AN: Alrighty, it is time for a new chapter! Hope you all enjoy! Bit of a long AN, so bear with me.
A couple people were questioning how Sasuke was having trouble with Stonewall and yet can manhandle Qrow while severely injured, so I'll take a moment to address that. First point- unlike Qrow, Glynda, or most other Hunters, Stonewall's Semblance is uniquely capable of making him almost completely impervious to melee weapons, firearms, or hand-to-hand attacks. Sasuke had to hit the guy as hard as he could with multiple strikes to even slightly damage him with physical attacks. Unless they have access to Lightning or Fire Dust, even Hunters as powerful as Qrow or Glynda literally have no way to hurt Stonewall at all- he is taking almost zero damage from them as long as his Semblance is activated. The only reason Sasuke struggled against him is because he was trying to avoid using Chakra-heavy attacks, he only brought out the Fireball Jutsu and the Chidori at the very end of the fight when he had no other options. If Sasuke had no qualms about spending his Chakra and had fired up a Chidori at the start, Stonewall would have been dead in the first thirty seconds. Additionally, I find it hard to believe Sasuke would be that weakened from his injuries from the explosion. Remember when Pain tore off Jiraya's arm during their fight, and Jiraiya kept fighting anyway, even managing to kill one of the Pains before he was taken out? Remember when Itachi beat Sasuke in their fight when he was almost fucking blind and so sick he literally dropped dead? Remember when Deidara had both of his arms torn off and fought Team Guy with nothing but a kunai he was holding in his mouth!? Compared to that, Sasuke's resilience and pain tolerance here isn't even all that impressive.
Knightwalker405- If you're concerned about a harem that includes every hot girl in the series, you can relax. This is not going to be another one of those stories where the MC bangs everyone because he can, God knows there are enough fics of Naruto spamming Shadow Clones and banging anything hot with a vagina in sight already.
KnightofZaku- Sasuke is still trying to preserve his Chakra, so he's going to avoid Summons of any kind of he can help it. But even if he did, Manda and Aoda can't really be summoned in populated areas without destroying several city blocks just by being there.
EnovaStar- Glad you enjoyed some of the chapter at least, hopefully the explanation I put in above explained some of my reasoning behind Sasuke's trouble with Stonewall and his comparative thrashing of Qrow. Hope you find this one a bit better!
Tobi14- Glad you enjoyed my interpretation of Qrow's Semblance. I know it was kind of glossed over in the show, but when you think about it his Misfortune has probably caused a LOT more harm over the years than a few broken glasses. As far as I'm concerned Qrow had a pretty understandable reason to start drinking like he did.
luis1101- I don't think you realize just how insightful the first two sentences of your review were. He's still trying to preserve his Chakra, so he is going to be hesitant to use a Jutsu as chakra-costly as the Body-Replacement. But keep that mindset…
D.E. 2.0- I'm flattered, dude, but calm down, now!
The Roukage- If you've got a good story in mind, I say go for it. You don't have to iron out every detail before you post it- its sometimes easier to make it up as you go.
Dude, I know you weren't flaming with your last review or anything, don't sweat it!
Hebi Sasuke's moral compass is one of the main reasons I chose him, as well as the fact that I could only write 'Sasuke used Amaterasu against his enemy- he wins!' so many times before it got boring.
Naruto is certainly going to be referenced here and there, but he is not going to be a character in this story at all.
As for your beta-reader question- you know, I actually might need one. I had one a couple years ago when I last updated and I did give him the first of the new chapters I posted, but I haven't heard back from him unfortunately. Not sure if he's still on the site. I am going to try to get in touch with him a few more times, but if I strike out I might take you up on that offer.
The Baz- Considering he cannot use his Curse Mark here you may be right that I am overestimating Sasuke's abilities here, but keep in mind he is more physically powerful here than he was at the same point in canon because he has been taking more time to work out and improve his physical capabilities since he is not using Ninjutsu. Pre-MS Sasuke vs. Kakashi is an interesting matchup- I would say that without his Curse Mark Sasuke is probably superior to Kakashi, at least until he whips out Kamui. If he uses that then yeah, Sasuke is in trouble.
Iskandar Hero- When you think about it, Qrow might have chosen the Bachelor's life because he could not in good conscience live with a woman and raise a family knowing that his Semblance could literally drop the baby on its head at any time. It's really no wonder Qrow took up drinking.
Sasuke is definitely smart and capable of unpacking attacks and abilites that he sees, but I think a major reason for that is because he can literally see the ability at work with his Sharingan. If he didn't have that, it would have taken him much longer to figure out Qrow's Semblance, if he even realized Qrow was using his Semblance at all.
Kage-kitsune9001- To be fair, the only reason Sasuke realized Qrow had no control over his Semblance was because it happened to affect an area both of them were on. If Misfortune had just dropped a Piano where Sasuke was standing and Qrow wasn't anywhere near the area, he would have no reason to suspect Qrow's Semblance acts involuntarily.
DeathlyJazzHands55- Thank you once again for your words of praise!
Happy to hear you like Sasuke too (so far at least, you've still got plenty of Naruto left to read), he's far from perfect, but as far as I'm concerned that's part of the appeal.
Not gonna spoil how the fight will end- though I'm hoping you will enjoy it considering it is a bit unorthodox.
As for his other jobs, you'll have to wait and see. I did put them in for a reason.
808Joker808- I was actually worried that the fight was too long and that jumping between POVs would be a bit too confusing to keep up with, but I've been getting fairly positive opinions about it so far including yours, so I think I'll stick with my current 'model'.
Dreamborne- Thanks for liking Stonewall! He was definitely my favorite OC to make. Sasuke just used Killing Intent like Orochimaru did at the Forest of Death- no Genjutsu at all.
TortillaCrumbs- Goku mostly never visibly struggle with weighted clothes, the one time I was referring to was in Dragonball when he fought Tien after training for three years with Kami and it took visible effort to take his shirt off. That was a one-off, true, and it was probably only put in that one time to show that the weights were actually a handicap for him. It is a different series, true, but I still think it's a good example of how Shonen are often inconsistent with their power feats.
As for the Narutoverse, now that the topic has come up I don't think the subject of supersonic speed for movement or attacks was ever mentioned in the series except by Team Dosu during the Chunin Exams, so the Sonic Boom point is likely a moot point. The only problem that makes me scratch my head with assuming that all attacks by Chunin-level fighters and above are supersonic or at least close to it is that despite seeing who knows how many Shinobi throw Kunai and Shuriken during battle, we never seen the thrown weapons penetrate more than a few inches into tree trunks when they miss. If these things were thrown with even regular sonic speed, which if we assume is a near-baseline for Shinobi of Chunin capability, they would tear all the way through most adult trees fairly easily. I mean, in the real world Tornados routinely pick up ordinary objects and can throw them through several walls at speeds less than half that of sound. I suppose I should just chalk that up to it being a fictional world with malleable Physics that I shouldn't bother trying to figure out or trying to rationalize, but I can't help but ponder the mystery…
Attttth- Nice to hear you enjoy most of what I've written. I know my decision to have Sasuke not use all of his abilities is not universally approved, but realistically I think the story would get boring fairly quickly if he just one-shotted everyone who tried to fight him. I don't think I can pull off the overpowered character trope that One Punch Man did. And remember that Qrow is one of the better fighters in RWBY, and even severely injured with handicaps Sasuke is still bitch-slapping him around.
AMurder0Crows- As nice as it would be, Ozpin cannot just leave Sasuke alone. He is far too large a player to leave as a wild card and risk falling under Salem's sway.
Gaolang Fanboy- If you like the Sharingan now, I think you might appreciate a little original idea of mine in the chapter below.
'thoughts'
Uchiha of Remnant
Chapter 17: David and Goliath
Sasuke's enemies looked upon him as though her were a monster, a creature of unspeakable power and evil, which to be fair was probably not an unfair judgement given their perspective. But despite Qrow and Glynda deeming him to be one of the greatest threats to their kingdom they had ever seen, right now the Uchiha hardly felt like it. Despite appearing as a Demon to his foes with unparalleled strength, endurance, and sheer presence, behind his steadfast and fearless disposition he was just as desperate as they were. His leg was weighing him down so much it may as well have been made of lead, and he was in so much pain he could scarcely feel his muscles move anymore. And the rare but still familiar sensation of slight fatigue and dizziness meant he had now lost enough blood for anemia to begin setting in.
His blast of killing intent had thankfully done its job of knocking out most of the kunai fodder as well as putting the two Hunters into a state of shock. Though the Uchiha could tell they would be snapped out of it the moment he landed a blow on them in much the same manner he had against Orochimaru in the Forest of Death when he had stabbed his own leg.
Glynda and her telekinesis was far and away the greatest threat, being able to hit him at distance with literally any stray objects lying around. He wasn't sure if she could still use her Semblance as effectively if at all without her weapon, but even if her control was less than perfect without her crop it stood to reason she was skilled enough with it to simply summon it to her hand from a distance. So he exploited her next obvious weakness: the very breakable spectacles that corrected her less than perfect vision. With all of his enemies on the ground the Uchiha was able to forgo speed and surprise and simply focus on sheer power, and sent the Huntress flying away with a bone-crushing kick that would have disintegrated her head into a shower of blood and bone had her Aura not taken the damage for her.
Keeping his momentum, Sasuke flipped directly over the still- hunched Qrow before extending his good leg directly above the man's head. With the force of both his raw muscles and his body's spin, the Uchiha's heel smashed directly into the back of Qrow's head hard enough to send the Huntsman shooting through the building like a meteor. He crashed through floor after floor as though they were mere cardboard before impacting the ground with enough force to set off car alarms outside and cause more than a few screams from the residents nearby.
Ignoring the unconscious Police Officers he relieved one of them of his pistol before taking aim at the Bullhead still circling above, squeezing the trigger and sending a round straight at the pilot's shoulder to force him to fly away. The man was spared a hit by the bulletproof glass of the cockpit as the metal slug instead buried itself in the window in a spiderweb of fractures. If the pilot had been breathing a sigh of relief that Police Bullheads came with reinforced cockpits however, it was soon swept away. Bulletproof glass was resistant to impacts, but not immune to them. It could stop a single bullet no problem- but not multiple rounds shot in the same spot.
Two more shots broke through the barrier completely, and the fourth bullet finally found its intended target. Screaming in agony the Pilot hastily banked away, flying off and depriving his allies of any method of airborne evacuation.
The sound of air rushing around a fast-moving object behind him prompted the Uchiha to jump to the right, just in time to see a slab of concrete the size of a table shot by where he had just been standing. He whirled around abruptly to find himself in the crosshairs of the blonde Huntress, who to his irritation and curiosity had managed to somehow repair her glasses even though the Uchiha knew damn good and well he had broken them well beyond repair with his kick. She stood tall, crop in hand as she began pulling a dozen chunks of masonry around herself as though they were orbiting bodies before flinging them at him like a rain of meteors.
Inwardly the Uchiha cursed to himself as he dipped and dodged. Putting together and re-fusing fragments of even a small broken object spoke of a Telekinetic ability that went far above simply picking up objects and throwing them around.
His fears were proven correct almost immediately as Glynda utilized her Semblance to redirect the projectiles towards him again.
'Guided missiles?!'
The Uchiha let out an unheard huff of annoyance as he swatted aside a piece of cinderblock aimed at his head. Like any Shinobi worth anything at all he had dealt with enough Kunai and Shuriken thrown his way that avoiding any projectile was almost second-nature, but the fact that Glynda could change an object's trajectory in midair significantly changed the equation. Aside from forcing him to keep track of multiple threats simultaneously it meant that unless he was able to attack the Huntress herself he could not truly 'dodge' any of her attacks. The woman would simply redirect any misses.
It put him at a significant disadvantage, but it also meant Glynda had several probable weaknesses he could exploit. With her Semblance, choice of weapon (if a riding crop could even be called that), and notable lack of upper musculature it was almost certain that the Huntress was almost exclusively a long-range fighter who kept herself well out of any melee or hand-to-hand brawls. If he could force her to fight up close and personal the battle would be his.
Maneuvering through the hail of debris she controlled did not appear as though it would be easy. In his current battered state it would be a challenge to get through unscathed even with the Sharingan, but as he locked his gaze with his target it appeared there might be a simple way around it. From the look of intense focus on Glynda's face manipulating and controlling so many objects at once in a coordinated fashion was not an easy mental feat, requiring intense concentration that could be easily disrupted.
Raising his stolen pistol Sasuke fired a single round directly at the woman's eye. She reacted just in time, raising her Crop on reflex upon seeing him aim the gun at her. The bullet was traveling far too fast for her Telekinesis to grasp it, but her Semblance was powerful enough to slow the metal slug down. Regardless of the blunted damage his shot still did find its mark and pierced through the lens of Glynda's glasses before bouncing off her Aura.
Even though the shot did almost no damage Glynda could not help but flinch from the hit. She squeezed her eyelids shut on instinct, and more importantly lost control of the objects under her telekinesis.
Glynda had barely taken a reflexive step back before she realized her mistake. Ignoring the urge to keep her eyes shut and wipe away the shards of glass, she forced them open instead. She was met with the sight of the Uchiha mere feet away.
There was no time to summon another piece of debris to strike him- he was far too close for that.
It was a good thing her Semblance wasn't limited to inanimate objects.
With a well-practiced gesture of Disciplinarian that had been turned into a defensive reflex Glynda wrapped the Uchiha in her Telekinetic grip and froze him. He was suspended in midair mere inches from her, his sword positioned to deliver a powerful slash to her dominant arm no doubt intended to deprive her of her weapon had it connected. The boy was momentarily stunned, his red eyes widening in undisguised surprise for the briefest of instants.
The next moment the Huntress felt as though she were leashed to a bucking Goliath. Her Semblance was more difficult to use on beings capable of independent movement such as humans or Grimm, who forced her to use her power to not just move them around but to keep them from struggling enough to break her hold. Keeping control of living things ate through her stamina more quickly than inanimate objects, but was still a relatively modest endeavor that just required greater focus.
With Sasuke however, it took every ounce of her concentration for her to keep her Aura from being torn to shreds. Despite his injuries the Uchiha still wielded massive strength that stretched and warped the energy field surrounding him to the point it began to twist and fray like an overstrained fabric.
Glynda mentally cursed. There was no way she would be able to keep him under her Telekinetic control for long. Hardly ideal, but enough time to throw him into an edifice or two and hopefully break a few of his bones in the process. Wasting no time the Huntress slammed him into the nearest wall, nearly destroying the structure and eliciting a small grunt of pain from the Uchiha.
Scarcely a moment later he looked at her in abject fury with a gaze that promised to repay the pain he had suffered at her hands a dozen times over. Glynda suppressed the fear in her heart, grasping Disciplinarian and re-tightening her limited control of the Uchiha to smash him into anything else she could find.
"KAI!"
It happened in a split second. Her Aura that surrounded and held the Uchiha in a viscous molasses, already strained to the breaking point by his physical strength, was ripped and skewered by a rush of power that erupted from the boy's very skin as he shouted the unfamiliar word. The field of Aura suspending the Uchiha was instantly shattered by the eruption of energy, exploding in a flash of thousands of pink lights before it evaporated into the winds.
Glynda stood in shock as Sasuke fell to the ground and landed on his feet with the grace of a Panther, his eyes never losing their lock on hers.
'What the Hell was that!?'
For the briefest of moments before Sasuke shot forward once again to attack, the Huntress realized that the power he had used to break her hold, whatever it was, was something other than Aura. She should know- she had used her Semblance on Hunters before and knew full well what the protective shielding of life energy felt like. It made those who possessed them feel smooth and slippery to her Telekinesis, almost like a set of polished armor that was extremely difficult to grab or manipulate. She had felt no such protection around the Uchiha, though.
There was only one possible conclusion- he had a separate energy source other than Aura.
Glynda felt the blood in her veins freeze in fear as she realized this could only mean that Ozpin's theory on the boy's identity was correct, just as a burn and blood-covered fist buried itself beneath her ribcage with the force of a cannon shot and knocked every breath of air she had out of her lungs.
Her mind went blank as she was shot through the air into the neighboring building, destroying the corner of the second story before falling to the street below. She brutally suppressed her body's natural instinct to pause and gasp for air- the Uchiha would be on her in seconds and would not give a damn if she was ready for him or not. She reached into her pocket and grabbed the only piece of Dust she had. Glynda had used almost all of it during the earlier Grimm attack, but she still had a single vial of Ice Dust remaining. Ignoring her burning lungs she lifted her head and readied the Dust and Disciplinarian, knowing she would get only one shot to hit him.
Fortunately Sasuke did exactly as she had expected and emerged from the rooftop closest to her before shooting himself down to her position. It was a smart move on his part, knowing Glynda preferred long-range attacks he chose to expose himself at the closest distance possible before rushing her to close the gap.
It also made his move predictable. With honed reflexes Glynda shot the Dust at him in mid-jump, managing to catch him in his upper thigh before his feet touched the ground. But even as her attack made contact the Huntress saw a flash of silver fly toward her before Disciplinarian was violently torn from her hand by a piercing force that stung her Aura. While he had indeed been unable to avoid Glynda's trap the Uchiha's reflexes had been sharp enough to disarm her by throwing his sword before he was hit.
He landed in front of her with his entire body from the navel down covered in an ice block that weighed more than a ton, his legs locked in place as the mass anchored him to the ground.
Without Disciplinarian, though, Glynda could not take advantage of the immobilized Uchiha. She had planned to use her Telekinesis to pelt him with several manhole covers and various objects around her, but without her weapon she would be unable to do so. Her Semblance was one of the only ones in existence that actually required a weapon to effectively use- or more specifically a single focal point of control. Using her hands to control her Semblance effectively diffused it, the Aura flowing through her hand and multiple fingers dividing its control as well as its power to the point she could barely lift a person. It was only by channeling her Semblance through a weapon like Disciplinarian, with its tip acting as single point to focus and direct her Telekinesis that she could truly use and control it.
She looked around for her weapon desperately- her raw Telekinesis was at least powerful enough to summon it back to her hand without too much trouble, but it was lost in a sea of panicking feet. The residents of the surrounding apartments had been rudely awakened for the second time that night and had begun fleeing their homes when the first sounds of gunfire and destruction had reached them.
The Huntress shakily began rising to her feet and saw with dread that the Uchiha was already starting to escape his trap, punching the ice with his raw fists with enough strength to chip and crack his prison.
'Dammit! Where the hell is Disciplinarian!?'
She looked around frantically- the Uchiha would be free in a matter of seconds, and if she couldn't locate her weapon by then and Qrow did not reappear the fight was as good as over. But try as she might she could only see moving feet of the fleeing crowd no matter where she looked.
Her attention was drawn instinctively to a thunderous crack from the Uchiha, who had managed to make an almost clean split in the ice block that held him. Just one more hit and he would be out.
Just as the Huntress began looking around in panic for a stick or some kind of object that could serve as a makeshift substitute, a furious roar was heard over the surrounding panic.
"NOT SO FAST ASSHOLE!"
Charging straight at the Uchiha, automatic rifle in hand, was the Police Lieutenant whom had been with her earlier. Though she had seen him fall to the ground after Sasuke had done… whatever he had done to make them freeze like deer in the headlights earlier, he had apparently not fallen unconscious as his subordinates had and now furiously making his way towards the trapped Uchiha.
Sasuke instantly realized what was coming and hastily raised an arm in an attempt to break his prison, but it was too late. With a vengeful howl the Lieutenant began emptying his gun's clip at practically point-blank range of the hated enemy who had caused so much pain and humiliation to his comrades. The Uchiha covered his face with his arms, visibly gritting his teeth in pain as round after round dug into his body. The surrounding crowd, much like Glynda, stood transfixed at the spectacle, unable to look away from the action as small showers of skin and blood erupted from the arms and torso of the Uchiha with every hit.
After a few seconds, the gunfire stopped. The Lieutenant continued to hold down the trigger for a few moments, so caught up in annihilating his enemy his mind had to catch up to remind him he had run out of ammunition. Glynda and the surrounding crowd stared at the target of the hail of fire. There was no skin left to speak of on the Uchiha's outer forearms, torn and exposed sinew and the blood that covered it being the only visible parts remaining. The torso was in slightly better shape, though only in relative terms as blood still flowed and bubbled up freely from the shredded flesh.
Then every soul present felt the hair on their skin stand on end as instead of being unmoving, his bloody chest still gently rose and fell.
He was still breathing.
Sasuke slowly lowered his arms and fixed the Lieutenant with a glare so venomous Glynda was amazed the man didn't faint on the spot. He then punched the ice containing him one final time, shattering his temporary prison once and for all as he stood tall and unbowed.
He should have been dead. He should have at least collapsed unconscious. But looking at the Uchiha's furious gaze, Glynda couldn't help but think the Lieutenant had not hurt Sasuke as much as he had pissed him off.
With speed he should not have had the Uchiha crossed the short distance between him and his shooter and landed a solid punch square in the man's face that sent him flying through a nearby window. The Lieutenant was knocked out before he hit the ground with a shattered jaw. Then, the bloody Uchiha turned slowly toward Glynda. He began stalking toward her slowly, in no hurry to reach her knowing by now she was basically helpless against him without her weapon.
She should have backed up to buy time, if only a few seconds. And yet despite her brain practically screaming the command her legs refused to budge. She was frozen again, every muscle in her body seemingly shut down out of shock and fear. Then, just as he approached within arm's reach of her, a flash of grey and dull red behind the Uchiha caught her attention. Flying toward him, scythe raised, was the battered but not yet defeated form of Qrow Branwen comfortably in the Uchiha's blind spot.
Her comrade swung with all of his strength, bringing Harbinger down in a swift arc to cleave the Uchiha's arm clean off. The Huntsman's attack, however, merely whiffed the air as his target, by some supernatural sense, sidestepped the weapon as it smashed a small hole into the asphalt. Realizing his attack had failed the Huntsman wasted no time in pulling his weapon out of the road and reorienting it parallel to the ground before he charged forward with another slashing attack. However, instead of retreating as most instinctively did at the sight of such a lethal attack the Uchiha stepped forward, placing himself inside the range of the swinging blade and blocking it with his burned and shredded forearms with the edge of the scythe an inch away from the back of his neck.
Glynda tore her eyes away from the ensuing melee, knowing full well she would need to find her weapon if she wanted to help her comrade. Thankfully this time her search was rewarded almost instantly now that most of the surrounding civilians had run off, and she wasted no time summoning her weapon back to its rightful place in her hand.
The Huntress began levitating and aiming pieces of masonry and asphalt not a moment too soon. While he had been unable to disarm Qrow, the Uchiha had managed to smash him into a nearby wall and was currently crushing his windpipe with the scythe's long handle. The choking and sputtering Huntsman was trying to lift the weapon off him with all of his might, but a sharp headbutt straight to Qrow's forehead powerful enough to leave an indent in the wall behind him was enough to force the Huntsman to cease his attempts to escape.
Glynda ignored the pounding of her own heart and took as little time as she dared to make sure her attack would land true- Qrow was far closer to her target than she would have liked, and with his superhuman eyesight the Uchiha was sure to notice any attack coming from the edge of his vision. Manipulating several cinder blocks above and behind the Uchiha in his blind spot, she launched them straight at his legs at a downward angle that would not strike Qrow if she missed.
The missiles flew true, but just as they were about to crash into his calves Sasuke jumped up, using Harbinger's handle as leverage to hoist himself over Qrow and land with a crouch on the wall above him. Before Qrow could even realize his airway was no longer shut Sasuke used the wall as a springboard to jump straight down on the unsuspecting Huntsman with the speed and force of a cannon. Driving his knee as hard as he could into the back of Qrow's head the Huntsman was smashed into the ground face-first with so much force the street was adorned with an impact crater large enough for a grown man to comfortably lie in.
Glynda did not need to see Qrow's Aura crackle and evaporate as Sasuke was planting his face into the ground to know her comrade was finished. As the Uchiha tossed his body aside, for a brief moment she believed he had been killed. Qrow's nose had been mashed and flattened into a bloody mosaic beyond recognition, and half of the skin on his face had been scraped off on the road. Blood poured from his face to turn his entire visage into a sea of red, save for a few spots of white from several teeth that had been knocked out. It was only as his body came to rest on the edge of the curb that she could see the weak rise and fall of his chest.
Qrow was alive, if only just. And now she stood alone.
With fear gripping her chest with its icy tentacles Glynda began whipping Disciplinarian in a flurried frenzy. Rubble, a motorcycle, a dumpster, anything that she could find not nailed to the ground or too heavy to lift began flying at and around the Uchiha in a chaotic tornado. Contrary to the remaining civilians, who all fled as they saw the maelstrom of flying debris, her target was undeterred. He merely stole Harbinger from his defeated foe and either sliced incoming objects clean in two before they could hit or used it as a blunt tool to bat aside everything else as he maneuvered his way toward her. Despite the attacks sent his way, of all sizes, at all speeds, and at almost all angles, the Uchiha deftly dodged or swatted aside every last one, wielding his stolen scythe with every bit as much expertise and skill as its true owner.
'Damn it, damn it, damn it!' Glynda cursed to herself, 'How is he avoiding all of this!? Even with his Sharingan he still shouldn't be able to see anything behind him, Ozpin specifically said his eyes could not do that! So how the hell is he dodging every attack from his blind spot?'
Across from the desperate Huntress, Sasuke made his way over to his final adversary with as much speed as his almost crippled body would allow. He swung Qrow's scythe around him as if it were an object orbiting him at lightning speed, spinning it in his hand to build and keep enough momentum to smash or slice anything that came close. All the while he jumped and dashed forward at every opportunity, taking care to never break eye contact with the blonde Huntress. Not that he had her under Genjutsu (though he was really missing being able to do that right now), but the fact he could see Glynda's eyes was the only reason he could counter all of her attacks.
Anyone who knew anything about the Uchiha's dojutsu would come to two reasonable conclusions about how to successfully fight them. One was to not look them in the eye and give them a chance to cast a Genjutsu, the other was to try and flank them and attack from behind where their godlike vision was utterly useless. Both of these strategies were perfectly viable, and foes who heeded them had far better odds of coming out of a fight with Uchiha alive. That being said these ideas were so obvious that the Uchiha clan had been able to come up with several counters in their centuries of existence. One of which Sasuke was using at that very moment.
The technique had no name and was not even written down on any scroll, passed down in the clan purely by word of mouth. It was one of the few Clan secrets his Father had taught him before he was murdered.
The principle was insanely simple. It was true that the Sharingan did not give its user a full 360-degree view as the Byakuyan did could not see anything behind the user. But it did give its user sharp vision. VERY sharp vision. Sharp enough to see objects at the cellular level, and also sharp enough to see the reflection of the surrounding area in the reflection in the eyes of someone standing up to twenty yards away. It was essentially like looking in a tiny mirror, and even if the person's eyes were cast slightly down to avoid being caught in Genjutsu there was usually just enough of their eye visible to have something to work with. It was tricky to use, requiring the user to stay relatively close to and in front of their foe, but it had saved the lives of many Uchiha over the years.
And so Sasuke advanced forward through the maelstrom of debris the frantic Huntress sent his way, slowly but surely making his way to her.
Had Glynda been calm enough to suppress enough of her fear she would be conducting a retreat now, slowly backing up as she continued attempting to pelt him with her missiles to buy at least some extra time. Fortunately for him she was standing her ground, whipping her crop around her in ever-more rapid and sloppy motions. A curious observation, but whether she had overlooked such an obvious strategy out of sheer panic or was simply forced to divert too much of her mental focus properly manipulating and aiming so many objects simultaneously, Sasuke could not have cared less. He was less than ten feet away from her, and in a few seconds he would be done with this whole damn mess.
Then, in a split second, Glynda's eyes widened in surprise, before changing to recognition. And in the woman's eyes he saw why- an enormous blade, about as long as he was tall and an unusual copper color, bearing down on him from behind.
He leapt out of the way just in time. The sword did not strike the ground- it excavated it. An enormous crater, far larger than the one he had made with Qrow's face, now spanned across the entire street.
At least he had landed next to his Kusanagi, which he promptly picked up after discarding Qrow's monstrosity of a blade before turning around to assess his new situation.
'Holy shit…'
That level of physical strength was nothing to scoff at- even by his standards. It was still a step below Stonewall, but in his current condition that was hardly a blessing.
He took a moment to glance over his attacker. He was big. A little taller than Junior, actually. But despite his size he was relatively young, probably only a few years older than he was, and his head was adorned with very short, shaved black hair. At that instant another person landed right next to Glynda, standing beside her with an intense look of worry on her face. The other newcomer was a brown-haired female of normal stature, but if the Uchiha had not seen Aura coating her body with his own eyes he would have never guessed she was a Huntress. While her companion had brought a rather obvious weapon, she had nothing other than what appeared to be a fairly large camera strapped to her belt.
Internally the Uchiha could feel his rage growing by the second. It was bad enough that his rightful victory had been snatched away from him once again, but the real icing on the cake was the fact that neither of these newcomers had been called in as reinforcements. Rather than armor or really any form of proper attire, both were wearing loose-fitting joggers as well as sweatbands on their heads.
They had been out early-morning running. Which meant Sasuke had two more fresh enemies due to sheer dumb luck.
It was the last thing he needed- the Uchiha could tell his body was just about spent. He couldn't feel his injured leg anymore at all, and the pain that racked every other inch of his body was beginning to be replaced with a numbness that could only come from anemic shock. It was taking him conscious effort to simply stand and walk at this point- if the fight dragged on much longer he was simply going to drop.
One way or another he had to finish this now.
"Professor Goodwitch, are you alright!?" the girl asked in a half-fearful, half-concerned voice that had an unfamiliar accent as she reached her hand over to steady the blonde by the shoulder.
"Don't concern yourself with me Velvet," the Huntress panted, not taking her eyes off the Uchiha for a moment. "We still need to bring our enemy down!"
At that he was the focus of all three of their gazes, though only Glynda's showed any serious semblance of apprehension. On seeing his bloody and beaten appearance, the swordsman took a small step back with an expression of remorse that he had tried to kill someone that appeared to be so close to death already. And Velvet, despite her sharp intake of breath in shock at his condition, had the gall to raise her camera and take a picture of him, of all fucking things.
'What the hell does this girl think this is, a trip to the zoo?!'
"And don't either one of you dare hold back!" the blond Huntress exclaimed, sensing the hesitation from her reinforcements. "It doesn't matter if we kill him or if we die in the attempt- we have to defeat him now!"
At this both newcomer's heads snapped at the Huntress in incredulous shock, scarcely comprehending Glynda's desperation or the lengths she all but ordered them to go to assure victory over this enemy.
The Uchiha merely narrowed his eyes. 'I guess she changed her mind about taking me alive' he concluded. 'That's fine with me. I have a reason to not pull my punches now'
"A-are you sure Professor?" the meek girl asked in confusion as she put her camera away, her hands beginning to sweat now that she was beginning to understand the depth of the situation they had walked into. "Now that me and Yatsuhashi are here I'm sure he would be willing to surrender peacefully!"
At this the Uchiha couldn't help but let out an almost silent huff of amusement that was only heard by the rabbit-eared Faunus.
It was the only warning he would give them.
With a mere thought, a small flex of his chakra, Kusanagi was lit by mesmerizing pale blue lightning that danced along the entire length of the blade and the street resonated with the chirping of a thousand birds.
Despite the fact that both Velvet and Yatsuhashi possessed Aura and were certainly Hunters in training considering they had addresses Glynda as 'Professor", by Sasuke's standards they were as green as they came. No one with the slightest sprinkle of battle experience would have dared take their eyes off a known enemy that a senior comrade had deemed a threat.
It was a mistake that cost Yatsuhashi both his weapon and the arm that held it. Before he could so much as turn around to identify the unfamiliar sound his weapon had been cut clean in two a foot above the handle. The next instant Kusanagi sliced through his arm several inches below the elbow, cutting through his Aura as though it were nothing more than tissue paper and sending his dismembered arm falling to the ground along with the fragment of the massive sword still in its grip.
"YATSU!"
Yatsuhashi had no time to cry out in shock as Velvet had as he gazed upon his new stump in utter disbelief, merely watching with a white face and trembling jaw as he beheld his own blood squirting onto the destroyed asphalt. Then the Uchiha leapt into the air directly in front of him and planted both feet squarely on the now single-armed man's face. With all the force he could still muster the Uchiha used him as a springboard to launch himself directly at Glynda and Velvet, and sent Yatsuhashi flying into the wall of a nearby building.
Sasuke did not bother giving Velvet so much as a second thought as he zeroed in on his last remaining adversaries. The girl had no weapon on her he could see, and even if she had she was hardly in the mental state to fight. Her rabbit ears were flattened in abject terror, her eyes wide and pupils dilated as the Sharingan saw every muscle in her body begin to tremble. Whatever her talents were she was no fighter right now- she was a deer in the headlights who was out of her league.
That left Glynda as the only remaining threat. She had begun whipping her crop before Yatsuhashi's arm had even hit the ground, summoning a large piece of the fractured road to her side and sending it straight at him at the highest speed she could manage. With his Chidori Blade humming in his grasp, the car-sized fragment of asphalt and concrete may as well have been a mosquito. The clumsy missile was bisected with a single swing with effortless ease before he landed a foot away from the blonde Huntress.
There was no time for her to think, or to summon another piece of debris that would have been swatted aside every bit as easily. With a simple upward swing Glynda suffered the same fate as her student as her arm and the weapon it held was cut off mid-bicep, the now useless hunk of flesh twitching and bleeding on the destroyed street.
Glynda could have looked at her bleeding stump and screamed in panic. Or look to see her detached arm in the street and jump over in a desperate attempt to use her remaining arm for her Telekinesis. Instead she did neither of those things. She just looked at the Uchiha next to her, the fear in her orbs now accompanied by despair and bitter acceptance.
It wasn't just the fact that Sasuke had won that made Glynda feel her heart fill with dread. That technique, the lightning that adorned his blade that made any protective Aura utterly worthless and had defeated both herself and Yatsuhashi in literal seconds, was something he could have pulled out earlier at any time he had wanted.
Even at near-death, he had been playing with them.
She shuddered at the thought of what he would become once he was healed and at full-strength.
The Huntress gazed up at the Uchiha, looming over her as though he were a monster. His Sharingan spinning almost hypnotically, he drew his lightning-coated sword back for one final strike; one that given the position of his arm could only be straight through her neck.
This was it. She was going to die here.
She stood motionless, accepting her fate, as Sasuke swung his sword at her. Glynda briefly pondered her life- her triumphs, regrets, and everything in between, when a moment before his sword made contact she noticed something odd. He wasn't aiming for her neck; rather, the blade was moving straight toward her temple. The blonde Huntress only had another moment to also question why the Uchiha had turned his sword so she would only be struck with the flat of the blade before her head was hit with what would have felt like a thunderbolt had she not instantly passed out.
The Uchiha watched with no small satisfaction as the now unconscious blonde Huntress was sent flying into the still frozen rabbit-eared girl at near supersonic speed, sending both crashing into and all but destroying the front edifice of a small bar. It had been too long- far too long, since he had felt his raw, unrestrained power flow through his fingertips. Despite the necessity of using kid gloves during his time on Remnant, he did not like hiding who he was or what he was capable of. In a perfect world, this was what should have happened at the damn start.
Utterly crushing any and all of his pitiful enemies with the most miniscule of efforts.
He had never gone out of his way to prove or showcase his strength, neither at the Academy nor during his time with the snake Sannin, but he had never shied away from using his power when he needed to. Whether he went all-out or not, everyone in all of Orochimaru's hideouts knew he was not to be trifled with.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
Well, it looked like Yatsuhashi was going to be adding his name to the list of those who were a bit slow to learn how outclassed they were.
"You're still here?" the Uchiha questioned, noting with some respect that despite his lack of weapon and limb the Huntsman-in-training was making no move to retreat. "I would have thought you would have tried to flee with your teammate by now. Do you really intend to fight me in your current state?"
"No," he spat, looking at Sasuke with defiant rage. "I intend to win!"
The Uchiha only needed to take a cursory glance at the one-armed man to realize he was not making a mere boast or emotional-driven bluff. Beneath the fury and determination of Yatsuhashi's face was a hard conviction that the Uchiha knew he would be foolish to ignore.
The very next instant the Aura surrounding Yatsuhashi's head practically erupted in activity- the life energy coiling and dancing around his skull as the man fixed the Uchiha with a gaze so intense Sasuke was actually mildly impressed. His enemy stared straight into his eyes without fear, his fury slightly diluted with a focus so intense it almost appeared as though he were trying to set the Uchiha on fire with his mind.
Which actually wasn't too far off.
"WIPE!"
With a shout, Yatsuhashi's volatile Aura was suddenly drilling into the Uchiha's head, the energy snaking its way through his brain like a parasitic fungus. For the briefest of moments the Uchiha was paralyzed- not by the attack, but by his own surprise. The energy used may have been different, but Sasuke could never mistake the basic technique his enemy was using.
'Genjutsu!?'
Well, not Genjutsu as he knew it. It was using the Yang Chakra from Yatsuhashi's Aura instead of Yin Chakra that was standard in the Elemental Nations, but other than that it seemed as though the step-by-step process was similar enough.
It was a shock to be sure. Illusionary Semblances were incredibly rare from what he had gathered, and in the event he battled a Hunter with such an ability he had assumed it would bounce off his alien Chakra network as readily as his own Genjutsu had when he had first tried it on Ruby. He was discovering first-hand that this assumption was not the case as Yatsuhashi's Aura wormed its way through his mind, and the young Huntsman-in-training himself was showing no signs of excessive effort or distress from his Semblance not working on the Uchiha's Chakra as it should.
And that was fine with Sasuke. He would mentally shelve the 'how's' and 'why's' of the nature of Aura and Chakra interaction and ponder them at a later time. What he knew right now was that if Yatsuhashi's Aura could successfully interact with his Chakra, then his Chakra was just as capable of shutting this attack down.
With the speed of a supercomputer and the precision of a surgeon the Uchiha analyzed the attack.
A split-second later he came to the conclusion that there was nothing Aura could do that Chakra could not do better. Contrary to the Genjutsu Shinobi utilized that took effect in the literal blink of an eye this one was painfully slow, working its way through his brain at a pace that was more akin to a turtle marching through a puddle of molasses in comparison. It's hold on his mind was even more pathetic. A good Genjutsu was cast with at least one method of preventing the target from shaking it off; but Yatsuhashi's Semblance was simply moving through his head without forming any mental anchors in his brain or attempting to bind with its host to ensure it was not removed.
Judging from what areas the attack seemed to be targeting, both his prefrontal cortex and his Hippocampus, the technique was likely one that modified or possibly erased memory. On this the Uchiha had to give the ability some respect- if this Semblance was capable of even modest memory alteration it would be terrifyingly powerful.
It was too bad for Yatsuhashi he was up against the one opponent on Remnant such a technique had no chance of working on.
In an instant, with both fluid and peerless skill earned from countless hours of mental training to resist Genjutsu literally orders of magnitude more powerful than this joke of an attack and with the sharp instincts born from the bloodline that ran through his veins, the invading Aura was frozen in its tracks like a fly in syrup.
The Uchiha couldn't keep a smirk off his face as Yatsuhashi's determination and rage was wiped away with stupor and disbelief as his trump card was blocked as easily as a punch from a three-year-old.
With practiced ease Sasuke's chakra isolated and shredded the deepest-penetrating shreds of Aura in his mind with surgical precision, but deliberately leaving the remaining Aura intact and merely forcing it to retreat. He could have simply annihilated all of the foreign life energy attempting to violate his mind with ease, similar to the standard Genjutsu Release he had used to break out of Glynda's telekinetic grasp earlier, but that method was for amateurs. He was an Uchiha- and was capable of a far better counter.
With a bit of effort, he managed to infuse a small piece of his chakra into the offending probe. It was difficult, like trying to push a bubble of air to the bottom of a glass of water, but it seemed that his previous assumption that his Chakra and the Aura of Hunters were fundamentally incompatible was wrong. It was difficult, the two energies trying to slide off of each other like oil and water, but with enough focus and precision the two life energies could interact with each other.
"A mental attack, huh?" the Uchiha remarked rhetorically with a small huff of amusement. "Allow me to show you how it's done."
Then, Sasuke reflected the attack.
In that moment, Yatsuhashi knew what it was like to be raped.
A foreign thing invaded his mind, battering down any and all defenses and barriers as it spread like a virus and defiled everything in its path. It made no attempt to intrude with any subtlety- it penetrated with the likeness of nails on a chalkboard, scraping through his mind as it rotted everything it touched. His puny defenses were breached with ease as the alien invader wormed its way deeper and deeper, spreading wider and wider, leaving behind a wasteland of sickened and tainted psyche in its wake. And through it all, Yatsuhashi screamed. He had no idea how much time had passed, whether he had suffered seconds, hours, or days as his mind was dismembered. He could not think, he could not see, he could not remember. All he knew was indescribable agony as venomous tentacles dissolved and seared their way through his head before flooding to the rest of his body, determined to leave no part of their victim untouched. It was only when he felt every cell of his body on fire, only when the invader had nothing left to violate and nothing left to spoil, that the unspeakable agony forced Yatsuhashi's mind to shut down and grant him the sweet release of darkness.
In the outside world the Uchiha looked on in utter indifference as Yatsuhashi first froze in place as he cast his reflected Genjutsu, then fell limply to the ground as though he were a puppet whose strings had been cut. Even before his back hit the street, the young Huntsman's face had twisted into a horrific expression of sheer terror and pain, his eyes rolled over white, his body sporadically twitching as his stump continued to bleed.
"YATSU!"
No longer hiding his irritation the Uchiha scowled as he rounded on his last enemy. The girl, Velvet he recalled, was staring at Yatsuhashi's body in undisguised terror and shock. Even as she emerged from the rubble she had been thrown into with Glynda, crawling on her hands and knees, the Uchiha could see her body trembling as she now realized she was alone.
'Come on girl' the Uchiha mentally pleaded. 'Just take your friends' bodies and leave!'
But Velvet didn't leave. Instead she turned to the Uchiha with a glare far more furious than he had thought she was capable. She was still trembling, still utterly terrified of him, but there was no mistaking the anger that now accompanied it.
"What did you do to Yatsuhashi!?"
Internally the Uchiha frowned. The girl's newly-discovered confrontational attitude was the last thing he needed right now.
"I merely reflected a mental attack he tried to use on me. Assuming you are his teammate, you probably know more about what just happened to him than I do."
The Uchiha's words brought no comfort to the terrified girl. Velvet knew full well what Yatsuhashi's Semblance was- Memory Wipe. The ability to wipe all of the memories of his target as far back as he chose. He used it extremely sparingly due to its invasive and deadly nature, but Velvet knew that no matter how far Yatsuhashi had decided to take his Semblance against this new enemy, there was no reason he should have lost consciousness. Every other target had simply shaken their head in confusion, wondering how they had arrived at their current location.
"You- you're lying! You did something else to him, I know it!"
Sasuke couldn't help but clench his teeth in frustration. It seemed everyone wanted to do things the hard way tonight. There was little point in trying to negotiate tactfully now, but perhaps pushing a bit on her terror of him and her fear of losing her comrades would be enough to persuade her to retreat.
"Even if I did, what are you going to do about it?" he asked in a challenging tone.
Velvet shrank back at his words, her rabbit ears flattening in submission and her skin whitening as she suddenly recalled the position she was in. She was against the most terrifying enemy she had ever laid eyes on, who had cut through both Yatsuhashi and Glynda in the blink of an eye seemingly without effort- and she was alone.
"You have a decision to make, girl" the Uchiha stated pitilessly. "I've had enough fighting for one day, and I am going to leave. You can try to stop me by yourself and suffer the same fate as your friends. Or you can let me go, allow me to leave peacefully, and attempt to stop your comrades from bleeding out without delay."
The Uchiha gave pause after his last word, letting the girl digest her options for a few moments. She first looked at the Uchiha with eyes wide in surprise, not having expected him to offer her a way out. Her gaze was then directed at Yatsuhashi and Glynda, both lying motionless on the ground save for the minute motions of their chests as they breathed weakly and the slowing but still steady flow of blood from their new stumps.
The girl then dropped her head, weakly staring at the ground beneath her. Moments later the trembling in her body became so severe that from afar one would have thought the girl was having a full-blown seizure, her limbs shaking so violently the Uchiha was amazed that even on all fours the girl didn't collapse. Then, through a curtain of brown hair, the Uchiha saw a single tear fall. Followed by another, and another, and another.
The girl slowly rose, almost falling over as she struggled to hold her legs in place though their violent convulsions, before she raised her head to look him straight in the eye. Her face was so white the Uchiha would have sworn he were looking at a corpse that had been bled dry instead of a still-living human whose heart was still beating. Tears were streaking down her face in a river, the skin around her eyes and nose already turning red and puffy, her ears flattened as far back as they could go.
She was terrified- utterly terrified of him. And yet despite all of her instincts that he knew were screaming at her to run, to give in, it was impossible to miss the steely resolution and smoldering determination in her eyes.
The Uchiha knew what her answer was going to be before she uttered a word.
"I-… I ca-… I can't let you escape!"
The Uchiha was far more skilled at hiding his surprise than Velvet had been earlier, but that didn't mean the girl's answer hadn't thrown him for a loop. Everything he had observed about the girl, her fear, her meekness, the way she seemingly instinctively stood behind Glynda, she was the last person he had thought would turn down a chance to quit while she was ahead.
There was a pregnant pause as they stared each other down, neither of them averting their gaze despite one of them desperately wanting to.
"You're going to fight me?" the Uchiha said, breaking the silence as he stared at her in bewilderment. "You would risk your comrades bleeding to death to fight me?"
He took a step forward, his Sharingan not missing how she had to forcefully stop herself from taking an instinctive step back in response.
"Why? You know you can't win."
Velvet's heart was pounding so hard now that Sasuke didn't even need the Sharingan to see her Jugular Vein throb with every beat.
"Y-you're right."
The girl's voice barely came out, being little more than a squeak when it reached the Uchiha's ears, but he heard it as if she had bellowed it from a megaphone.
"I c-can't beat you" she conceded. "I- I think I'm going to d-die here…"
Her face was glistening with tears now, her chest heaving as she began hyperventilating.
"I-I don't want to die… I w-want to save Y-Yatsuhashi and Professor Goodwitch… and I want to just run as far away from you as I can!"
She was practically shouting as she finished her confession, her voice echoing across the empty streets.
"B-but I won't!" She paused for a moment, gathering her courage. "P-Professor Goodwitch said be- before that we needed to defeat you even if we died trying! You- you're a threat to Vale, and if you escape you're just going to hurt more people! I- I won't let you leave!"
The Uchiha stared at the girl in stunned silence. Her conviction reminded him mildly of Naruto whenever he had made a boastful statement to an enemy it seemed he had no chance of defeating. But that was the difference between the two- Naruto had believed he could beat his enemies even if no one else did, but this girl was choosing to face him knowing she could not win.
There were no words the Uchiha could utter that could do justice to this girl's courage.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. What is yours?"
Velvet blinked for a moment, taken aback by the unusual question.
"W-what?"
"You heard me. What is your name?"
She looked at him in naked confusion, raising a single brow as she no doubt tried to think of why her enemy would care to ask.
"B-but you know it! You heard Professor Goodwitch call my name earlie-'
"I know Glynda said your name earlier, Velvet, and I don't care if she said it" he snapped. "I want to hear it from you."
Velvet widened her eyes in comprehension, scarcely believing her ears. She recognized what Sasuke was doing, what he was giving her, but she had only ever seen it happen to someone else. The way people looked, the way they spoke to Yatsuhashi, to Fox, and especially to Coco, she had seen it more times than she could count- yet it had never happened to her. Many people were certainly nice to her, though she had more than a few unpleasant encounters from more prejudiced individuals, but for the most part people were friendly with her, and those close to her loved her.
But that was just it- geniality was for the most part all they showed her. People stood up and cheered when Yatsuhashi won a practice match, for her they merely clapped. When Coco walked down the hall, everyone walking toward her practically threw themselves to the side to give her a wide enough berth, but they had little problem bumping shoulders with her.
That was what Velvet was used to- but today was different. For the first time in her life, by the strongest opponent she had ever faced no less, she was being given genuine, earned respect.
Nothing could erase the mountain of fear that Velvet still felt crushing her chest, knowing full well what was at stake. But despite the unfathomable weight mercilessly pressing down, it was powerless to stop her heart from swelling ever so slightly with gratitude and pride.
"Velvet. Velvet Scarlatina."
The Uchiha gave her a small nod of acknowledgement, a small part of him pleased that she managed to speak without a stutter this time.
"You've earned your title of Huntress, Velvet." He readied himself for their clash, holding out his now bloody Kusanagi. "I wish we could have met under better circumstances."
Inwardly Velvet could not have agreed more. She was happy he had acknowledged her, but was still well aware she was about to die. But at that moment her newfound pride was enough, just enough, to allow her rational mind to fight through her previous panic. There had been no plan in her head when she had refused to surrender to him earlier, but as she looked at him one formed in her mind. It was quite literally suicidal, and was far from guaranteed from working, but nothing else was going to take him down.
With significant effort did her best to suppress her fear before activating Anesidora, summoning a rather thin longsword of Hard Light Dust in her hands.
The weapon was rather interesting to the Uchiha, who despite having heard about it had never seen Hard Light Dust in action before. It was a surreal sight; the box strapped to Velvet's back literally projecting a weapon into the girl's hand made of solid energy. Hard Light was a very curious type of Dust with an incredible array of applications, but he had never thought someone would find a way to make it into an actual weapon. Still, it hardly mattered to him. It was easy to tell with his Sharingan that Velvet's sword had far less energy, and therefore far less power, than his Chidori Blade.
'She's hoping that I can't cut an energy-based weapon as easily as a solid object, and that her weapon's greater reach will let her avoid getting close enough for me to cut her'
Sasuke internally smirked. While it wasn't a bad idea per se to try a new tactic against an enemy that had defeated traditional attacks, this attempt was going to fail spectacularly. Compared to the power of his Lightning-Chakra enhanced sword her weapon may as well have been made of butter.
They stared at each other for a moment, knowing what was coming.
Then they charged.
Velvet's heart was racing as the distance between them closed. She was only going to get one chance to pull this off, and if he caught on to her plan it was game over.
Sasuke saw her approach, and just as expected, she began swinging her sword before he did, hoping to get a hit on him when she was out of his range. Her attack was coming from the left, and he raised Kusanagi, Lightning Chakra dancing on its skin with the music of chirping birds, ready to shatter her sword into countless fragments of light. Then, without warning, the Huntress planted her feet and slowed her speed, giving her just enough time to reverse her sword's direction and attack from his unguarded right.
Normally this would have been suicide, the longer length of her blade meant that it took longer to change the trajectory or to swing it than his much shorter weapon, but being made of Hard Light that was literally weightless meant that such a maneuver did have a chance of working- except against him. Despite the world starting to slow and blur from blood loss, despite being dead on his feet and his speed falling to levels that Sakura could have almost matched as a Genin, he was still more than quick enough to redirect Kusanagi to the new threat.
Except he didn't really need to stop her attack at all. Instead of swinging for his torso and forcing him to block, her weapon was aiming high, right at his head.
'Fool'
A hit to his head would be a finishing move no doubt, but the girl clearly didn't have enough combat experience to know that such an attack was usually only wise when the enemy was down or disarmed. Otherwise it was all too easy for an opponent to duck, let the attack pass harmlessly over their head, and counterattack with their own weapon on their over-extended and now unguarded enemy.
Which was exactly how Velvet's attempt played out.
The Uchiha crouched slightly and lowered his head, her Hard Light blade passing over him with inches to spare before springing up, grabbing Velvet's wrists holding her sword in his left hand. He had planned on cutting her dominant limb off as he had with her comrades, but she was too close for that to be an easy maneuver, and settled for using his right hand to thrust Kusanagi straight into her abdomen.
"Gah-!"
That was it. He had won.
There was no scream from her lips, only a loud gasp as the Lightning Chakra coursing through her body forced her lungs to expel their contents. He immediately ceased the flow of Chidori to his blade to preserve his Chakra as he slowly removed Kusanagi from her body, a new coat of blood added to that of Yatsuhashi and Glynda dripping from the metal. She looked up at him slowly, fear returning in force to her eyes as she realized what had just happened, and how close she was to entering Death's door. Even still there was an unmistakable hint of passive acceptance, as though she had known from the start this was how their battle would end.
"I admire your bravery, Velvet" he said calmly, relaxing his body and releasing her hands as her sword disappeared. "But bravery alone is not enough to win. I hope you remember that as you become a true Huntress."
Velvet fell to her knees, catching herself from falling further with one hand and instinctively covering her wound with the other, which quickly turned red with blood. She looked up at Sasuke, her face turning white from shock, unmistakable confusion etched onto it.
"Wh- what do you mean?" she whimpered. It almost appeared as though the girl was looking not just at him but past him, up at some higher deity as if praying for mercy and salvation.
Sasuke gave a small internal smirk. He was no God, but he would give her the answer she wanted all the same.
"I stabbed an area that is non-lethal with medical treatment," he explained, "you'll be unconscious in a few moments, but as long as an ambulance gets here in twenty minutes you should be fine."
Considering he could hear the wails of first response sirens approaching already, Velvet wouldn't have to wait for half that time. He watched with small amusement as her eyes lit up with both disbelief and relief that she would survive the day. Given the lengths Glynda had gone to ensure his defeat as well as what she had witnessed with her own eyes, him sparing her life was probably the last thing she expected.
"Th-thank you," said Velvet, her face almost as white as sheet paper, her stutter returning as her body began to shut down from shock.
She leaned back, no longer slightly hunched over the ground but sitting up to look the Uchiha straight in the face, her now free arm dangling at her side.
"I'll… I'll return the favor."
The Uchiha had barely comprehended her words- barely realized he needed to retreat, that he needed to back up now, before he felt the sharp sting of a blade impaling his stomach.
He did not gasp as Velvet did, he did not utter a sound. His mouth merely fell open and his eyes shot open in incredulous disbelief. Looking down, he saw the ultimate irony- a replica, a perfect Hard Light replica of his own Kusanagi blade embedded in his abdomen, courtesy of the photograph she had taken of him holding it earlier, in the exact same place he had stabbed Velvet.
With a start the Uchiha looked at her, and saw not the desperate relief of a last-ditch effort that by a miracle had managed to work, but the satisfied look of one who had managed to pull off a difficult maneuver.
It was no miscalculation on her part that he had stabbed Velvet- she had planned it! She had counted on it!
Suddenly all of Velvet's moves made sense. She had known from the start her Hard Light Weapons had no chance of blocking his attacks- so she had chosen an ideal weapon design from her box (of which it was now obvious there were many), that she knew not only he would be able to defeat, but she would be able to maneuver with it so he would be inclined to stab her instead of slicing off a limb as he had with Yatsuhashi and Glynda, allowing her to summon a shorter-ranged weapon when his guard was down that he had no chance of dodging or blocking. His weapon.
The Uchiha felt a swell of anger in his chest as the blade of light dissolved, blood flowing from his new wound that dripped to the destroyed street below. Part of him was furious with Velvet- the girl stealing his hard-fought victory right at the finish line, but most of his wrath was pointed at himself. He had committed two sins in the eyes of Shinobi- he had been overconfident, and he had been outwitted.
His fury evaporated as his fatigue, his blood loss, and his exhaustion finally caught up with him, landing on his knees squarely in front of the girl responsible for his defeat. They stared at each other for several moments, both holding their identical wounds leaking streams of red on their stomachs and legs to pool on the ground.
With no small amount of trepidation Velvet stole a fearful glance at the blade still in Sasuke's hand. They would black out in moments, but both knew if the Uchiha wanted to he could still end Velvet's life with a single stab of his sword before that happened.
A small part of him wanted to, wanted to gain some kind of gain from this humiliating loss, but a larger part relaxed his grip and let Kusanagi fall to the earth. Velvet had been under no obligation to give Sasuke the same non-lethal wound he had given her- she could have just as easily pierced his heart and killed him.
The world around both Sasuke and Velvet began to blur and shake as they both began to lose their grasp on the conscious world. But even as the ear-splitting wails of approaching Police and Ambulances were muted and muffled to such softness a passing mouse would have made more noise, Velvet heard the Uchiha's last words to her with perfect clarity.
"Not bad, Velvet."
Then, as one, they fell forward with eyes glazed over, both unconscious before their bodies landed on each other. The Paramedics that found them a minute later were treated to one of the rarest sights in battle- two enemies, fallen face-forward with neither of their upper bodies touching the ground, each propping the other up on their shoulder. To some it looked as though both combatants had simply given everything they had to win their battle, both collapsing from the sheer effort, neither able to bring the other down. To others it looked very different- two adversaries who had exhausted each other to the point of collapse, but who held too much respect for each other to let the other fall to the ground in defeat.
AN: As Author, I hereby nominate Velvet Scarletina for MVP of the chapter. Does anyone second that motion?
I hope all of you enjoyed the 'Sharingan Mirror' technique I had Sasuke use there. Another brilliant original idea from yours truly.
For those of you wondering why I nerfed Sasuke in this story- this chapter should give you the answer. When he gets serious, even a Genjutsu-less Hebi Sasuke is curbstomping anyone in the RWBY verse who is not Salem or a Maiden with no difficulty. The moment he whipped the Chidori out, Yatsuhashi and Glynda are mopped up in literal seconds.
Now, I have some very unfortunate news that most of you are probably going to hate. The consistent updates I have given for the past several chapters is unfortunately at an end. The only reason I have been able to provide reliable updates recently is because chapters 11-17 were all pre-written. This is unfortunately as far as I have gotten, so I'm afraid all of you will just have to wait until I've got the next one done.
Actually, I think I just might wait to post any new chapters until I have several on deck like I did with this batch. I don't think I'll be hoarding seven chapters again, I can tell you that was too much for me, but I might write two to four chapters at a time and post them all a week or two apart. It's a bit easier on me as a writer, as if I just post a single chapter at a time I feel like a hamster on a wheel and lose motivation because I feel like I can't reach the end fast enough. If I write my chapters in bunches, on the other hand, I've got a clearly defined short-term goal that isn't that far out of reach, and as readers you get several chapters posted fairly quickly one after the other.
That's almost certainly what I will be trying going forward, but I might change my mind if it doesn't work out as well as I thought.
Until next time! And as always, please review! It gives me motive!