, there isn't that much information regarding their details anywhere from what I looked at. Hope it all kind of makes sense, I wanted at least one section going through the difficulty Sasuke was facing trying to make one from scratch.
For those of you who liked the Ruby/Yang part of the chapter, you have Fanfictions4ever to thank for it. Thank him/her with chocolate and Christmas joy. I hadn't even considered putting anything with either of them in until they met Sasuke again (For those of you who think this is a spoiler, it's not. It's not a spoiler if it's obvious), but they made the suggestion and I figured it would add some perspective on their character as well as some closure with their beginning storyline. And I needed something to put in between the beginning and ending of Sasuke's drinking challenge to build up a bit of drama. So, I thought why the hell not?
Besides, I think taking suggestions from reviewers is a good policy in general. If you think a suggestion has a chance of being put in writing, it only provides more encouragement to review in the first place.
Hope you enjoyed the interaction between Sasuke and the twins. Not gonna lie, a lot of that back and forth and their respective impressions I just came up with on the fly, so I'm hoping it came out all right without being too corny with the blatantly similar thoughts Sasuke and the twins respectively had regarding each other.
As for the drinking thing, that idea was all yours truly. In my humble opinion, it was a moment of brilliance. I'm not sure if the whole poison immunity actually works that way in canon, but screw it. My story, my rules. Sasuke is a serious character, so I wanted to thrown in something a bit more light-hearted in there somewhere.
Please review, it makes my day!