Aftermath

I don't own solo leveling or Naruto

.

.

.

Sook snapped awake, his eyes scanning the spartan cell that he was trapped in with a slowly rising panic. This was exactly the situation that he'd been hoping to avoid. If he was here, then that meant he was right in that bastard's hands. Jumping to his feet he rushed to the steel bars keeping him caged in and grasped them with a vice grip.

"Come on!" He pleaded, trying desperately to pry the cell doors open. His eyes glowed a pale-yellow matching his golden teeth, his body swirled with mana as he grew in both size and muscle mass.

"You should stop that. It's a meaningless effort."

The Chief inspector, Woo Jinchul, appeared, tall and proud, arms folded with an unimpressed look. Momentary surprise took over the gangster before Sook glared venomous at the stoic man. "It's you!"

"Yeah." Jinchul was unbothered by his anger.

"Didn't I get through y'ere thick skull to not put me in a police station? That motherfucker Dal coulda gotten me killed at any time! Probably still can too…" Sook lamented, his mind in a spiral after just waking up.

However, Jinchul, still unbothered, merely raised an elegant brow, "Relax, you really think a police station jail can produce bars that even I would struggle to break?"

"So… I ain't in a police station right now?"

Jinchul eased his distress momentarily with a nod. "Although I find it interesting that you're an awakened being but not registered in any of our systems. You're listed as a normal citizen." His tone was no nonsense and serious. His frown gave a preview into his thoughts, and he was clearly unhappy with that development.

Sook scratched his head, leaning back on the rock-hard bed he'd awoken from. "No point in hiding it anymore aye? Yeah, I'm whatchu you'd call a false ranker, right? But that's not really correct. It's better to say that Imma unregistered hunter and I ain't the only one."

Jinchul didn't miss a beat, "Now, I'm intrigued. There's more of you?" he leaned in closer to the steel bars. "You're not really willing to give up this information with insurance, are you?" Although he asked, his tone was nothing but rhetorical. This brought a smirk onto Sook's, "Good job, you already know how this gon work out. Y'know starting to like ya, um… What's ya name again?"

"Woo Jinchul, Chief Inspector of the Hunters Association's Monitoring Division."

His smirk grew wider and wider until it turned into a full-blown shit-eating grin. "Man. I just keep gettin' luckier and luckier." He'd already suspected that this man was from the Association from the pin on his uniform he spotted that night, but to think he was someone of such high esteem in the organization.

'Though there's still something that's bothering me.' he frowned.

"You ain't had no reason to put me in 'ere. You coulda just dropped me at the police and been done with it. So why didn't ya?" His narrowed into slits.

The chief scoffed, pulling out a pair of metallic handcuffs from his pocket. "As if I have to explain myself to a low life like yourself. Turn down your gigantification spell and I'll take you to a room for questioning." Sook glared at the handcuffs, but he wasn't in any position to fight back or struggle. Although he needed to throw one comment to keep him on his toes, "It's just you escorting me? You don't even know my rank; I could overpower you."

"Fat chance of that ever happening. Now put the damn cuffs on." he ordered, tossing the cuffs into the cell. Sook reduced to his normal size, his gaze switched between the cuffs and Jincul beyond the cell door. 'Still locked, huh? Yeah, you're confident, but for sure ain't reckless. These cuffs must suppress magic power aye?' He jiggled the cuffs before slapping them on his wrists.

Once they were on taunt on his wrists Jinchul opened the cell and walked in to escort him to the interrogation room. All the while taking note of every corner and hallway they crossed to reach the dark room.

.

.

.

Sasuke still had sleep in his eyes, lying awake in the hospital's sheets. He wondered how long he'd been awake for or even how he got here in the first place. If he was being honest this was giving him too much deja vu, but at least this time he wasn't so bent out of shape.

He grasped his shoulder unconsciously, the memories of what that ugly bastard tree did to him resurfacing. 'Completely healed huh?' He sighed and closed his eyes. A lot of weird things were happening, and he didn't want to deal with them right now. "Just gonna sleep some more then I'll deal with it later." he said, yawning.

He didn't get a single moment; however, he heard the door to his room click open. His left eyebrow twitched at the noise, "Tch, who the hec- Cha? What are you doing here?" His tone questioning and eyes blinking stupid.

Cha Haein stepped in with her blonde hair flowing unlike during their training where she tied it up in a high ponytail. She carried a small bouquet of flowers in her hands while leaning against his door like she was hiding from someone. He noted the red cap in her other hand that she used to hide her identity from her growing fanbase.

A look of pure shock before it morphed into a relieved smile. "Sasuke, you're awake. I'm so glad," She walked over, placing the bouquet of flowers on his bedside table. Sasuke was suddenly in a vivid sense of deja vu thinking back to that other time with Sakura. A slight ache came to his head at that memory wondering why it was so hard to recall.

Cha Haein sat next to him on his bed, deliberating on the decision she was about to make. As master and student their relationship was naturally close, but if she was being honest besides Master Choi, she viewed Sasuke as a close friend. She shook her head set on her choice, breaching the gap between them to trap him in the biggest hug.

"Eh, what!?" he blushed. It was unexpected especially from her of all people and he initially tried to reject it and pull away but her embrace only tightened. There was a huge part of him that didn't want to acknowledge the warmth and comfort he found in the hug. However, he ended up unconsciously returning the hug. It seemed that part of him was overpowered by the small part of him that did.

'I'm glad too.' he said in his head.

She released him from her embrace which Sasuke was a little disappointed by but didn't outwardly display his displeasure.

"Hn, what was that for? It's totally weird coming from you." He grunted, not having the courage to face her until he was confident the heat from his cheeks had subsided.

"Well, you wouldn't know how worried we were. You've been out for 3 days and during that time you gave us a few jumpscares."

"Jumpscares?" Turning to face her.

She nodded. "You flatlined twice the second day and since then you've been on the hospital's life support machines because you were showing similar readings to Eternal slumber patients."

He widened his eyes briefly before he thought back to the two times he 'died' in that dark realm he was trapped in for what felt like the longest time. "...I'm sorry." He bowed his head, using his bangs to hide the water building up in his eyes. "It was really dark and I'm too sure yet, but…"

She cut him off by placing a hand on his head, much to his confusion. "It's nothing. What's important is that you're here with us and I couldn't be happier about that." She gave him a sincere smile, playfully patting his head causing him to slap it away in annoyance. However, Haein just smiled knowing that there was no real venom in his action.

"Where's Choi?" he asked, curiously. It wouldn't surprise him if he was busy at HQ toiling away at gate enlisting and scouting reports. Despite his lax and carefree persona, he was quite the dedicated and hard-working.

"He's working with the B-squad and the new recruits. It's been a busy 3 days for the guild, especially for him of all people, considering your… other condition." She explained, a cryptic delineation not unlike himself alluding to something that had him curious .

"Other condition?"

"He's going to come see you later today. It might be better if you hear it from him."

A faint smile came to her face. "He was really worried about you. He blamed himself for letting you go in there without him overseeing the raid."

"Hn."

Sasuke didn't really know what to say to that. He didn't like being coddled or looked after, he was an adult from the moment he became an official ninja, and he considered himself as such, but he wouldn't deny that he liked this warm feeling in his chest. He wanted more of it. Then he frowned facing forward at the image that brought him to that point— his own face reflecting from the pristine white wall. He still wasn't strong enough; he needed more power.

.

.

.

"So… Sook, what can you tell me about this Dal character? The one that's got you so terrified- terrified enough to reveal that you are an unregistered awakened being, which is illegal by the way." Jinchul questioned calmly, arms folded.

They were in a dark room with a singular light bulb shining down on the table that Sook was cuffed to while his magic power was being suppressed. Jinchul sat at an angle where the light shining down on him would increase his intimidation factor, but this didn't seem to work as the gangster sported a golden toothy grin the whole time.

"Oh well, before we get into allat I want something guaranteed first."

"Making demands already? Although that's to be expected. Out with it then."

"Full immunity for my complete cooperation and protection as well."

Unfazed Jinchul said, "Let me hear if your information is worth it then we'll see about getting you those assurances."

"Trust me, it'll be worth it." Although he was glad that his demands were being considered, he couldn't help the uneasiness that settled in his chest. He felt that this man's reaction was too lax.

"I'm ain't too sure if ya know since ya in the hunter space 'n all, but Dal is head of the biggest gang in the city. Ain't a soul in this city that knows that though, he's managed to keep his identity secret for the longest time. The guy's basically a ghost."

"A ghost, huh?" A certain spiky haired youth entered his mind at that thought.

"Yeah, and he's got connections all over. I mean damn near all the police are on his payroll, very few gangs can even stand up to him.They're basically ants to him and he got an even scarier secret. He's an unregistered awakener and even I'm not too sure but, he got 4 lieutenants that may be the same as him." Sook continued.

'Potentially 5 awakened beings have been running around under our damn noses this whole time? Assuming the worst case and it's not just this Dal character then they must be able to hide their magic power to be able to stay under the radar like this. That's concerning.' Jinchul thought, apprehensively. Dealing with someone who had awakened but unregistered to their databases was one thing. It would be simple to track them down and register them whilst issuing them with a charge for breaking the law, but one that could hide their magic power like a false ranker was an entirely different matter altogether. He wondered how long that's been going on and if there were to be more of them out there then how the Association would combat such an occurrence if it was happening country wide. Hunters were regulated for this very reason, a human with so much power on their fingertips, there's no way they wouldn't exercise it over others weaker than them.

"What's his game? It would be more profitable to be a hunter instead of whatever he's got going on."

Sook smirked, "I figured that too, but that ain't his game. After years in the background, he's tryna explode on the scene with a new hunter stimulate. I dunno what it's called, but it's real nasty busy and I hear its benefits are the greatest seen til now. He already got monopoly on the normal drug trade in the city, but it's the hunters he wants to control now, and I hear he aint too far off now."

"Drug trade? He's making a drug to improve a hunter's performance? Well he's not the first, what makes him so different?"

"I got it on pretty good grounds that it's gonna boost a hunter by over 20% of their normal combat power."

Jinchul slammed his hands on the desk, rising to his feet in shock, "Over 20%? That's ridiculous! If that's true, then that's on par with the upgrade that former Korean S-rank hunter Hwang Dongsoo was given by Norma Selna!"

Sook threw his head back in casual laughter, "Yeah, it's crazy. I almost got my hands on the doctor that was making the stuff too, but he took a swig of the stuff and went ballistic on us. Killed ma' inside man and damn near destroyed the whole warehouse, the damn lights were off fer' whole week on that block I heard."

"Warehouse?" Jinchul paused, the gears turning in his head as he tried to piece together this tidbit information. "That was you? All those months ago and the start of this case… It's all coming together." he muttered the last part to himself, but the gangster seemed to have caught it.

"Yeah, now ya know I'm worth the information, what's you say we go back to that demand of mine?"

"I'm taking you back to your cell. We'll talk again after we go over the information you gave us." He replied with finality.

This caused anger to spike from the detained.

"What!? Quit playin you bastard! We had a deal" He tried to pry himself from the table but the cuffs managed to hold him in place somewhat. Wisps of his aura flared furiously but Jinchul remained unbothered. "I don't remember agreeing to those demands. I specifically told you that we'll review your information to determine if your demands are worth it, that's all."

Jinchul towered over him, flexing his aura, "Now, are you gonna go quietly or kicking and screaming?" He raised a simple brow in warning.

Sook shot him a furious glare not once thinking about backing down, desperately trying to increase his own aura, "I want a lawyer."

"Sorry, but things work a little differently here. You're in custody of the Hunters Association and we don't play by those rules. Unless you want your bogeyman to come find you?"

Sook remained defiant for a few moments before letting out a huff and sinking back into his seat. "Good." Jinchul intoned, undoing the cuffs on the table and then putting them back around his wrists. He was then led back to his cell without further resistance.

Jinchul left him without another second of acknowledgement, moving to the main offices of Association HQ all the way to the Chairman's office. He knocked on the door before he heard Chairman Go's booming voice granting him permission to enter.

He bowed to the old man who had his back turned to him gazing out the window, "Sir, I'm assuming you watched the interview. This Sook character said some very interesting things, didn't he?"

"Yes, very much so. It seems another problem has gone up on our list of priorities." Go turned to his subordinate. "Well done, Chief Woo. Although I will say that it was quite reckless of you to detain a civilian without any grounds like you did. If he didn't turn out to be an unregistered awakener you could have gotten us into some trouble. How unlike you."

"Ah, yes, it was certainly fortunate things turned out that way. I don't like relying on my gut feelings, it presents me with too many unknowns in the future."

"No, it's good. Trust your instincts, they will serve you well in the future, young man." Go sported that kind grandfatherly smile giving him an encouraging squeeze on the shoulder.

"What of Hunter Uchiha then, sir? His whereabouts are still unknown to us."

"It's okay." Go leaned back in his chair after taking a seat. "Choi Jongin cannot keep him hidden forever and when we do become aware of him then we will talk."

.

.

.

It was difficult to tell unless one would strain their ears, but from the storage facility near the Yeouido dock they would be able to hear rough banging noises like iron being hammered into shape. However, when peering inside the storage facility with monster corpses strung up on hooks like sacks of meat in a butchery, a sterile white infirmary in the corner of the facility, a main laboratory section that held 4 distinct pods that could hold human bodies, and finally a huge gladiator-like pit going 5 meters down in the centre where a battle was currently taking place. This being the source of the loud noises. 

"What the hell? Do better!" A tall, intimidating, brolick man berated the smaller man he had in his grasp. The unfortunate individual desperately struggled to break free from him, however the bigger man didn't seem to care as he craned his neck up to engage in casual conversation with a person overlooking them. "Come on doctor! Are any of your experiments gonna be worth me being here? What's this? The 5th one? I mean at least they don't turn into mush like the 20 previous." The man was bald with slightly unkempt facial hair and brown beady eyes. He leaped up from the pit all the way to the doctor's level who had been watching the fight from a safe distance.

"Well, they are hunters as opposed to normal humans so it makes sense they wouldn't implode from the drug entering their system. Also, D-rank hunters shouldn't mean much to you, Mr. Han Daijo. You're very strong" Minjae said, scribbling down on his clipboard.

Daijo smirked, "Trying to stroke my ego, doctor? It might do you the world of good, it doesn't feel like I'm fighting normal D-ranks. The drug must be working."

He slammed the Courage guild hunter into the far wall. His aura disappeared as the poor hunter slumped into unconsciousness.

Dr. Minjae let out a sigh when he saw the wall being dented due to the man's carelessness. 

"By the way what's up with the claws and teeth on that guy? Did he have some kind of magic beast transformation ability?"

Minjae shook his head. "No. It just seems to be the effect of the drug. Likely because the source of the drug is the mana and the flesh of magic beasts being blended together." he replied, paging back on his many notes on the clipboard.

The giant of a man just waved his hand dismissively, "Whatever it is it's doing its job. How long until it can hit the streets?"

"Mr. Dal said in the next few days the timeline for the first batch is moving along swimmingly. I must say that this partnership you formed with the Courage guild 2 months ago has certainly been a great help for me to accelerate the progress of the formula. Being able to experiment on actual hunters instead of normal civilians has given me a greater understanding of how the foreign mana would interact with the human vessel. Although I'm sorry that some poor souls had to be sacrificed." He closed his eyes in silent prayer.

Daijo, unsurprisingly, was much more dismissive about the loss of life. "Yeah, yeah, it doesn't matter; those guys were messing up our operations and owed us money, especially my faction of town." He folded his arms, taking a seat on the nearby railing.

Being one of the four lieutenants of Dal, Daijo was given a lot of influence and power throughout the city's underbelly. This meant that he was in charge of managing major parts of Dal's empire which spanned the whole city.

"As you know good doctor the city is sliced up into 4 major spheres of influence," He held up 4 fingers for emphasis, "Dal bestowed each of us lieutenants with a slice of the cake that each had to manage and control, however, he's been on my ass lately about this troublesome worm that's been tearing up key cache storages for our guns and other supplies in my sphere. One of my captains almost gunned him down the other day too, but he got away and they all ended up being locked up." He sighed like a spoiled, petulant child that just was told no by his parents.

"I heard about the shooting 3 days ago. So that was you guys?" Minjae commented absentmindedly, digging through the cabinet for something.

"Yeah. It honestly shouldn't really be that much of a bother except for the fact that the person that called for the police was the Chief of the Hunter's Association Monitoring Division Woo Jinchul. We gotta just hope he hasn't suspected anything or things might go slowly for us if the Association catches on too quickly."

Minjae placed the apparatus he was searching for on the desk, "I wouldn't worry. Even if they do catch on there's no way they'll know about where the drug is being produced or coming from right?"

"Right you are doctor! I gotta say I'm liking you more and more." He smirked.

After that he stuck around for a few more hours as Minjae continued to work on perfecting the serum. They talked about various other details related to the serum like how it actually worked to boost a hunter's capabilities until Daijo had to leave.

.

.

.

Sasuke snorted, rolling his eyes. "You're as annoying as ever. I was wondering when you'd show."

Choi Jongin slanted through the door with a whimsical expression. "Sorry, I'm a pretty busy guy these days, Sasuke, but I'm glad to see you're awake. You had me worried."

.

.

.

.

Hopefully getting this out will kick my ass into gear :(

Btw what's your favorite Ben 10 character, currently rewatching the series. (Mine's gotta be Grandpa Max or Ben himself)