Consequences.

1 WEEK LATER

Sasuke was waiting, they had been doing a lot of that the past couple of days, one of the teams had pretended to be bandits stealing from a caravan passing through, now they were waiting for the Order to send someone after them

But finally, he saw something in the distance, it was a... single woman?

They were casually walking towards them, wearing a featureless white mask and donning a large cloak made of black feathers.

As the masked woman closed the distance, Sasuke activated his Sharingan and signaled his temporary subordinates to get ready to attack, drawing his sword.

Her Chakra looked strong to Sasuke, but nothing amazing, about as much as Sasuke himself.

But Sasuke kept his senses sharp, Orochimaru thought they did not have any Jōnin level threats besides Zabuza Momochi, but something about this whole situation made his instincts scream that there was danger.

Even if he had 4 Jōnin under his command, and she was outnumbered 11 to 1, some part of him was still tense.

As the masked woman closed the distance, Sasuke signaled for half of them to attack.

They rushed forward in a Shunshin, visible only to due to his Sharingan.

Two of them rushed at her, weapons in hand, while two others started casting a Genjutsu to scramble her senses, the fifth would be waiting in the back, ready to bury her in an Earth Jutsu once the other four distracted her.

It was the plan they developed for if they sent a single target.

It went wrong immediately.

The moment they left cover, the masked figure raised their hand into the air and pointed upwards.

"Up." She spoke simply, and the four Shinobi got yanked upwards into the sky.

Then she lowered her hand and pointed towards the ground.

"Down."

All of them plummeted to the ground at speeds far beyond what a normal fall could produce. Only one managed to right himself, before they all hit the ground with a deafening boom.

Four craters were formed, his Sharingan captured every detail, the three that didn't manage to orient themselves were flattened on impact, blood flowing from under them. The last survivor's legs had shattered, and he was attempting to drag himself out of the crater with his arms.

But the woman ignored the survivor, instead looking at his group.

"As a Templar of the Order, I must give you this warning: Cease all hostilities immediately and submit to interrogation or be executed as enemies." She stated flatly. "Any attempts of retreat will also be interpreted as hostility."

Her voice was devoid of emotion, not a hint of anything beyond neutrality.

Sasuke wasn't dumb, this person was clearly using some form of gravity manipulation, but the problem was that he could not see any Chakra involved in her ability.

This was bad, he thought that if he used his Cursed Seal, he would be able to survive her ability without injury, but that was assuming she had used the full strength of it.

The woman did not seem to mind waiting, standing there patiently while they discussed their strategy using Sign Language.

He was down 4 Chūnin, and it hadn't even been a minute. He signaled the remaining people in the team to attack from range.

Two of the Jōnin started weaving hand signs.

"Earth Style: Earth Flow River!"

The ground under the masked figure melted into mud and tried to bury her. But she simply floated into the air a few feet, leaving her unaffected by the technique.

Sasuke activated his Cursed Seal, straight to the second stage, a pair of hand-shaped wings burst out from his back.

As he felt the power rushing into him, Sasuke felt unbeatable, why was he even worried, this woman had no idea how strong he was.

A single slash would end her, no need for anything fancy. Even if she sent tried to crush him, he could easily overpower her technique.

He burst forward, his sword coated in electricity, fast enough that he was almost invisible to almost everyone in the clearing.

Everyone except the woman, a slash to her neck was stopped with a single finger.

Sasuke's eyes widened, his Sharingan could see a faint distortion between his blade and her finger.

She tilted her head at him.

"Why would you get close?" She questioned with a hint of curiosity. "That seems unwise."

Sasuke tried to move back, kicking off the muddy ground with a burst of Chakra, but there was a weight around him, the air felt thick, instead of him shooting backwards as he planned, it was more of a gentle drift.

The woman casually poked him in the chest.

"Back." She intoned flatly.

Sasuke's chest was crushed inward, his vision went dark, his consciousness faded away.

***

With a coughing gasp, he woke back up, he was lying face down on the ground, blood trickling from his mouth, his chest hurt and his ribs were almost certainly crushed.

His hand was still tightly gripping his sword, but when he tried to lift himself off the ground, his vision swam and he felt lightheaded.

He tried looking around, he was surrounded by destruction, large craters littered the battlefield, and the Oto Shinobi were scattered across it, unmoving.

The woman was kneeling on the ground, checking the pulse of one of the others, a man that had almost half of his body buried in the dirt.

One of her arms was bleeding, and her clothing and cloak were singed, Sasuke tried getting up again, but even lifting his head made him feel like he was about to pass out.

"Also dead... Hikari-sama will be upset." The woman muttered softly. "A pity."

She stood up and looked at Sasuke, before simply turning and walking away.

He watched her leave, confused on why she wasn't finishing him off, she clearly noticed he was alive.

He struggled to stabilize his breathing as he watched her walk into the distance.

Eventually, his Cursed Seal healed the worst of the damage, the transformation fell away and he slowly got to his feet. He staggered around and checked on every other member of their group.

Just as the woman had said, all of them were dead.

He was an idiot, he knew the transformation influenced his emotions, but still, he let it influence his thinking.

Rushing ahead and trying to overwhelm her in close range when he no idea about her ability's limits, just because he had a brief feeling of invincibility, was a stupid move.

It was even stupider because she was wounded when he woke back up, if he hadn't been taken out of the fight early, they might have won.

Sasuke collapsed against a nearby tree, even if his Cursed Seal healed the worst of it, his chest was still a giant bruise, and he was pretty sure his ribs were still broken.

"Hey Sasuke."

A voice coming from his right interrupted his thoughts, he tensed, reaching for a Kunai and activating his Sharingan again.

Standing near him was a familiar man, burns covering most of his body, it was the man he had met almost 2 years ago, Ayumu.

"You... Why are you here?" He questioned warily, it could not be a coincidence that the man appeared after Sasuke had been defeated by an Order member.

"Ah, I don't think you have any right to question me about things like that, do you? Considering the situation."

Ayumu's tone was relaxed, yet his golden-ringed eyes bored into Sasuke's, unblinkingly.