radicalducati Chapter 2 First Encounter with Sasuke
Chapter 2 First Encounter with Sasuke
"Bang, bang—" The sound of kunai hitting the target echoed in the quiet forest.
Sasuke only stopped after he had used up all the kunai and shuriken. His slightly out-of-breath breathing and trembling hands were enough to prove that he had been training alone there for a long time.
Despite hitting the bullseye almost every time, Sasuke's face didn't show any joy despite his excellent performance.
"This is child's play for that man," Sasuke thought through gritted teeth.
After resting for a short while, Sasuke walked to the target, reached out and pulled the kunai off the target, preparing to continue his training.
Just as Sasuke pulled a kunai from the center of the target, a voice suddenly came from Sasuke's right side.
"Are you practicing throwing?" The voice was soft and indifferent, with a hint of doubt in it. There was nothing wrong with it; in fact, the voice was quite pleasant. The only difference was that Sasuke hadn't noticed anyone nearby until the owner of the voice spoke.
"Who is it!" Sasuke, who hadn't noticed anyone nearby, was startled and instinctively shot the kunai in his hand toward the direction from which the voice came.
As soon as the kunai left his hand, Sasuke realized that he might have overreacted and caused accidental injury. He quickly turned his head and saw a black-haired, black-eyed boy tilting his head slightly as the kunai grazed past the boy's ear.
Seeing that no one had been hurt, Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief, then sharply scrutinized the unfamiliar boy before him. He bluntly demanded, "Who are you? When did you get here?"
Even though he hadn't consciously sensed anything because of his cultivation, Sasuke still couldn't believe that the person in front of him, who hadn't revealed a single trace of aura, had simply happened to pass by.
Looking up, there stood Jelf, who had come over after hearing the commotion, and Mavis in his arms.
Sasuke looked at the boy in front of him and the girl with long, golden hair that was rare among ninjas in his arms with a puzzled expression. After thinking carefully, he realized that he had never seen these two in Konoha before.
While Konoha isn't small, it's not that big either. Besides, judging from the boy's ease in dodging the kunai, his opponent must also be a ninja.
Unfamiliar ninjas? Sasuke glanced at the boy's forehead, which wasn't covered by a ninja headband, and his expression gradually turned serious. He took out another kunai and held it horizontally in front of him, coldly questioning, "Who are you? Ninjas from another village?"
Zeref looked at Sasuke, who was standing opposite him like a hedgehog with its body bristling with sharp spines, and then glanced at Mavis, who was still unconscious in his arms. After a moment of thought, he looked up and said, "Let's make a deal."
Sasuke glared at Zeref, who had blurted out something as nonsensical as "Let's make a deal," and sneered, "What nonsense are you spouting? If you don't tell the truth, don't blame me for being impolite..."
"You really want to get stronger, don't you?" Zeref said, looking directly into Sasuke's eyes. It wasn't a question, but a statement of certainty. The moment he saw the look in Sasuke's eyes, Zeref knew it.
Over the past four hundred years, he had encountered many people who pursued power, and Zeref was all too familiar with that look of yearning for power.
However, as Zeref watched Sasuke's eyes slowly widen, he continued to think, but Sasuke's eyes held a greater sense of hatred than those of the people he had encountered before.
"So let's make a deal. I can help you become stronger. In exchange, you just need to take us in temporarily and introduce us to some basic information about this place," Jelf said slowly and deliberately, stating his terms.
Sasuke frowned, not because Zeref's conditions were harsh; on the contrary, Zeref's conditions were very lenient, even something anyone could do, except for the fact that the other party's identity was unknown.
Because the request was so simplistic, even a real spy wouldn't make such a childish demand, Sasuke became even more wary.
With the kunai still in his hand, Sasuke said coldly, "Why should I believe you can help me become stronger?"
When Sasuke stopped asking about his identity and instead asked this question, Zeref knew that the deal had been made.
Zeref's magical energy surged, and in the next instant, Sasuke, who was standing there, instantly felt an immense pressure enveloping him.
Before he could even react, his entire body was crushed and forced to the ground.
Feeling immense pressure on himself, unable to even move a finger, Sasuke was initially ashamed and indignant at his weakness. However, as his reason returned, his eyes grew brighter and brighter.
A moment later, sensing that the pressure enveloping him had instantly disappeared, Sasuke immediately stood up again.
He looked at Zeref with burning eyes and said, "Fine! In return, I want you to teach me that ninjutsu I just used!"
Jelf slightly curled the corners of his lips and said, "Deal."
..........
As Sasuke led Zeref and Mavis into the village, he glanced at Zeref and the girl in his arms, and said with a sneer, "Even if I agree to take you in, your identities are unknown. I'll probably be arrested by the Anbu as soon as we get to the village. Let's make it clear beforehand: even if you're discovered and arrested, you have to teach me that gravity magic first!"
"Anbu? Is that the Anbu that's directly under the Hokage?" Zeref asked with great interest.
Seeing Zeref's nonchalant demeanor, Sasuke was somewhat speechless at the other's apparent lack of awareness of the seriousness of being captured, and retorted, "So where exactly did you come from? You don't even know Konoha, the Hokage, or the Anbu."
On the way, Sasuke kept his promise and told Zeref about Konoha. He was shocked to find that Zeref seemed to know nothing about Konoha or the ninja world.
Upon hearing Sasuke's question, Zeref silently thought to himself, "Perhaps he comes from another world."
Indeed, based on the information he had just obtained from Sasuke, Zeref made a bold guess: he and Mavis are now in a completely different world, a world with only ninjas and chakra, but no mages and magic!
Although this conjecture seems incredible, it's not hard to conclude that this is another world for Zeref, who has traveled around for four hundred years without ever hearing about the Five Great Nations or Konoha Village.