AN: I procrastinated the crap out of this. I wish I had a better excuse, but I don't. If it's any consolation this is the longest chapter yet, broke the 25,000-word mark with this one!

As for the question in the previous chapter, Reggie is based off of the snake from Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark, the one that he gets stuck in a plane with at the beginning of the movie.

As for Boa, sorry to say but none of you got it. It's partially my fault because I probably should have told you that I based Boa off of another character's appearance, not their name. And remember, Boa isn't her real name either- it's only her stage name. The correct answer was Salome, a snake owned by Boa Hancock. If you look her up, you will see that her blue hair (on a snake, somehow?) and red scales match the description I gave for Boa.

NightmareKnight1- Neo and Roman do seem to have a deeper connection than a simple crime lord and hired henchman in the series, but being a fanfiction that is subject to change. Hopefully you'll like what I do with it.

KnightofZaku- Glad to know you like my OC's so far. It's kind of weird, people either love them or hate them. I haven't really seen much middle ground for some reason. Wonder why that is?

silverhawk 88- He used killing intent. Remember when Orochimaru met Team 7 for the first time in the Forest of Death and used KI to make Sasuke and Sakura see their own deaths? That's exactly what he did there. It's canon that you don't need Genjutsu to pull that off.

Tobi14- You are doing some deep thinking with what I wrote in the last chapter- good job. It will do you well to remember. As for Sasuke's growth and evolution, there might be a few paragraphs in this chapter that may interest you.

Shadow Phoenix- This might be a bit much to ask, but do you happen to have a fanfiction account? You brought up a number of points in your review that would be quicker to discuss via PM. I don't think we're on the same page with everything, but you seem like the kind of guy it would be fun to bat thoughts and ideas back and forth with.

Fanfictions4ever- Glad you enjoyed it as always! Yeah, the fact that all of this story so far has happened before the first episode is something I can scarcely believe myself, I had thought I would be further along by now…

Guestarundo- regarding your speculations about Neo, you might be interested in this chapter.

TwoHeadedSnake- Your prayers have been answered.

There is a lemon in this chapter. If it's not your thing- skip it. You have been warned.

'sign language'

'thoughts'

Uchiha of Remnant

Chapter 10: Widening Cracks

With a loud thud, a wooden box was thrown onto the floor to a waiting truck. Several men clad in black quickly slid the box to its appropriate spot amongst several other containers before yet another was tossed up with audible grunts of effort from the laborers toiling below. And they weren't alone- dozens of men were working to carry and move large boxes full to the brim of Dust of every conceivable element and cut. Some loads were so massive they had to be transported on 'borrowed' forklifts and dollies. Slowly but surely the ant labor began to empty the storage warehouses from which the Dust had come.

Standing off to the side and not taking any part in the manual labor before them were Roman, Neo, and the masked Uchiha. Roman looked on in casual satisfaction, drawing long drags from his cigar as his robbery of the largest dust store in the city of Vale was so far going flawlessly.

"Well I have to say this is a rather splendid evening so far" expressed the thief in his usual chipper manner. "And to think one of us almost didn't make it." Roman said, giving a pointed look to the disguised Uchiha.

"If you needed my help for a large operation like this," countered Sasuke, "you should have given me more than an hour's notice."

Seriously, what had Roman been thinking? Did he not know how to send a memo?

He had made sure to give Roman a sour look when he had arrived to make sure the thief knew that he did not appreciate being called in on such short notice on a job that had no doubt been planned for days.

And adding to his frustration Roman had picked a bad time to call him over to help. He had hit a snag creating the seal, and had gone to channel his irritation in a far more productive manner than silently brooding in his apartment: physical training.

Not that he wasn't developing his newfound electric abilities with his cut of Lightning Dust when he had spare time, but sitting around turning other people's scrolls on and off didn't do much to work off frustration or boredom. Not to mention there was nothing else that quite gave the same sense of accomplishment than going to sleep with sore and worked muscles.

He had been lucky enough to find an abandoned factory of some kind a few blocks from his apartment, and it still had enough heavy equipment and sizeable metal objects to use as a makeshift gym. For the past three weeks he had been going there whenever he hit an obstacle with his seal and wasn't in the mood to watch a teenager lose their mind when he turned off their scroll in the middle of messaging their friends.

It was just as well. The Uchiha had certainly not neglected his physical training during his time with Orochimaru, but there was no denying that developing his Taijutsu had taken a backseat to improving his Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. Defeating Itachi was going to be out of the question if he couldn't break out of a Kage-level illusion, after all.

This prioritization had meant that Sasuke's physical growth had not quite kept pace with his overall learning curve. But now that he could not afford to waste chakra practicing the more extravagant shinobi arts, he was now focusing a far greater fraction of his efforts into increasing the raw power of his body.

And if he could pull off powerful physical hits, it would be another weapon to use against his inevitable re-match with his traitorous brother. Blasting Itachi with a Fireball or impaling him with a Chidori were both certainly appealing, but there was nothing that quite said 'fuck you' like a punch to the face.

And there was no shortage of creative methods to train his muscles while he was here. Leg presses and push-ups balancing a forklift, upside-down abdominal crunches while holding motors weighing hundreds of pounds, and shadowboxing with cinder blocks attached to his wrists.

Multiple reps of those for hours on end were starting to yield results.

It was just as painful and as intense as all those years ago when Kakashi had trained him into the ground to improve his speed and stamina enough to where he could properly perform the Chidori and not be crushed to death by Gaara's infamous sand. The results, however, were just as much worth the effort now as before. His muscles were beginning to grow in both density and size ever so slightly- a consequence of intense physical training during one of his last growth spurts. A few more months down the road and the last remnants of lankiness from his boyhood would be gone as well.

But extreme physical training came at a price. It did wonders to reduce his stress and frustration when he had difficulty creating his seal, but moving around with exhausted and sore muscles that had been subjected to a five-hour workout with no breaks was not pleasant.

'And knowing Neo, I have a spar to look forward to after this too'

Neo's appetite for having him beat her up in sparring had not been appeased in the slightest since they had started. Despite the fact she had yet to win a single round, she was almost always the one to instigate them.

Actually he had noticed that lately Neo had developed a habit of trying to one-up him in one endeavor or another. Perhaps she was trying to cope with her consistent losses to him during their fights, but if that was the reason then she needed to attempt something else.

She had tried to knock out more employees and civilians that were unlucky enough to be present when they robbed various stores, but even with her semblance there was no way she was matching his speed. Though it had been amusing to tell her she had barely taken out half the number of people he had and watch her face blanch in disbelief and subsequently cross her arms and make her trademark pout.

And then she had been moronic enough to try and beat him in beer pong of all things. Considering he had been able to throw a kunai or shuriken accurately enough to shave an animal's fur from a hundred yards away since he was eight, it was a challenge she had been doomed to fail even without mentioning his alcohol tolerance.

Before he could continue his musings about Neo, the trademark sound of police sirens crept into his ears. Sasuke and Neo had managed to take out the security system before the silent alarm could be activated, so the Uchiha briefly considered it was possible they were responding to another crime somewhere else.

A few seconds later that hope was shattered. More sirens had joined the first- at least ten or twenty more. Five seconds later and another group of police could now be heard coming from the opposite direction.

Clenching his teeth, Sasuke gripped his sword in annoyance. This was exactly the situation he had hoped to avoid. He still had his mask on, but with that many police coming there was no way this fight would be a clean or simple one regardless of who the winner was.

"What's wrong, kid? Don't tell me you're getting nervous" teased Roman as he took another drag from his cigar.

Sasuke turned, bewildered that the crime boss was so composed. He was about to ask Roman if he had planned for the approaching police convoy, but a glimpse at the thief's confused look was enough to remind him that neither Roman nor his fellow humans here had Faunus genetics or chakra to enhance their hearing.

"The Police are on their way. Less than three minutes out."

"What? I don't hear anything. Look, I know I said you needed to grow a sense of humor, but this isn't exactly what I meant."

"I have very good ears. They're coming."

A tap on his shoulder redirected his gaze to Neo, who had already taken out her umbrella. A few hand signs that vaguely resembled some of the hand seals from his home world flashed before him. Grateful he had taken the time to learn the sign language of this world so Neo wouldn't need to resort to texting him for more extended conversations, he quickly translated her motions.

'How many and how far away?'

"There's at least thirty cars, probably more" Sasuke elaborated. "Half coming from the North, half from the South."

"Oh, come on kid" sighed Roman, looking slightly miffed that Neo so readily believed his words. "Myself included, twenty-four hours ago only five people knew that this party would be happening- everyone else was in your boat and got the invitation an hour before it started."

Sasuke's retort was rendered unnecessary as the sirens finally got close enough to be heard by human ears. The heads of Roman, Neo, and the henchmen all turned in unison toward the sound like a group of humanoid Prairie Dogs that had heard the rustle of an approaching predator.

And now that they were closer the Uchiha also saw that the Police had brought an airship with them as well. He had no idea whether it was there as eyes in the sky or extra fire support, but in either case it put them at a heavy disadvantage.

"Well I'll be damned," growled Roman, "I guess there's a certain someone I need to pay a visit after we're done here!"

'No, it wasn't one of the people Roman told about the robbery. The job has been going on for almost an hour now- if the Police had a tip from yesterday, they would have ambushed us earlier when we arrived. For them to be showing up now means that whoever told them only learned this was going down after we started.'

And that meant that whoever had snitched was still here- himself, Roman, and Neo had been overseeing the operation and would have seen them escape if they had tried to flee. And if they were in the crowd of illegal movers, then they would have to still be in contact with the Police to let them know exactly where they were so they wouldn't get caught up in any firefight.

Sasuke began scanning the men below him. Some of them were starting to panic, others were hastily getting weapons ready. Three seconds later, the Uchiha found what he was looking for- an average, inconspicuous man getting into the driver's seat of one of the trucks in a far less panicked manner than his fellows. Keeping his head cool and calm under pressure would have been an asset in most dangerous situations, but here it made him stand out like a sore thumb.

It was a mistake that would cost him.

Faster than anyone around him could track, Sasuke closed the distance to his target and punched through the drivers' window. The Uchiha grabbed the man's neck almost before the noise of the shattered glass reached his ears and dragged him none-too gently through the now windowless door before throwing him at the surprised Roman's feet.

"Here is your traitor."

The man looked up- eyes wide with confusion and the first stirrings of fear as he realized he had been caught flat-footed.

"Tha- that's absurd! I've been helping move Dust the whole time!" he defended, desperately trying to buy enough time for his colleagues to arrive.

"Then perhaps you can explain this message you sent three minutes ago" the masked Uchiha stated coldly, holding the traitor's scroll in his hands and displaying the texts sent to the commanding Police Chief for the crime lord to see.

"Well then my good man," Roman started as he walked toward the kneeling man, who by now was white in the face from fear, "it seems you weren't lying about helping us move dust. Unfortunately, that doesn't change the fact that you're a dirty little rat that needs to be exterminated!"

"D-don't be stupid, Torchwick!" the man began pleading, trying to stall long enough for the train of police cars to arrive. "You kill a cop, and you'll have a target on your back the size of Beacon Tower!"

"Oh, and I don't have that now? With the train of cops coming to arrest me right there!?" Roman retorted, grabbing the man by his hair and shoving the business end of Melodic Cudgel into his throat.

"I'll admit the odds aren't completely in my favor here," snarled Roman, "but I just might be able to dig myself out of this hole you dug me into if I have a nice, valuable hostage to negotiate with."

Without warning Sasuke's hand suddenly shot out, pushing away Roman's threatening cane from his victim.

"No."

Roman instantly rounded on his extra help, eyes narrowing in anger as he fixed a glare that Neo recognized as the one that he wore when he was pissed enough to forgoing her help entirely and slit the throat of the target of his wrath himself.

To his credit, the Uchiha didn't so much as flinch from the threat.

"Care to repeat that, kid?" the thief asked, his grip on his weapon visibly tightening. "I know you came on board with that whole 'no killing' bullshit, but if you don't want your body dumped in the ocean tomorrow you will roll up your sleeves and you will do it now!"

"You misunderstand me, Roman" the Uchiha calmly replied. "Taking a hostage will only work against us right now. We have no way out of the blockade they'll be setting up, and we won't be able to hide with their airships above us. Stalling for time with a hostage is only going to allow them to bring more reinforcements. We need to take out their airship and enough of their forces to escape, and do it now."

"Oh, so you're the idea guy now, huh? Well then smartass, how exactly do you suggest we handle this? Invite them for evening tea and tell them we've seen the error of our ways?"

"I can handle the airship" Sasuke answered as he eyed the second-story roof on the building next to them.

"As for the Hunters and the Police," he turned to his unofficial partner, who so far had been looking back and forth between himself and Roman trying to figure out which plan to follow. "I have a better idea."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Flying high above their fellow law officers, the Police airship maneuvered itself above the now busted Dust-robbery with a deep rumble as its engines continued to fight the relentless pull of gravity. Having reached their destination, the co-pilot pointed the craft's spotlights directly on the robbers below. Taking only a brief moment to assess the ground below with a professional gaze that quickly but accurately analyzed the situation, the pilot swept the tail of the airship around until it was parallel to the group of criminals below and opened the side doors of the craft to reveal a gunner that was preparing the mounted machine gun for the expected battle as well as a much larger figure next to him wearing dark camouflage and carrying what looked like a superfluously-broad sword on his back.

The pilot then brought up his hand to the side of his helmet to turn on his speaker.

"Hey Dutch, remember how you said during our last mission that you were disappointed the bad guys gave up without a fight?"

"All too well" replied the armed and bulky figure.

Unlike the police officers he was helping, Dutch was a fully-trained Huntsman. And as such, missions such as aiding law enforcement were seen neither as dangerous nor as glorious as the more famed Grimm extermination jobs. An opinion the Huntsman shared.

Not that he didn't understand the necessity of it. With the target of this raid being Roman Torchwick, the most influential and dangerous gangster in Vale, and who possessed aura himself, the Police Chief couldn't just put his men's lives on the line without some kind of heavier back-up. And so himself and a second Huntsman on the ground had been brought along to make sure Roman could be captured with minimal casualties.

"Why, do you think Torchwick will actually have some bite to him?"

"He's not going to surrender, that's for sure."

Looking down, Dutch found Roman's trademark bowler hat and saw the man angrily shouting and waving to his subordinates. He was organizing his men into defensive positions, getting them to take up spots around the edges of buildings, trucks, and other features. He was going to fight.

Dutch's mouth quickly grew a grin. The cops might not like to get their feet wet, but for a Huntsman like him it was exactly what he wanted. He wouldn't be doing his job very well if he only confronted the threats to humanity that didn't fight back.

"Wait a minute," interjected Dutch, his smile diminishing as he remembered a crucial detail of the mission. "What about your mole? Did he get out?"

"Officer Winchester? Yeah, he broke through the hostiles right before we got here. See that big truck over there? He's getting out of it now."

Redirecting his gaze, the Huntsman found the truck. Sure enough, a figure matching Winchester's description he had been given earlier was helped out of the vehicle. It was obvious the mole had been forced to resort to fleeing the robbery once the trap had been sprung, the 'borrowed' truck having been used to drive through the surrounding fence and across the curb.

The officer seemed alright at least, even if he was all business- not even pausing to trade greetings with his comrades as he made a beeline to the commanding officer.

Even from their distance in the airship it was clear Torchwick did not appreciate being sold out. Dutch was no lip-reader, but in between rushing his men to take up positions it was clear he spared every moment he could to drop as many F-bombs as he could on the betrayer.

"Alright then," the Huntsman reached behind his back, gripping the handle of his weapon. He crouched slightly, readying himself to jump straight at Roman when they started their attack.

And then, with no warning, the view below them darkened, then lit up again, then darkened. Dutch and the others on board the airship as well as the police below could only look around in confusion, either trying to re-find their targets in the area that was essentially lit by strobe lights or looking up at the cause of it- the airship's massive floodlights flickering on and off.

"Damn it, what the hell?!" the pilot cursed as he desperately pushed the floodlight control panels and attempted to return the much-needed illumination for his colleagues.

"What's going on up there?" Dutch interrupted harshly; upset he had lost his visual on Roman.

"I don't know, our lights are on the fritz for some reason. I don't know how this could have happened; I had a full maintenance done on this thing four days ago!"

"Well fix it quick! It's not gonna take long for those scumbags down there to take advantage of this little brea-"

The last part of Dutch's sentence went unheard by the pilot. In an instant, a blade silently appeared inside the cockpit. It hadn't seemed to travel from somewhere else outside the airship or otherwise; one moment it was just… there.

And it was embedded in his shoulder.

"Gahh!"

Mid-way through his cry of pain, the pilot saw his attacker. Covered in midnight-blue cloth with a similarly-shaded ski mask, a male figure whose camouflage made him nigh indistinguishable from the surrounding darkness was perched on the nose of the airship. Despite the turbulence and rocking of the airship, the attacker maintained his stable position on the smooth metal as easily as if he had Gecko feet.

Following the arm of his attacker was a short, thin sword blade that had actually pierced through the bulletproof glass of the cockpit so cleanly not a single hairline crack could be seen.

The sensation of warm liquid on his arm brought the pilot back to the reality that his wound was bleeding out.

He instinctively shot out his good arm and gripped the offending weapon in a desperate attempt to remove it. The hand was withdrawn in agony a split-second later, the adrenaline shock not enough to make the pilot ignore the biting sensation of sharpened metal cutting his fingers to the bone in his hasty attempt to free himself.

Fortunately for the pilot his assailant was relatively merciful; the very next moment the blade was withdrawn from the wound and its wielder vanished from sight completely.

The pilot wasted no time to capitalize on the abrupt end of his attack, using his good arm to apply as much pressure as he could to his injury to stem the bleeding.

As he fought to keep himself from going into shock the pilot suddenly became aware that Dutch was shouting into his headset.

"Hey, what the fuck is going on up there!? Are you trying to throw us off!?"

It was no wonder really; with the joystick controlling the airship's movements on only one side he had no choice but to use his injured arm to direct its motion. And with his sudden blood loss and fight-or-flight instincts edging out his rational thoughts the airship was rocking and listing like a toy boat that had been thrown into whitewater rapids.

"I've taken a hit up here!" the pilot shouted into his radio, having the presence of mind to switch to the main police frequency so every unit would be informed. "I'm bleeding badly, I've got to take her to the station or the first hospital I find before I black out and crash this damn thing!"

Cursing under his breath, Dutch readied himself to jump out. The gunner in the airship with him was a run-of-the-mill human and couldn't make the jump to the ground without breaking his legs; he was going to have to leave with the airship.

Scanning the area below as the airship turned to leave, he once again tried to locate Roman. If he could take him out the rest of his help would hopefully surrender. And maybe he could find the son of a bitch who shot his pilot while he was at it.

Now that he thought about it, how had the pilot been shot? Everyone below had merely taken positions to prepare for a firefight- no one had actually fired their guns yet. A semblance from a rogue Hunter Roman had hired, perhaps?

Just great. Just how far South could this ambush go before the night was over?

A sudden flurry of movement on the ground snared his attention. Eyes that were veterans of hundreds of missions that had failed, succeeded, and everything in between widened in shock.

The universe had provided an answer to his question: it could go very far South.

Their mole, Officer Winchester, had made his way to the Police Chief and had slashed his chest open.

Not content with giving the chief a potentially fatal wound, he was now hacking and skewering his way through the cops surrounding him with what looked like a… pink umbrella?

'Just what the hell is going on?'

Any other coherent thoughts were suddenly replaced by the painful sensation of being kicked in the back by what felt like a wrecking ball. Barely keeping hold of his weapon from the sneak attack, Dutch slammed into a police car below like a missile and crumpled it into scrap metal.

Years of training and combat experience forced his body to twist himself free from the wreckage and stand up with his weapon drawn to face whoever had attacked him.

It wasn't a moment too soon- he defended himself just in time to intercept a follow-up slash from a figure that was dressed head to toe with clothing that was intended to hide them in the shadows and nothing else.

On the other side of the clashing blades, Sasuke took a brief glance around them to check on the rest of the battlefield.

So far, everything was going about as smoothly as he could have hoped for. It had been easy enough to knock out their little snitch and have Neo disguise herself with his visage long enough to infiltrate their lines and start picking them apart from the rear while Roman and the rest of the henchmen began to open fire as the trap was sprung.

As for him, his job was to take out the airship. It was fortunate that he had finally refined his ability to interfere with electronics, which he had decided to name Mizuchi, to a sufficient level to turn off the searchlights. Just the searchlights; turning off the engines and killing the people on board in the resulting crash was not his goal. And with the lights off, jumping up to the cockpit of the vessel and stabbing the pilot with a serious but non-fatal wound to force him to retreat before he bled out was a simple task.

Now, he just had to take care of one Huntsman. His opponent was bulky to the point it was unlikely he spent less than twenty hours a week at the gym. He wasn't quite as stocky as BoneSaw, but he would still likely be slowed down a bit by the extra mass. He was middle-aged or slightly younger, which meant he had experience.

But it was his weapon that really drew Sasuke's attention. The sheathe was so large he had assumed it was a broadsword that would double as a makeshift shield or something equally ridiculous, but now that it was drawn it was obvious that wasn't the case.

It was in fact a double-bladed sword with both blades extending out from the guard parallel to each other. Roughly three inches of empty space separated the two swords; with the longer of the two blades over four feet in length and by itself would have probably been a rather standard longsword. The shorter blade was less than half the length of the former but far thicker, almost resembling an enlarged four-sided spear tip. And embedded in said blade so perfectly the Uchiha almost missed it, was a gun barrel.

He had forgotten where he had read it, but he did vividly remember a certain phrase he had stumbled upon when he had been reading about Hunters and their weapons.

No matter what it looked like, no matter what it appeared to be, a Hunter's weapon would also be a gun.

Heaving from adrenaline and fury, the Huntsman gave Sasuke a glare that could have melted ice. "Are you the guy who stabbed my pilot!?"

Briefly the Uchiha wondered why he was cursed to fight more than his fair share of stupid and hot-headed opponents.

'What kind of fool would even bother asking that question in the middle of a fight?'

This guy was mentally challenged if he thought the Uchiha was going to be nice enough to say a word to him; much less give him an honest reply.

"Fine then, don't answer!" he roared in frustration at the Uchiha's silence. "I came here to apprehend Torchwick, but if I have to kick some random Rogue Huntsman's ass first then so be it!"

Ducking under a sudden lateral swing by his opponent, Sasuke came to the logical conclusion that his so-far tried and true strategy of staying out of the gun's line of sight would be a priority. But the nature and use of the weapon before him only became more confusing now that he had a clear look at the hilt.

It was massive. Approaching two feet in length if he were to guess. But the real unusual characteristic was its twisting curvature. It almost resembled a cut-out piece of an extremely-stretched slinky.

It looked like it had been designed by a four-year old. Too large and unwieldy to rapidly change direction, too small to act as a reliable shield, and the handle so misaligned from the weapon's axis it was probably a chore just to hold up straight.

His opponent followed up his missed swing with another strike in the opposite direction. An attack the Uchiha blocked with his own sword, metal screeching as the longer of his enemy's blades failed to cut through his Kusanagi or even budge his arms back more than a couple of inches despite the webbing of cracks forming around Sasuke's feet from holding his ground from what was clearly significant force.

'That was easier to stop than I thought'

Even without using his full strength Sasuke had expected his adversary's bulk and heavier weapon to pack more power than that. The Huntsman had more physical strength than Neo, that was for sure, but it still wasn't quite enough to match his.

He responded with his own force- using his shorter weapon to push back and get easy leverage over their blades' point of contact. He shot his arm forward to grab the wrist of the Hunter in a vice-grip powerful enough to put dents in his aura shield by itself.

Unlike the Uchiha, the Huntsman did not have the luxury of being able to safely remove one of his hand from his weapon. A Great Sword (if his adversary's freak of a weapon could even be called that) needed two hands on it at all times to wield effectively, especially in a blade lock such as the one he was currently in. So Sasuke had peace of mind that his extended hand was under no threat of being countered.

With strength far in excess of his size the Uchiha spun around and twisted his opponent's arm over his shoulder, joints creaking and tendons stretched as the appendage was almost removed from its socket. Sasuke proceeded to slam his enemy into the asphalt hard enough to shatter it before tossing him straight into the air, giving him just enough time to switch to a double-handed grip on his own weapon.

It was a rare occasion that any shinobi would bother putting effort into making an attack as powerful as possible. Just landing an attack was enough to bear fruit. But Remnant had aura to consider, and breaking his opponent's shield meant that he had to hit hard.

The Uchiha brought his sword to eye-level and twisted his body around before reversing direction in an instant. Pivoting on his forward foot and leaning into the strike, Sasuke put all of his body weight and momentum into a single thrust that made contact with the gut of his falling opponent.

The Huntsman's aura was the only reason Sasuke's sword didn't penetrate his body all the way through to his spine; but a sheen of crackling green light fluorescing near the point of impact betrayed that protecting its host had required a significant sacrifice from the protective shield.

With the flesh protected from being skewered by the thrust, the force behind the strike instead turned into a massive physical blow that shot the Huntsman into a solid cinder block wall eighty feet away at a significant fraction of the speed of sound. For a brief moment, the ear-splitting cracks of gunfire from the surrounding battle were joined by a concussive boom of rapidly displaced air.

Sasuke shot forward to capitalize on the blow, reaching his target before the shattered debris that moments before was solid masonry fell to the ground. But his opponent wasn't a battle veteran for nothing- despite the Uchiha's attacks he had managed to keep a hold of his weapon with his good hand.

For the second time in their fight the Huntsman bypassed his natural reflexes and relied on pure instinct to defensively position his blade just in time to block the Uchiha's follow-up attack.

Panting with effort and frustration but not yet lost to blind rage the Huntsman suddenly thrust his sword forward until the guard caught on Kusanagi and was close enough for Sasuke to feel his adrenaline-laden breath. The longer blade of his enemy's weapon was now more than close enough to land an attack him, the Kusanagi being the only thing preventing him from being split in half from skull to groin by a blade edge now hovering mere inches above the Uchiha's head.

Even without the Sharingan Sasuke could almost see what looked like every muscle in his opponent's upper body tense up before he lunged forward, bringing down as much force as he could to break past the Uchiha's defense.

Sasuke's recently improved strength was more than enough to hold the attack back, but he wouldn't win the fight by just blocking. Instead he performed a textbook perfect dip to get a few inches underneath his opponent's outstretched arms before springing forward and throwing an elbow strike straight into the gut that was powerful enough to dent and concave the aura shield.

The hit was enough to force the Huntsman back several inches, giving Sasuke just enough room to land a swift backhand punch to his elbow and follow up with an upward slash from Kusanagi on the target's extended forearms. The Huntsman's sword and both arms holding them were thrown skyward from the hit, leaving his entire front as vulnerable as an armadillo's belly.

Kusanagi flashed at speeds comparable to the bullets being fired by the combatants around them, slashing the Huntsman with a frenzy of attacks that only ceased when the power of said assault pushed the target off his feet and out of range.

The Uchiha rushed forward to press the attack only to find the mutant blade once again blocking him. His enemy was much slower than he was, but he was experienced enough to lift his feet from the ground when he knew he would lose his footing and re-plant them instead of toppling over flat on his back.

Behind his mask, Sasuke grit his teeth in frustration. Aura really was a game-changing factor in battles here and it was one he most certainly did not appreciate. Taking out any Hunter with a single attack with Taijutsu or Kenjutsu was a pipe dream without resorting to Chidori, and this one was no exception. Had the man been a shinobi Sasuke would have won in two seconds flat, but with aura protecting him from any real damage and the Huntsman's impressive battle instincts preventing the Uchiha from outright overwhelming him with superior speed this was going to take longer.

Unfortunately for the Uchiha time was not his ally. Sparing a glance to assess the rest of the battle, he did not see any reason for optimism from his allies either.

Roman and his henchman were in a stalemate with the police with neither side willing or able to break from their positions of cover. Even in the dark of night without the Sharingan active Sasuke could see the bullets and the occasional spread of shotgun blasts both sides were firing at each other, small flecks of metal zipping and shooting across the area like pebble-sized shooting stars that were invisible to everyone else and instant death to those who were unfortunate enough to not possess aura.

It wouldn't be a deadlock for much longer though. Several of the pinned units were making calls for backup that would likely only be minutes away. They were content to lay down just enough suppressive fire to prevent Roman or any of his men from attempting to escape and force them to use up their smaller stock of ammunition.

Roman's position made prospects of retreating all the bleaker. Boxes and vehicles filled to the brim with raw dust were scattered around their positions. Each container was now effectively a potential bomb that required only a single bullet, regular or otherwise, to set it off. Neither Roman nor any of his men were willing to risk killing themselves fleeing through what was effectively a minefield.

To top it off Neo's surprise attack had stalled. She had taken out several dozen officers earlier, but her assault was stalled by what appeared to be a second Huntsman on the ground. He was much thinner and more lightly-built than his own opponent, and was agile enough to keep a reasonable enough pace with Neo's jumping and twisting to prevent her from breaking off and continuing mauling the police blockading Roman's escape.

With Roman pinned down, the outcome of this battle would depend on whether or not he or Neo could defeat their respective Huntsman before enemy reinforcements arrived.

He redirected his full attention to the Huntsman in front of him, who seemed to be struggling with the fact that he could not push back or overpower his much smaller foe. Determined to end their fight quickly, the Uchiha began lifting his foot to take a step forward and get inside his opponent's effective strike range when his enemy suddenly smirked.

Sasuke's eyes widened. He had been in enough fights to know that look meant that his opponent was about to spring a trap.

The Huntsman didn't try to push him away like before, or pull back and take another clumsy swing. He twisted his weapon, using his oddly shaped handle almost like a corkscrew to reverse his double sword's orientation in an eyeblink, and thrust it forward to catch Sasuke's Kusanagi straight in the gap between the non-identical twin blades.

In a split-second the tables had turned. The odd design of his foe's weapon now had a very clear purpose- disarming.

Sasuke was unable to effectively move his sword while it was trapped unless he pulled it back; something the Huntsman was not going to allow. The radically curved and warped hilt was not very effective at putting raw force into a strike, something that it's wielder knew and had bulked up his physical strength to partially compensate for. But with two hands gripping the spiral-shaped handle and twisting instead of swinging, the weapon could generate torque like no other. More than enough to either rip any melee weapon from even the strongest of grips or swing the person still holding on to the weapon off their footing.

It would have been an easy trap to escape; the Uchiha was more than quick enough to draw his sword back out of its confinement before the Huntsman could do anything.

His situation would have been simple- if it weren't for the gun barrel of the shorter blade pointing straight between his eyes.

Anyone else would have panicked; coherent thought replaced with mindless instinct for a millisecond before the bullet hit its target from literally point-blank range. For Sasuke, thinking at inhuman speed on his feet and under stress was as simple as breathing so long as Itachi wasn't part of the equation. Before the Huntsman's finger had finished pulling the trigger Sasuke had already reassessed his situation and had a plan to jump out of the trap he had just fallen into and re-take the initiative.

The first step was obvious- jerking his head to the side at neck-cracking speed to avoid the inevitable gunshot. The bullet missed by millimeters; so close Sasuke could actually see it spinning as it exited the barrel and grazed a few strands of his hair.

But before the shot had left the gun barrel the Uchiha had already solved the problem of his restrained sword. It was pointless to try and hold onto it, and if he just let it go the Huntsman would no doubt throw it the furthest distance away that he could.

Sasuke chose a third option: he lightly tossed it. Just hard enough to put it completely through his opponent's twin blades but soft enough that it only flew up a few feet.

Released from the trap the Uchiha flew forward, using his other hand to grab to extended arm of his enemy and use it to lift himself off the ground. The Huntsman's eyes began widen in disbelief as he realized that his adversary had both dodged a bullet from less than a foot away and had escaped from his trap in almost less time than it took to blink.

And unlike the Uchiha, the Huntsman was not capable of coming up with rational or planned countermoves in fractions of a second. And so he could only stare in continued incredulity as Sasuke used his hold of the Huntsman's arm to rotate his body around and land a roundhouse kick square on his right jaw. Muscles and tendons anchoring the head screamed in agony as they were snapped far beyond their comfortable elasticity, but were just tough enough to keep the neck from breaking.

The hit was still enough to disorient him for a moment, and that was all the Uchiha needed. He followed through with his momentum from the kick to swing his legs directly behind him and parallel to the ground, positioning his body like a horizontal plank. His hands flew to his opponent's sword grip, tightly grasping his enemy's own hands and digging his thumbs into the palms.

The Huntsman's hands were then pried apart with the efficiency of a starfish opening a clam, his weapon now dangling by mere fingers.

It was now Sasuke's turn to disarm his opponent. Crunching his abdomen, he drew his legs into his chest as tightly as they would go, winding his entire body up like a spring. Using his arms to raise his lower torso, he took aim, and slammed both feet into his adversary's face with a stationary drop-kick that put a Kangaroo's to shame.

The Uchiha needed to end the fight, and so he had put as much chakra into augmenting the kick as he could without wasting any.

His opponent did not fly so much as rocket back from the hit as his sword was ripped from his meager grasp. He came impressively close to breaking the sound barrier before smashing through three second-story concrete walls, finally coming out the other side of the abused building after the impacts slowing his speed enough for the Huntsman to start falling to the ground instead of away from it.

The force of the dropkick had forced the Uchiha to fly back too; but unlike his enemy he was ready for it. Righting himself in midair with a backflip he drilled his feet into the asphalt, gripping the pavement with both chakra adhesion and pure muscle. Feet plowed through the blacktop, creating twin trenches as his ankles parted the substance like a ship cutting through water as friction slowed the Uchiha down. Before he had come to a complete stop, Sasuke shot forward like a rocket himself- catching his Kusanagi in mid-air as it fell back to earth after it was momentarily separated from its master.

Moving with velocity that normal humans would perceive only as a blur the Uchiha rounded the building his opponent had all but flown through and positioned himself directly underneath his falling enemy. Weak crackling and faint flashes of green light betrayed the weakened aura of the Huntsman, who was now nothing more than a baby bird falling helplessly into the waiting jaws of a carnivore.

Gripping his sword with both hands the Uchiha thrust upward. The Huntsman's aura weakly sparked to life as small glimmers of light on the area surrounding the sword's tip before it fizzled out completely. With the protective armor gone Kusanagi finally made contact with the soft flesh beneath, slicing through the skin and tissue with effortless ease as the Huntsman cried out in agony.

Like the airship pilot he was fortunate enough that Sasuke was not interested in taking his life. His sword slid through the Huntsman's body completely like a barbaric skewer, but had avoided vital organs and arteries. The man would live even if he would be in a hospital for several days.

Sasuke was just about to lay his defeated adversary on the ground when he felt a small object of some kind hit his lower shoulder from behind with a sharp sting.

'What the hell?'

It almost felt like getting hit with a small rock or pebble, but it felt like a slightly sharper object. A bee sting was the most accurate comparison the Uchiha could think of, though this was moderately more painful.

Right as he tossed his enemy down the Uchiha felt three more stings on his lower back, blunter ones this time that gave a burning sensation on the patch of skin that was hit.

He had scarcely finished swiveling himself to face his new opponent when he saw a bullet in midair flying straight toward his leg, accompanied by a handful of others that he could tell from their trajectory were thankfully going to miss him.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.

'…They shot me. I was just shot!'

Sasuke moved Kusanagi swiftly in front of his leg just in time to block the next projectile, ricocheting it harmlessly to the ground. More were coming though, representing a diversity of calibers and muzzle velocities. Several of which even streaked the signature red, yellow, or blue trails of Dust rounds.

At least he now knew that gunfire was not something he needed to be overly concerned about. Small patches of blood around the hit areas meant they were enough to penetrate the skin, but they had not gone any deeper. Superficial wounds at best.

Behind the incoming rounds were the ones that fired them- a group of police that had broken off from the greater force pinning Roman down, no doubt to keep up the pressure on him now that he had won his fight. They had all been aimed low before he had dropped the Huntsman to make sure they didn't accidentally hit him, but now that their ally was out for the count and on the ground they redirected their aim to his upper body.

He ignored the rounds that were not going to hit him and effortlessly maneuvered Kusanagi to flawlessly deflect and block the bullets that were on the mark. Had he been in a healthier state of mind the Uchiha would have made a beeline for any cover that was around, but at that moment he was simply coming to terms with the fact that he had actually been hit.

He had spent the greater part of his life developing his talents and skills with the sole purpose of taking the lives of his foes on the battlefield and conversely preserving his own. And unlike the Hunters here, shinobi did not have the luxury of a personal force field to prevent one-hit kills. Every shinobi, himself included, had spent months of their lives sharpening their senses and reflexes to give themselves the smallest of advantages over their foes that made the difference between going home alive or your corpse being picked apart by vultures.

Sasuke was not naïve enough to believe he was the strongest shinobi around, but he was certainly one of the strongest. He had taken on a thousand Chunin-level shinobi Orochimaru had gathered for him to face and had won without effort and without a scratch.

And these police, these civilians, who probably had spent less practice firing their guns combined than Sasuke had practiced throwing kunai, had managed to hit him.

It was galling.

Expelling the rage-induced urge to squeeze Kusanagi in a knuckle-whitening tight grip and clench his jaw, he instead focused all of his attention on the group responsible for his humiliation.

Sasuke crossed the distance in a split-second, weaving around the clumsily-aimed shots and shoving his sword straight through the shoulder of an unfortunate officer and knocking another one out with a kick to the temple.

The Uchiha's sense of restraint and mercy had begun to dip to a glass half empty state, and for a few seconds he turned into a living maelstrom of destruction. Appearing in front of one or more targets seemingly from out of nowhere to throw knock-out punches and kicks to mow down the enemy force at a pace that put Neo's to shame. Shouts and screams of pain filled the air as limbs were snapped like twigs and heads and bodies were smashed through car windows. Kusanagi sliced and crippled all in its path, victim after victim forced to pay homage to his sword in their own blood to give it an ever-thicker coat of red.

Ten left, seven left, four left, and then only one.

Right as he knocked out the last officer with the flat of Kusanagi, yet another barrage of sharp stings to his back served as an unwelcome reminder that just because he had defeated the last of this particular group didn't mean he had won.

Had he not been an Uchiha, he would have whirled around with a snarl.

Every time he overcame one obstacle a new one sprang up to replace it. It was a fitting metaphor for his life, and one that was certainly not appreciated as Sasuke could feel his frustration begin to be replaced with genuine anger.

He had trained to mask his emotions on the battlefield both good and bad, but that didn't mean that beneath his mask the Uchiha was seething with contained fury.

Sasuke turned around, intent on rinsing and repeating his last performance and ending this.

He hadn't even finished rotating himself when he came face-to-face with yet another bullet mere inches away from his head. There was only the briefest of moments to observe that this one seemed a bit larger than the projectiles he had seen before and was probably fired from a higher-caliber rifle of some kind as opposed to the smaller pistol-shots from earlier.

He had seen it far too late to dodge or block, and it slammed into his forehead with the full intention of drilling straight through his skull.

Sasuke's chakra-reinforced flesh and bone was thankfully more than enough to stop it. Though that didn't stop his head from recoiling slightly from the impact or from spots making their way to his vision.

Unable to penetrate his skull, the metal slug instead lodged itself in the surrounding skin like a dart on a board. Local pain receptors wasted no time in sending their messages of tissue damage and destruction to the brain.

Sasuke felt the pain, and snapped.

His vision, fueled by a thirst for vengeance and victory, returned with a clarity and focus that evaporated any distractions or misdirections.

Dust rounds and larger caliber shots were the priority to block. If there were any of the aforementioned bullets to counter, the smaller-sized projectiles were ignored. The stings, and the biting pain of the smaller hits on his torso, legs, and arms were ignored. None of that would matter if he defeated his enemies quickly.

His brain, having just recovered from the fact that someone had just tried to put a hole through it, bypassed it's go-to solutions of Kusanagi, shuriken, and kunai to defeat the foes in front of him. Instead, it processed what the quickest and easiest way to bring them to their knees.

The remaining police force was still at least four dozen strong- enough to lay down suppressive fire on himself and Roman, even if it was a bit stretched now. And almost completely masked by the blasts of gunfire, several more police sirens in the distance meant that the backup that had been called earlier was less than a minute away.

Time now more of an adversary than ever, the Uchiha finished his thinking.

He leapt back toward several of his defeated opponents, deflecting several more shots before spinning Kusanagi around and placing it back in its sheathe and dove headfirst into the pavement, his now free hands grasping two pistols from their unconscious owners.

As he secured his hands on the guns' grip and summersaulted into a firing position, Sasuke's mental state went through yet another shift. In a fraction of a second, his rage almost completely evaporated and replaced with elation.

He was powerful.

It was the same sensation he had when he used Kirin: one shot, one kill. No exceptions.

He knew how firearms worked and their basic principle. He had read and now seen how effective they were in a straight battle when stealth went out the window. But for Sasuke they had seemed so… uncivilized. Random, clumsy. More than half of the shots fired at him earlier didn't even need to be dodged or blocked due to missing entirely. Having the chances of a hit from a gun be identical to the odds of a coinflip did not do much to raise the Uchiha's impression of them.

That had changed. Reading about their capabilities was one thing, but it had failed to accurately impress on him what guns could do in competent hands. Sasuke could hit a kunai in mid-air with his own on pure instinct with no effort at all. The idea that he would miss half of his targets from any ranged weapon was about as likely as Kakashi burning his Icha Icha books.

Bullets fired by Sasuke Uchiha, Sharingan or no, were going to hit their target down to the smallest observable fraction of an inch whether it was five inches or five hundred yards away.

Every. Single. Time.

The battle was over.

Sharp, individual blasts of sound were replaced for a single second by gunshots fired so closely together they more accurately resembled a chain saw. Bullets were put into the air at machine-gun pace, the last of which left the barrel before the eighth shot had finished wedging itself in between the wrist bones of its target.

The Uchiha fired twenty bullets, and twenty of his enemies were hit. Projectiles shot through hands and burrowed through Achilles Tendons and knees without mercy. With almost perfect synchrony all of the victims let out cries and screams of agony and pain like a choir that had been forced to perform while standing on a floor of nails.

Sasuke took advantage of the sudden loss of almost half of the opposing force to do a quick backflip to land next to yet another set of his previous victims and replace his now empty pistols. This time, however, the Uchiha took a position behind a police car to give himself some cover. He had no desire to remain in the open and take more hits.

Luckily the remaining Police retreated from their previous positions. Now that they were facing fire from two sides from Sasuke and Roman respectively, the only place that offered some protection from both were the handful of spots between the parked patrol cars that had at least part of a vehicle between them and their attackers.

It was the moment they had been waiting for.

"Roman, get everyone out of there!"

The aforementioned man popped his head out from behind the truck he was using as cover at the Uchiha's call, quickly observing that the small army of cops that had pinned him in not a minute before were now the ones boxed in with no safe way to counterattack.

"You heard the kid!" Roman boomed to the surrounding men, "Get in the trucks and get out!"

Breaking his attention away from the thief and his men who were now scrambling to load into any trucks that had been lucky enough to not have any tires punctured by missed shots, Sasuke turned to the one other member of their party that still needed some breathing room.

Neo and her Huntsman were almost evenly matched- the slightly higher breathing rate and slowly waning speed of the Huntsman being the only obvious indicator that Neo had a slight edge. She was still handling herself well, flipping and twisting around incoming attacks and responding with her own with fluid ease, and would probably be able to take him out in a few minutes by herself.

But they didn't have minutes. Neo might be pissed at him for interfering in a fight that from the eager grin she was wearing she was greatly enjoying, but the girl was going to have to just deal with it.

He lined a pistol up, and fired a single shot into a hexagonal compartment that lined the handle of the enemy Huntsman's sword. Pretty much all Hunters carried Dust rounds for their weapon to fire or use in one manner or another from what he had read, and the instant explosion that blew apart half of the sword in a burst of red flame and encased the other half in a collage of rock and ice meant that he had guessed the location of that particular weapon's Dust chamber correctly.

The Huntsman was thrown back with a pained cry as the blast lifted him off his feet, a red pyre searing through what was left of his aura and charring the cloth and skin alike underneath it.

Her opened umbrella had protected Neo from the tongues of flame that had engulfed the now defeated Huntsman, gracefully parting the flaring pyre from the blast. Mismatching eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected and unintended defeat of her opponent before quickly rounding on the one responsible for ruining her fun with a furious glare that could have easily been worn by a pissed-off frat boy who had just been cock-blocked.

"I don't care if you're mad," Sasuke stated coldly, nodding his head toward the rapidly-approaching police reinforcements and placing his two stolen pistols in his jacket pocket, "we're leaving."

Hesitating for only a moment to close her umbrella and give him a pointed huff of disappointment, Neo quickly followed his lead and began making a beeline for Roman's truck. Even from their distance both Neo and the Uchiha could make out Roman shouting wildly at the driver to presumably go faster, an order that was followed without hesitation even as the Dust-laden vehicle rounded the entrance at such speed it began to tilt. They both knew the truck wouldn't stop for them to get on, but with their superhuman abilities Neo nor Sasuke really cared and both landed squarely on the top of the truck with a single well-timed jump.

A smaller size and lack of ability to stick herself to objects meant that Neo did not have a graceful landing, and would have slid off the truck entirely if the Uchiha hadn't caught her wrist and pulled her back.

She turned around to face him, giving a small nod of thanks before her gaze was averted to something behind him. She ducked underneath his arm and opened her umbrella to cover his back just in time to block a bullet that would have hit him near the base of his neck.

The Uchiha spun around and zeroed in on the source- the convoy of reinforcements that had finally arrived and was now pursuing the escaping Dust thieves, firing off inaccurate shots to try and hit their tires in a desperate attempt to stop and catch at least some of the perpetrators.

Sasuke was having none of that. If the Police wouldn't give up by themselves, he was going to have to make them.

He drew one of his stolen pistols, and proceeded to show the cops firing pitifully clumsy shots how shooting out tires was supposed to be done.

There was no shortage of drivers who didn't quite brake in time to avoid rear-ending the now disabled cars in front of them, and in an almost comedic display the entire convoy was squashed together in a mess of fender benders. Sasuke specifically aimed for the cars at the front and rear of the police convoy to effectively trapped the remaining ones, forcing their occupants to glare in contempt at their prey who had escaped their trap.

Averting his gaze from their defeated pursuers, the Uchiha gave Neo's wrist a slight squeeze from the hold they still had on each other to pull her to her feet. "Thanks for the block."

Neo turned around to face him, indifferent to the passing air whipping her air around her head and intermittently blocking her view. She didn't give him a self-satisfied smirk for giving him help, nor did she resume her angry glare from ending her previous fight prematurely like he had expected. It was a different look than she had given him before; not sizing him up for a spar or the not-so-inconspicuous glancing she did when she was curious how he would respond to unusual situations such as with Boa at the strip club.

It was a simple and genuine smile. Nothing more. Her smaller hand squeezed his wrist slightly in a more amiable grip before she abruptly pulled her hand back to clasp his palm in what he vaguely recognized as a 'bro shake'.

His partner in crime in all but name gave a small nod that he did not need sign language to translate.

'Anytime.'

Giving a trademark 'hn' in response, the Uchiha used his grip on her hand to wordlessly lift her into the air and dangle her over the edge of the truck. Neo continued smiling, completely unconcerned that Sasuke had neither warned nor explained to her why it appeared he was about to drop her from a moving car.

But Neo knew he was not going to drop her. She didn't need to know what he was doing to trust him.

It was only when she felt her dangling feet touch the smooth glass of the truck's side window that Neo realized he was trying to get her into the car. One of the henchmen they had hired hastily rolled down the window, grabbing her legs and non-too elegantly pulling her inside.

Neo and the hired grunt immediately turned around and extended their hands through the open window, ready to do the same to the Uchiha, only to find their efforts were unnecessary. He pulled himself through the narrow opening feet-first with all the lithe of a panther, curiously not seeming to need to grab any hand-hold on the outside of the truck to keep himself from falling.

Neo quickly got up as far as the ceiling would allow, gesturing to her now empty seat. The Uchiha gave an appreciative nod, ignoring the curious looks he was getting from everyone who was still trying to figure out how it looked like he had for a moment stuck himself to the side of the truck like a fly on a wall before taking a well-earned seat.

A split-second later his eyes widened in surprise as Neo gave a mischievous grin; performing an abrupt about-face and claiming her own seat squarely on his lap. The Uchiha had to make a conscious effort to not reflexively tense up as the heterochrome woman laid her head on his shoulder, a feat made more difficult when he felt her ass give a small but deliberate wiggle as she made herself comfortable. He had thought she would have a bone to pick with him after he cut her fight short, but it seemed that getting everyone out of the ambush and avoiding arrest was a good enough reason to forgive him.

"Nice work out there, Sasuke!" praised one of the many henchmen whose names he hadn't bothered to learn, "We might have bit it out there if it wasn't for you!"

"MVP of the night!"

"Saved our asses out there, man!"

Naruto would have eaten up the attention like a starving wolf and used talk-no-jutsu to persuade everyone in the truck to give up their evil ways if he had been in Sasuke's shoes. But Sasuke was not Naruto, and as such between the heartfelt praise and appreciative but awkward shoulder pats he wanted nothing more than to just go home and try and remove the pieces of metal embedded in his body.

"And the victorious heroes ride off into the night!" the bowler-hat wearing thief in the passenger's seat triumphantly interjected, prompting a few more cheers from the men who had narrowly escaped capture. "Well not heroes," he amended, "but you get the idea."

"Where are we going now?" Sasuke asked as he removed his ski mask, mentally breathing a sigh of relief as the stray strands and fibers were no longer tickling his nose or ears.

"Well seeing as we just cheated the law, my first suggestion would be the Red Mare."

Sasuke gave the man a glare that could have melted concrete. Both of his neighbors shifted as far away from him as their cramped spacing would allow.

"Holy shit kid," the thief recoiled in apprehension, "I'm not being serious! Even if you do desperately need to enjoy a woman's company…"

Sasuke was not amused, his glare transforming into a threatening scowl.

"If you must know, we're going to one of our safehouses," Roman pandered, trying to cool down the simmering Uchiha. "The cops have no doubt called for more units to try and track us, so we need to get off the grid and bury the fruits of our labor."

"Although," the thief pondered, taking a draw from his cigar, "you did take out what looked like half the Vale Police force back there."

"Ooof! Oh, and you too, Neo" a sudden jolt to the back of his seat from said woman prompting the crime boss to acknowledge her contribution.

"So," he continued, "we might have a bit less heat to worry about while they lick their wounds. Which is good news for us; we had to split before we finished loading the Dust, so we're gonna have to work double-time to make up for the loss."

Which meant more opportunities to be caught or identified. Sasuke was confident none of his opponents had seen his face, but they had seen him fight. And that might be enough for the Police to get some kind of lead on him, especially if Mr. Slate or Lavender snitched.

"By the way Sasuke," continued Roman in a more accusatory tone, turning around to face the Uchiha directly. "can you explain to me why you didn't kill anyone back there?"

The tension in the truck instantly tightened. Abdominal muscles of the bystanders unconsciously tensed to silence the noise of air moving in and out of their lungs, not willing to risk antagonizing the tinderbox the surrounding atmosphere had become. Neo rose from her impromptu lounge and glanced between the two apprehensively, covertly reaching for her umbrella in case she needed to intervene. There were several ways the conversation following that question could go, and many of them were unpleasant.

The Uchiha pondered his answer for all of half a second before he formulated his response.

"It would have made more problems for us than it would have solved" he calmly but firmly asserted, not breaking his gaze with his employer. "Neo and I could have handled the Police Officers all on our own with no problems, but the two Huntsmen they brought were almost enough to tilt the odds in their favor."

Not really; the Uchiha had still had plenty of stamina and power to spare after he had finished his fight even with his self-imposed handicaps, but it would have nullified his point.

"If we had just massacred everyone, we would have to face ten Hunters next time; maybe more. And they would be ready to kill instead of capture."

"I don't remember hiring you to think, kid!" snapped Roman, "That's a real pretty excuse you're painting, but those cops are gonna go to the hospital, get their casts signed by all their little friends and have their adorable kids give them cheap get-well cards, and then jump right back on us when they get out!"

Roman's face was rapidly becoming flushed to an angry red hue, taking another breath to continue his tirade. "And why the fuck did you take that fucking snitch up there with you to the roof if you weren't going to do anything to him! When you knocked him out and took him with you, I had just assumed you were going to do something with him. But I didn't see him come down, so you just fucking left him up there! Sasuke, did it cross your brilliant mind that if the cops see us catch but not kill any moles we find, they will just, oh, I don't know, send another!?"

The Uchiha's mind remained calm under the verbal assault, his thoughts clear and unfettered. The truth was using the snitch as a hostage to dissuade attacks while he and Neo picked apart the opposing forces would have been a good idea, but he had more than his fair share of standing by and watching people being sacrificed for a 'greater purpose'. He knew none of Orochimaru's victims, nor did he have any great care for them. But that hadn't stopped his heart from tightening in suppressed rage when he saw the abuse and the callous view that people's lives were nothing more than expendable objects to toss away if it meant personal gain for the Snake Sannin. He had been forced to bow his head for three long years, and was not in the mood to do it again. Especially not from a bottom-feeder like Roman.

"I was hired to be muscle" Sasuke countered, his steely tone pausing the thief's rebuke. "Choosing who to trust and doing background checks to keep unwelcome eavesdroppers from our ranks in the first place is someone else's job."

It was a bit reckless of him to not-subtly put blame on his employer, especially with the company present, but deflection was going to be his best option here.

"I'm sorry, I must have misheard you" the crime lord hissed in a deceptively calm voice, his hand gripping his cane with restrained anger, "Would you care to repeat that?"

"Perhaps you did mishear me, Roman. I'll indulge you and repeat what I told you the night we met" the Uchiha replied as his onyx eyes fearlessly stared into their dark-green counterparts. "No murder. I am not crossing that line. You agreed to it at the time, but if you've changed your mind since then feel free to hire someone else."

Roman's scowl intensified; if looks could kill the Uchiha would have been set on fire before being drawn and quartered with his remains buried in wet cement.

"And before you make baseless claims about loyalty," Sasuke continued, intent on gaining the metaphorical high ground, "you should consider that I didn't have to save any of you back there."

The crime lord clenched his jaw in fury but somehow managed to hold his tongue. Despite his anger the Uchiha's point was a solid one.

"I could have just jumped across the barricade from the roof and left you to deal with the Police yourself. The only reason any of you escaped back there was because I decided not to."

Roman had been in the razor's edge of lashing out at the pretentious teen, but the brat made a point that reminded him that Sasuke was still more useful to him alive than dead. The brat was a pain in the ass, and under normal circumstances Torchwick would have put a bullet through his brain for his attitude. However, he had bigger problems.

Cinder and her two lackeys had left Vale several days ago without warning, having only given him a vague excuse that she had a meeting of some kind she couldn't miss. The timing was suspicious- they had agreed to ramp up their Dust robberies soon, even potentially enlisting the White Fang as an unorthodox ally and extra supply of manpower. Choosing to leave the continent right when they're operation was scheduled to escalate made no sense whatsoever. The fact that he had been given no prior warning about her departure nor an estimate for when she would be back only served to set off more alarm bells.

As icing on the cake he had noticed that Cinder seemed… off her game for the past few weeks. She hid it well, but Roman could still make out the subtle signs of creeping anxiety and uncertainty. She was tense, wound up like a spring, not reacting to bad news or possible hurdles to their plans with her usual confidence. She perked her head up a little too quickly when someone approached them with unexpected information, and no longer carried herself with the same coolness of one who was in undisputed control.

Something had happened, something that scared her. And whatever could make her feel fear was not something he wanted to trifle with.

Regardless of the reason, it would be better for him to have more than just Neo in his corner if whatever was eating Cinder turned hot or if she decided for whatever reason that he would be more useful to her on the wrong side of the grass.

Roman leaned forward so close to Sasuke their noses were almost touching, boring his eyes into his unruly subordinate. "You're gonna have to drop that conviction of yours sooner or later, kid" the thief whispered almost inaudibly, "This is the big leagues, and you're in too deep to back out. Using kid gloves is going to get you in a lot of trouble one day."

The Uchiha was painfully aware of that- the dozen-odd opportunities he had passed up to kill Deidara being the only reason he was stuck in this chakra-less realm to begin with.

"Don't say I didn't warn you" Roman finished, returning his gaze to the dimly-lit road in front of them.

The confrontation over, the small woman still on his lap release her tension and relaxed the grip on her weapon. Mismatched eyes met his and gave an unmistakable look of concern- something he never thought she would grant him. He still wasn't sure exactly where she would place her chips if the tensions between himself and Roman boiled, but he still considered it a positive that at the very least she seemed genuinely distressed that he and the thief were starting to develop friction.

Thankfully no-one had to live with the now-tense atmosphere for long, the driver pulling into an abandoned warehouse moments later with the rest of their escaped comrades in tow. Roman wasted no time barking out orders to unload the Dust they had managed to steal, adding it to the colossal stack of containers that already filled almost half of the building's volume.

It was only then that the Uchiha had the presence of mind to ask a rather important question. "Roman, are we missing anyone?"

Raising an eyebrow at the uncharacteristic query, Roman took a quick headcount before answering, "No, everyone's here. Well, everyone except the rat. Why?"

"In case one of us was captured."

"…What do you mean?" puzzled the thief, "Why would you care?"

"We were ambushed not half an hour ago because of a spy," the Uchiha explained, "I don't want to repeat the experience if they manage to capture one of us with loose lips."

"Tch, you worry too much. Even if they caught one of us, Cops can't play hardball to get us talking. Violation of human rights, and all that civilized crap. And even if it did happen, what exactly would you do about it? Go downtown and bust them out?" joked the crime lord.

Sasuke didn't deign to give him an answer. In truth, he probably would have to try. He didn't care for them personally, but some of them had seen his face and even knew about his positions at Junior's and Slate's. It would be risky venture to steal them back from police custody, but it was an even greater risk to do nothing and just keep his fingers crossed that things would go his way.

Not that he was going to tell Roman that. He didn't need the thief to have any more leverage on him than he did already, and he was already mushy enough in Roman's book with his aversion to lethal force. The crime lord wouldn't hesitate to cut him loose if he thought Sasuke was much softer.

"Hey Sasuke," the henchman who had been his neighbor in the ride over interrupted almost meekly, what's that on your head?"

"What?"

"That metal thing on the side of your forehead. Kinda looks like a bad piercing."

Sasuke Uchiha did not get piercings. He lifted his hand to the spot on his forehead the henchman had pointed to, and sure enough, his fingers felt the cool touch of a small piece of metal along with the familiar sticky crust of dried blood. He pinched the object, pulling it out with a small pop and dropping it in his palm.

'Oh yeah, I forgot about that.'

Roman squinted his eyes at the item with a perplexed look, as though he was trying to decide what he was seeing was actually real. "Kid, is that… is that what I think it is?"

It was the bullet that had hit him in the head from earlier. It had lost it's smooth, streamlined contours that it had been manufactured with as the metal had been forced to crumple in on itself into a small mushroom shape when Sasuke's chakra-reinforced skin and bone would allow it to penetrate no further.

"…How?" questioned Roman, his face looking as confused as if he had just seen a man devour his own head. "I thought you didn't have aura, so why does your head not have a hole in it?"

"My aura isn't fully mature," the Uchiha smoothly lied, "it doesn't show up on scanners and can't completely block attacks, but it's enough to give me some protection."

"Well, that's something I've never heard of. Still, it kinda freaks me out. It almost looks like you're a Terminator robot picking out a bullet from its skin."

"A what?"

"A Terminator robot" a random henchman interjected, "you know, from the movie? Machines in the future take over and send a robot disguised in human skin back… in… time…"

The henchman petered off his description at the blank stare Sasuke was giving him.

"Kid, you need to get out more often" stated the crime lord for what felt like the hundredth time, looking at Sasuke with an accusatory glare as though he had dropped a holy artifact into a sewer. "Never seen Terminator," he mumbled under his breath, "Un. Fucking. Believable."

Cool night air rushing onto his lower back and the sudden sound of shifting clothing alerted the Uchiha that someone had lifted his jacket and shirt off his lower back to expose his bare skin. He shot his arm out, finding and lowering the offending arm of none other than Neo.

Her inquisitive gaze took on a more miffed appearance at his reflexive defense.

'Let me look.'

"It's fi-" the diminutive woman was not taking no for an answer though, and before the Uchiha could escape her reach or block her arm she lifted the back of his jacket again. Annoyance transformed to surprise, her eyes widening and mouth falling open slightly at the sight of more embedded bullets just like the one on his head.

"Holy shit Sasuke, how many hits did you take?" questioned a random henchman.

Before he could answer the Uchiha felt Neo drop his jacket and roughly grabbing his wrist. He couldn't so much as say a word before she began pulling him toward the door.

'We're leaving,' she signaled, brushing past the henchmen in her way.

"Right now?" Roman asked with incredulity and a small bit of irritation.

'Yes.'

"Tch, fine." The thief replied, the heterochrome woman's un-paused march to the door a clear display she was not going to be dissuaded.

With Roman turning back to barking orders to unload the stolen Dust, the Uchiha was left with nothing better to do than follow her lead out the door. It would have been easy to stop her, to plant his feet and refuse to move with all the stubbornness of a child hell-bent on not stepping foot inside a hospital to get their shots. But he didn't.

The truth was, he had had quite enough conflict for one night. His muscles were sore from his workout and were protesting any quick or strenuous movement even before he had been called in for tonight's job. The subsequent firefight and bits of metal flying into his flesh likewise failed to do his mood any favors. And to top it off, Roman had one more reason to put Sasuke on his bad side after the Uchiha had been forced, like he had many times already, to sacrifice cold, merciless pragmatism to his psychological need to not follow in Itachi's murderous footsteps. He had had a relatively good excuse today, but Sasuke was not fool enough to believe it would be the last time he and Roman locked horns on the issue.

Compared to that, he was beyond the point of caring if Neo dragged him somewhere. It wasn't worth the effort.

Still, it probably would be a good idea to ask where the small woman who had several psychopathic qualities was taking him before he just let her have her way.

"Where are you taking me?"

Neo halted and turned around, sensing from the Uchiha's tone the underlying suspicion behind his question. She looked him straight in the eye, using her free hand to reply with sign language that reminded him so much of the hand seals that played such a major role in his life.

'To get the bullets out. You can't reach the ones on your back. I'll help you.'

If Sasuke had received that message as a text, there was no way in hell he would have believed her. Neo was a mercenary, a cutthroat who made the company of other killers like herself and often times being the death of each other due to a contract or mere petty rivalry. Trusting her with his turned back of all places, was about as safe as trusting a whore who said she didn't have venereal disease.

"So where are we going for that?"

'…Why did I say that?'

While he may not have outright agreed to go with her and deigned to find out where she was planning on taking him, he did not reject her offer. Even as the follow-up question was half-way out of his mouth, Sasuke wondered why he saw fit to take her word for it. He should have asked why she would bother helping him out, but for some reason an unknown part of him was willing to believe her.

'To my place.'

Now that was an answer that could have several different implications, and more than one ending. While there was one possible conclusion that the male portion of his brain wasted no time in realizing, a more suspicious line of thought conjured a scenario where Neo ended the evening by tightened a wire around his throat.

"Fine."

His apprehension remained buried. He was still skeptical of her, but it refused to manifest any further. And it wasn't his organ between his legs that was making that decision for him. Sasuke, like all successful male shinobi, had learned to overpower their carnal desires with reason. No, it was another portion of his psyche he hadn't quite identified that was responsible.

Neo's features perked at the Uchiha's agreement, a small but cheerful smile gracing her face with glee that his anti-social nature had for once not won out. She gave a pointed nod up to the roof of the building next to them, reluctantly releasing her hold on his wrist as she did so.

That was all Sasuke needed to know where they were going. With half of their gaze on the building above them and the other half on each other, they jumped off as one to the rooftops.

At the zenith of his arc, Sasuke came the closest he had since arriving in this alien world to feeling at home. The steel and concrete structures below and around them offered no aesthetic value compared to the natural comfort of the sunlit leaves and sturdy bark of the forests of his homeland, but it was good enough.

The few rides in cars he had had were not as relaxing for him as it was for others. It was easy to sit back and do nothing as you were carried to your destination, but the Uchiha was raised and trained to run. To make the journey under the power of his own two legs for hours at a time, to feel the earth, tree branch, or water beneath his feet, and to take in all the sights and possible signs of an ambush with his senses uninhibited by being trapped in a metal and glass box with wheels. He was free up here, bounding between the rooftops with no road or road markings to tell him where he could and couldn't go; his sense of time slowly evaporating as familiar, pleasant memories jostled their way to the front of his mind.

His brain, wandering around the pleasant nostalgia and only making jumps and turns unconsciously, was brought back to reality when his shinobi instincts kicked in. He had made the rookie mistake of not keeping a suspicious companion within his sight. Sasuke had not followed her from behind, but had taken a position side-by-side where he could not see her directly, but could still easily feel her presence and follow her lead to her dwelling with ease. It was no excuse though; Orochimaru and Kakashi would have both chided him for such carelessness.

'Why do I keep trusti-?"

Halfway through the mental question, the answer revealed itself to him: she was familiar to him. She was a possible sociopath who was able and willing to kill at the drop of a hat for her own convenience, and possibly betray allies on the spot if it benefitted her. Very dangerous company, but company he was used to. Orochimaru, Kabuto, and others like them he had spent more than desirable amounts of time with in the Land of Sound were hardly any better.

They were dangerous people; bloodthirst carnivores that wouldn't hesitate to cannibalize their own to quench their thirst. But Sasuke knew them. They were recognizable features of his life at this point. The fact that Neo and her ilk were so potentially treacherous, lethal, and unpredictable was, for Sasuke, a good thing.

He had once foolishly believed that he should surround himself with people he trusted absolutely, but Itachi had eviscerated that naïve assumption to ribbons. He knew better now. Everyone, was in it for themselves to one degree or another. And that meant that even the strongest of allies or friends could have the bonds of trust and comradery shattered the minute the partnership turned from an advantage to a liability.

Neo, like Orochimaru and Kabuto, was not going to deceive him with bonds or love to hide the ball like Itachi had. The fact that she was a cutthroat that could betray him if she got something better out of it was in itself a consistency he could predict and adapt to. It was far easier to ensure she got more out of being his ally rather than his enemy than it was to make a nebulous 'bond' of friendship, blood allies, or other ridiculous notion that he had no way to ensure or verify.

And so, moments later when the pair landed on the small balcony of a modest third-story apartment and Neo grabbed his hand as she opened the sliding door, he did not pull away.

Sasuke was incredibly grateful that Neo did not have the stereotypical female apartment with every possible surface covered in small decorations or knick-knacks that were either pink, overly cute, lacey, smothered in natural scents of some kind, or some combination thereof. That being said, she did certainly put a personal flair to her home. The walls and furniture all shared the same pink, brown, and white coloration she never ceased to adorn herself with, and candles with the tell-tale scent of vanilla were strategically scattered throughout the room. If he had to use a single word to describe it, tidy would be it. Fake plants and drink coasters were positioned with perfect symmetry in mind on her table, rugs and furniture meticulously placed at neat angles to each other, and even the dishes she had laid out to dry were arranged from smallest-to-largest. The Uchiha could also gleam from a complete lack of any particulate matter on any observable surface that the woman spent a respectable amount of time dusting and vacuuming.

Still holding his hand, Neo performed a one-handed courtesy before gesturing to her abode with a sweep of her arm, briefly but politely playing the part of a hostess introducing a guest into her home.

But she had brought him here with a purpose, and swiftly led him to her bathroom. Shades of pink and white danced across his sight, the tiles so clean he half-expected to be able to see his reflection.

'Take off your jacket and shirt. I'll be right back.'

The Uchiha complied with her request, looking at his bare torso in her mirror and seeing for the first time the damage he had taken in the firefight. As he had suspected, it wasn't too bad. There were only four bullets embedded on is front, shots he had ignored to deflect larger, more dangerous ones. They poked above the small holes they had made in his skin like small groundhogs peeking above their burrows, small crusts of dried blood surrounding all of the wounds even though the actual bleeding had long since stopped. They wouldn't be difficulty to remove, and even if they weren't the bullets were at so shallow a depth into his flesh that his skin would push them out all on its own as it replaced its dead outer layers with fresh ones from beneath.

Turning around to see his back, he could see a few different results. Two shots on his lower back had seared and burnt skin surrounding the projectile, a small fire-Dust round if he were to guess. But other than the burn to his outer layers of skin, there was no bullet remaining. It was likely the Dust round was transformed fully into it's elemental namesake after it hit, leaving its metal casing to fall harmlessly to the ground after it had hit.

There was a shot to the back of his left shoulder, though, that went much deeper. The flesh surrounding the intrusion was not burnt, but cut so cleanly it almost looked like someone had carved the hole with a miniature cookie cutter. It had penetrated to some depth, a small glimmer of metal barely close enough to the surface for him to see. A wind round, judging from the clean-cut entry wound that could only have been made by a powerful cutting force.

Taking another look over himself the Uchiha could appreciate the protection his chakra provided him compared to aura users now that he had a solid example to work with. While aura was wonderful at blocking attacks before they made any damage, it did have a weakness: it had no in-depth defense capability. It served almost like the armor of a crab or shell of a turtle- excellent at stopping things from getting inside, but once the shield was weakened or penetrated the flesh underneath was completely defenseless. Once a person's aura was weakened or used up, they were as frail as ordinary flesh and bone.

Not so with him. His chakra did not provide a protective armor to prevent hits, instead it strengthened and increased the durability of all his organs and tissues. While that meant that he would take direct hits and subsequent damage from any attack that hit, it also meant that his entire body was reinforced and enhanced, not just his skin or outermost layers. Piercing through his skin didn't mean as much to him as it did an aura-user, his muscles and connective tissues beneath were just as difficulty to break through as his skin.

Sasuke had just finished pondering this realization when Neo returned with a small chair in one hand and a glass of water in the other. She placed the chair behind him; taking a pointed gulp from the glass before offering its contents to her guest. Though the Uchiha had given her the benefit of the doubt by agreeing to come here, Neo still knew him well enough to know that he would be reluctant to eat or drink anything she offered without some kind of gesture that there was no malicious intent.

The Uchiha took two gulps of his own without hesitation from the glass before handing it back to her. He gave no verbal thanks, but the fact that he had taken the water without hesitation told Neo volumes about his current state of mind.

The Uchiha had always been fun to watch, to tease and press his buttons to see his true feelings occasionally peek out from behind the stoic mask he never took off. Challenging him to small little contests never ceased to entertain her even with her no-win record; just seeing him emerge from his self-imposed cocoon of isolation had never been a boring site to behold. And now, he was finally acting like somewhat of an actual person as opposed to the methodical machine he usually was. She just needed to give him another little nudge to get him to crack open his shell for her to take another small peek inside.

'Please sit down.'

He sat, positioning himself so he could face the mirror and watch her. Neo had put the chair in that location with that in mind, not under any illusions that her guest would be under anything less than a trust-but-verify mindset even in the most harmless circumstances.

Neo opened a cabinet on the wall, taking only a moment to remove a small face-cloth, a pair of tweezers, and some kind of antibiotic cream from a small first-aid packet before removing her gloves. The small woman began with the Uchiha's front end, holding the white cloth underneath the sink for a moment to dampen it before gently blotting the nearest wound. After a few moments of clearing the surrounding area of dried blood she delicately held the tweezers in her other hand before lowering it to the injury, dancing the edges of the metal tool around the edge of the bullet as she tried to get a decent grip on the offending object. The surrounding nerves flared with pain, the inflamed and already-hypersensitive tissue protesting the jostling and pushing. Sasuke suppressed his pain, like he did with so many other of his emotions, with practiced ease. Breathing and heart rate remained unchanged as Neo continued digging around his injured flesh; barely expending any effort to keep his jaw unclenched or his hands from curling into tight fists from the pain.

His hostess lost her grip on the bullet more than once, but bit by bit, millimeter by millimeter, it was eventually removed. Dropping the metal fragment to the floor, she once again blotted the site with the damp cloth to clean up any residue she had disturbed before squeezing out a small dab of the antibiotic cream on her finger.

"It will heal on its own now, you don't have to" the Uchiha protested automatically, well aware that Orochimaru's advanced healing factor he was 'borrowing' had a good chance of smoothing over the affected area as good as new before the sun could rise.

Neo paused, her look of intense focus shifting to a small frown as she locked eyes with the Uchiha. For a few moments that felt longer than they were, the two merely stared at each other. Sasuke wondering if perhaps he should have just accepted her help without commentary and been done with it, and Neo a bit disappointed that his natural antisocial tendencies had returned.

Still, she wasn't going to quit now when he had finally cracked open the window to his true self. Just one more little push…

Her frown slowly gave way to a small smile as she slowly leaned forward until their noses were practically touching. Pleasingly, Sasuke did not lean back in a reflexive attempt to keep her out of his personal bubble. Whether he did so because he was comfortable enough with her to allow her to close the distance or because he didn't want to appear nervous, she didn't know. But it didn't matter. The fact that he didn't recoil on instinct was good enough for her.

Neither of them removed their gaze from the other's eyes for an instant. Even so, both of them were aware enough of their surrounding vision to see Neo raise her free hand on their peripheral visions to relay what she wanted.

'I know I don't have to,' she signed, her fingers gracefully twisting their message in the air for Sasuke to see at the edge of his vision. Not a second later he felt a dab of cream, no longer cool to the touch but warmed by the heat of the finger she had held it with, gently being pushed into his wound before being smeared around its edge as the small woman flashed her hand again.

'But I want to.'

And just like that, their stand-off ended. Neo grabbed the cloth again, re-focusing her gaze to the next wound site and beginning to blot it as though nothing had happened. The Uchiha remained seated, his stoic gaze unchanged even as his mind raced. He wasn't sure why he had spoken up now, it was almost like it was a knee-jerk reflex for him to try and deny any contact or assistance he didn't need. Still, there was no reason to deny her help either. She had literally dragged him out of the warehouse to bring him here, after all.

'Now that I think about it, it was possibly a bit rude for me to just turn my nose up at her efforts if she was the one to offer to help. She volunteered her own time and effort; in her own home of all place-'

It was at that moment that Sasuke realized just how much of an asshole he had been to her. For all of his inner monologuing about her possibly backstabbing him and having no reason to give her his trust, she had trusted him enough to show him where she lived, where she slept. If that wasn't a sign of some trust on her part, he didn't know what was.

"Thank you."

The two words of verbal gratitude he offered were short, and uttered so silently they could almost be a whisper. But Neo heard them, and her face beamed with joy. She was well aware those two words were just as much an apology as they were appreciation from him, and she had known Sasuke long enough to realize he was about as unlikely to do either as she was to stop eating ice cream. Those two words carried far more weight and meaning from him than from anyone else.

Neo paused her work, walking behind her guest before settling her free hand on the base of his neck, taking care to avoid any bullet sites. Lowering herself, she settled her chin on his shoulder, staring straight into the eyes of his reflection in the mirror before them.

'You're welcome'

The woman didn't have a free hand to sign her message to him, choosing instead to form the words with her own mouth and tongue.

They stayed in that position for almost a minute before gradually, almost imperceptibly, Sasuke began to loosen. He was relaxed before, but it had been a state he had put himself in to not appear anxious to his hostess as opposed to actually feeling it. There had been a tension beneath; a coiled spring ready to snap if any of his senses scanning for malicious intent picked something up that he didn't like.

Now his breathing was starting to become more natural and less measured, eyes losing a slight bit of their sharp focus as they and the rest of his senses switched from actively searching his surroundings to passively observing them.

It was the last thing he would have expected himself to say, but the Uchiha could actually say that he was enjoying himself a bit. The warm temperature was combined with just enough humidity to remind him of the climate of his home village; the beating sun and heated breeze tickling his senses from pure nostalgia. Even the scents of vanilla and lavender surrounding him reminded him of the Yamanaka Flower Shop; a place he had never dared to set foot in for fear of an ambush by Ino but had still passed by on occasion.

Neo returned to her position and picked up where she left off, cleaning the wounds, removing the bullet, and dabbing it with the antibiotic. Rinse, wash, repeat.

Every now and then he felt Neo's breath on his shoulder or back, sometimes a stray tip of her hair dangling down and tickling his skin. It was almost odd; an hour ago he would have questioned her motives for breathing so close to him, or wondered if she had let her hair brush him for some ulterior purpose. Now, he just took it as Neo not having a problem sharing personal space.

His shinobi training was still telling him that he was making far too many positive assumptions regarding her motives; she was still a trained killer, and the possibility that she was buttering him up in case Roman decided to 'fire' him. But so far, she had seemed apprehensive about him clashing with their employer if her behavior in the truck was any indicator. And refusing to lower his guard around her for any reason after she had saw fit to reveal her own home to him would only lead her to believe that he considered her as much a potential enemy as Roman. And if she believed that, then she had no reason to take his side if his relationship with the crime lord went south.

And so as she finished with his arms and torso, and tore open holes in his pants to reach the shots he had taken to his legs, he did nothing to dissuade her.

As for Neo, the portion of her brain not focused on the surgical task at hand was busy analyzing the miniscule shreds of psyche of her guest that had been painstakingly revealed. She was naturally curious, and from the day she had met Sasuke he had been a paradoxical enigma that fought tooth and nail to conceal himself.

Part of her drive to learn his true motives was a pragmatic one- he had yet to be made aware of Cinder and her involvement. She was currently away for some unplanned reason, but she or someone else she worked with would be back eventually to make sure Roman cooperated. Hiring Roman for their purposes had not been mutually beneficial; the only thing Roman 'gained' from his obedience was not being killed. Other than that, their Dust robberies were more trouble than they were worth. It didn't help matters that Cinder had not bothered telling Roman why they were stealing Dust, or what their ultimate goal was. That was alarming. It stank of either a set-up, or a convenient pawn whose lack of deep intel meant they were expendable.

If she were being honest with herself, she was still pissed at Roman for bringing her into this in the first place. He had hired her on after Cinder had tasked him with stealing Dust, only telling her about the woman after she was in. But the more important point was that if Roman was worthless to Cinder, then she and Sasuke were too. Neo desperately needed to know how he would respond. With the skill and power she had seen him use so far, his answer to that question could potentially tip the balance of power.

But the larger part of her curiosity now was a more personal one. From the moment Sasuke told roman he wouldn't be killing for him; Neo had been utterly perplexed. It made no sense- he had utterly dominated her in their first fight and been humiliatingly toying around with her for their subsequent spars even as her repeated defeats forced her to improve her fighting skills to new heights. Someone that good had to have been trained as nothing short of a killing machine. Not a Huntsman to merely hack away at mindless Grimm, but an assassin capable of ending the lives of dozens of flesh and blood humans as easily as he drew breath.

Just like she was.

The fact that he kept his shell closed as tightly as a clam only served to fuel her desire to find out what he was hiding inside. The best way to ensure people wanted to see something, after all, was to tell them they shouldn't see it. But gradually, after forcing him out of his stoic, stand-alone-in-the-background comfort zone a few times, she was starting to get a vague silhouette of his persona.

In spite of the cool, unflappable image he presented, he was a man of action. He was like a cat stalking its prey; hidden, silent, until it was time to take what he wanted with explosive force. He had not hesitated for a moment to beat her to the edge of unconsciousness at their first meeting, nor to waste time with introductions or speeches that Roman was so fond of, and he had not paused for a moment to send what was probably a good quarter or third of the Vale Police Force to the hospital when they got in his way. She did not know his motives, or ultimate goal. But Neo knew that when Sasuke Uchiha set himself to a task he did not half-ass it.

'I wonder what else he's good at when he sets his mind to it…' the diminutive woman pondered to herself as she pulled out the last projectile from the Uchiha's calf.

Raising herself, she rested her chin on the Uchiha's shoulder once again, though this time forgoing even more personal space and leaning forward just enough for her chest to brush his back before signing into the mirror, 'All done.'

"Hn."

He was back to the one-syllable responses, but the 'thank you' he had given earlier was enough for her for the whole night anyway. Standing up, she reached for the glass of water again, this time offering it to him first.

Sasuke understood the implication, and drank several mouthfuls before offering it back to Neo. She gave an appreciative nod before taking the glass from him and took several small sips herself, but refusing to consume the final serving and offered the last mouthful to her guest. Neo could make out the small curl of his mouth that while not a smile or smirk, still spoke of a small bit of amusement before he downed the last of the glass's contents.

Neo beamed back, her face taking on a coy appearance as she disregarded cleaning the floor of the removed bullets and instead took the Uchiha's hand in hers once again, taking the extra step of interlacing her fingers with his. A small furrowing of his eyebrows indicated he was catching on to what was happening, but as she expected he was still uncertain as to how to proceed. It was not from lack of experience, the Uchiha had such magnificent looks there was little doubt in Neo's mind that he hadn't taken up at least one good opportunity that had come his way even with his lone wolf nature. That was fine with Neo- she was more than comfortable taking the lead for now. The earlier spectacle of the man in front of her taking control of the firefight and crushing all in his path had been more than enough of a turn-on for her.

Turning around, she began leading him out the bathroom, through the living room, past the deck they had entered, before opening another set of doors to reveal a rather cozy bedroom with a chocolate brown and cream white theme.

Sasuke was no fool- he knew where this was leading, and not for the first time that night his logic and emotions conflicted. His shinobi half had been muffled by the pleasant ambient atmosphere from earlier, but was still screaming as loudly as it could that one of the worst and last mistakes a male shinobi could make was sticking his dick in crazy.

And yet, his body refused to listen. He felt Neo's hand press into and grab his length, slowly stroking it through his pants as she used her other hand to guide his to the buttons of her jacket. Even as his nimble, hand seal weaving hands effortlessly removed the fastening of her outermost layer without any conscious input, he opened his mouth as his more cautious side finally summoned the willpower to make itself heard.

Or it would have, if Neo hadn't seen it coming and cut him off.

'Let me guess, you're about to say, "You don't have to" again, or something like that.'

Sasuke's words died in his throat. Neo could tell some of his previous tension had returned, but unlike before it was not a result of him anxiously scanning for anything out of place. No, now the tension was from struggling to hold himself back.

At that realization, a switch turned on. Neo's pupils dilated with excitement, skin flushed with anticipation, and a rapidly-growing moist patch appeared between her legs. Sasuke losing control was exactly what she wanted- none of the control or restraint from before; she wanted him raw.

The heated woman grabbed his remaining hand, and guided it straight to her now gushing nethers. Once again, she chose to form soundless words that were meant only for him.

'My answer is the same as before,' she stated, her eyes taking on a positively hungry appearance as he felt Neo's arousal with his own hand. 'I want to.'

She then gently pushed the Uchiha onto her bed with his back flat and legs hanging over the side. His hand was removed from her groin as Neo retook her position on his lap, slowly starting to grind herself on his growing bulge. He was far from passive himself, his hand having completed its task or removing her jacket buttons now removing the obstructive clothing before brushing up against her necklaces and none-too gently squeezing her breast.

'And I know you want it, too.'

He did want it. He hadn't been laid since before he arrived, and between the stress of creating a seal, working his three jobs, keeping his identity as much of a secret as he reasonably could, and the adrenaline-pumping fight earlier, he was pent up. He was supposed to be a Shinobi, a heartless killing machine that slaughtered the enemies of his home without compassion, hesitation, or emotion.

Sasuke was not that ideal tool. If he had been, he would have stayed in Konoha like he was told and not let his burning desire for vengeance control his decisions.

Right now, Sasuke had the very common male desire for the female flesh; and it silenced any objections his mind had left. He reached his hand beneath the fabric of Neo's pants to roughly grope the smooth flesh of her ass and slowly thrusting his own pelvis up to coincide with her grinding, and began to indulge his human desires once again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Darkness. It was all around her. Not even the smallest pinprick of starlight anywhere could be seen. She should feel safe here- if she could see nothing, then nothing could see her.

But she was not safe. She knew better. The monster that hunted her knew where she was; even if the echoing footsteps she was making had been completely silenced, he would find her. He always did.

Perhaps he could hear her heart beating out of her chest as she attempted to flee; to run anywhere else- if she stayed where she was, he would catch her. Or maybe he could track her scent, following it's wafting trail as easily as a shark tracked the smallest quantities of blood in the ocean to find its hapless prey and rip it to pieces. Or maybe he just always knew where she was- he could see her body, her very soul from across the horizon, and the fact that she had eluded him this long was only because he had let her run this long. Maybe he was just amusing himself by toying with her fear, letting her believe she could maybe, just maybe, be free of him- but plucking her out of her futile escape attempt like a rat being pulled from it's tail, looking down and only realizing after it was caught that it was in an inescapable maze the entire time.

No! She couldn't think about that! If there was even the smallest chance of escape, she had to try!

She kept running. She did not look back; there was no point. If she could see him behind her it was too late. She just kept running, as fast as she could, in the emptiness of the void.

Suddenly- a glimmer! A tiny point of light directly in front of her- she had made it! It wasn't far away, just a few more seconds and then she would be-

Abject fear took hold of her as an unseen force brought her to her knees in an instant. The weight, the gravity, the power holding her down- he had found her.

"NO! NO! NOOOO!" tears flowed down her face as she screamed, she was so close! She floundered, every attempt to stand on her feet doomed to fail as the grip of the presence around her forced her down.

She forced her exhausted body to crawl, aching muscles unable to move her at any kind of speed to escape the Demon she knew was coming. She could still make it- the light was almost within her reach. She didn't know what the light was or how it would help, but she knew that if she reached it, she would be safe!

Her faint optimism was crushed once again as the surface beneath her shifted; no longer a nebulous but still solid footing for her, but now a thick, cold, viscous fluid that seeped its grimy contents directly through her skin like a foul oil. Her arms and legs sank, the heavy force still pulling her down without mercy into the filthy sludge.

NO! GOD DAMMIT N-!" her desperate screams of agony and despair were silenced, drowned out by the muck filling her mouth as she sank. It coated every possible surface in her mouth and on her body it could- spreading like a virus to every inch of her body it could to infest her with its sticky, oily touch. Arms and legs flailed wildly in a panic, concerted effort giving way to the animalistic instinct to mindlessly struggle, to spend every bit of energy she could in what might be her last moments in some kind of attempt to free herself. But the sludge would not allow her to go free. It was a part of the monster just as the pressure forcing her down and squeezing her lungs was. It would not let her go.

Slowly, somehow, against all odds, her body was inched forward, the sticky fluid fighting her for every inch as she attempted to claw her way to the light that was now only inches away with nothing but pure desperation and raw instinct to live.

But her mouth, oh God, her mouth! The sludge was slithering down her throat- coating her lungs and entering her stomach as it invaded every part of her being. Tears streamed from her eyes before being absorbed by the black sludge as she could feel the disgusting fluid form hands around her legs to pull her back… back to him.

Her screams of agony at the sensation of the foul matter forcing itself into every orifice it could find were silenced as she was forced to cough and sputter the slime from her lungs to avoid choking. Her ass, her vagina, her ears, mouth, nose, nothing was spared as the slime raped and violated every part of her it touched.

And yet- she was almost there! Just another inch, and this would all be behind her- a horrifying memory she would repress as well as she could after her escape. She raised her arm to the light- ignoring her limb's numbing exhaustion from pushing far past its tolerable limits as the sludge, the force, and the monster all conspired to consume her. She threw all of her remaining energy into her extended arm; one last lunge that would either free her, or fail.

She lunged- her fingertip brushed the light.

"YES! YES!" She was free! She could le-

A pale hand clasped around her wrist in a bone-creaking grip, its owner's wrist disappearing into the black void behind the light. Her eyes widened in abject horror as the light slightly brightened- revealing another hand that held the light in its palm.

Like a deep-sea anglerfish, he had created the light to lure his prey. Amusing himself at her futile endeavor to reach what she thought was safety before she realized she had been deceived into struggling toward her own grave.

The blood drained from her skin before she saw his face- she knew who it was. Flawless pale skin and aristocratic face adorned the Demon, Sasuke Uchiha, in front of her. Even in the pitch-black of the void, his eyes, his empty eyes, somehow seemed twenty shades blacker than their surroundings. A cold, empty blackness that cast a shadow on the darkness itself.

Those pitiless eyes gazed upon her trapped form, neither gloating nor showing a hint of amusement. He never showed any emotion- he probably didn't have any. A demon did not cause agony or misery for personal gain or even for their own amusement- they did it because they that was what they did. Because it was what he was- a presence in the world that existed for the sole purpose of causing agony and suffering. The Sun existed to give light and warmth, air existed to breathe, water existed to drink- Sasuke Uchiha was in this world to cause and spread misery, pain, anguish, and torment to every living thing that he laid eyes on.

"Did you think you could escape me?" the Demon's silky voiced questioned, the framing of the words the only indication that he might be feeling some kind of amusement from such a thing.

"Poor thing," he continued, his icy voice penetrating her bones and almost freezing her heart in place, "you should know by now you cannot escape. You cannot leave."

The sludge around her body froze, chilling her body further but allowing her to lift her mouth above the slime. "Please… please…," she whimpered, no longer having the strength or the will to scream or cry in a desperate plea, "just let me go… I just want to go home… I just want to see my friends…"

"You do not have friends," he callously replied. "They left you. They left you when I took you."

Her vision blurred as a flood of tears foiled her vision. Why couldn't she go back!?

"There is nothing left for you to go back to- this is your home now." Her eyes widened in horror. She knew he was going to keep her here, but the ways he said it, like she was where she belonged, made her insides freeze and churn in fear.

"You belong to me" he declared as her blurred vision of him began to shake from her trembling. "I own you. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, I will be inside your mind, your very soul."

In a split-second, the sludge surrounding her exploded with movement- twisting her limbs around back and forth, worming its way into the deepest parts of her body. It was not attacking her- it was playing with her like a doll; taking command of every part of her and moving her in whatever way it felt like. For no better reason than it could.

"And because I am inside of you," continued the Demon, the black pits that were his eyes callously disregarding her agony, "you cannot escape me."

The pressure increased in force ten-fold; she couldn't move a single muscle as the sludge continued to violate her. She couldn't breathe- her lungs were crushed by the pressure, filling with blood from the ruptured organs that she hacked up to her mouth, the coppery fluid mixing with the vile oil of the slime. Her bones were being crushed; cracking and snapping with unimaginable agony even as her muscles and tendons were ripped from their foundations.

"And because you cannot escape me," he concluded, "I will see you tomorrow night."

The pressure intensified, and she was torn apart.

Violet woke up screaming, the last bit of air in her lungs forming an ear-shattering noise before they were emptied, forcing her to choke in a fraction of a breath more air before she heaved up the contents of her stomach on the floor beneath her bed. Just like in her dream, her vision was blurred and trembling. And it was for the same reasons too- tears produced in ludicrous enough quantities to practically form small streams underneath her eyes, and violent tremors racking every muscle in her body.

She jumped out of her bed in a stumble, paying no mind to her hand slipping on the bile she had regurgitated seconds before nor the sharp sting of pain from hitting her head on the corner of her dresser as she clumsily stumbled in desperation for her bedroom light.

With a frenzy brought by total and utter fear Violet reached the light in a blind flurry, nails scratching off the wall's paint as she reached for the switch with the desperation of madness.

Finally, she hit it. Light flooded the room. It was exactly as she had left it before she had retired for the night, not a single object an inch out of place. Still, she twisted her head and neck to and fro at a dizzying pace, her eyes darting in every possible direction. It was foolish to search for him, if he had come for her in her own home her throat would have been slit already.

But she could no longer control her fear that Sasuke was here. Watching her- waiting to strike and disembowel her with the slightest touch.

A burning ache in her lungs brought her out of her search. Focusing every bit off effort on her abdomen to get it to cease its contraction. She wasn't breathing- she needed to breathe! Bit by bit the muscles of her belly released just enough to allow her to take a rushed breath of air, just enough for her to curl herself into a fetal position on the wall and sob into her arms in despair.

She didn't need to look at her skin to know it was an unhealthy shade of white and clammy from a buildup of sweat. She did not need to look in a mirror to know her eyes were bloodshot and glistening with tears.

"Hey Violet," a female voice outside her room laced with concern interrupted, "we heard you scream again, this is the third time toni-"

"GO AWAY!"

It wasn't the first time her neighbors had been woken up by her nightmares, but their sympathy was not well received. Violet knew better now than to believe they would help her when the going got tough. She remembered every detail of her nightmares, and the simple sentence he had spoken to her, "You do not have friends, they left you. They left you when I took you.", was a knife that twisted deep because it was true.

When she had first met Sasuke, all of her companions, her 'friends' had abandoned her without a second thought. Even if it had been hopeless, the fact that not one of them even tried to negotiate with him to try and help her… she had never felt so unwanted, so worthless in her entire life. Not even the scum she had to entertain at the Red Mare had cut her that deep; she knew going in that they thought of her as a disposable tool for their entertainment, being abandoned by people whom she thought she could depend on was far worse. Several of her colleagues at the Red Mare had seen her obviously slipping psyche, but she had no faith that any of them would help her. If she could not trust her former friends, she sure as hell couldn't trust her coworkers who regularly did business with Sasuke's boss, or her neighbors, who were probably a few days away from calling a psychologist to try and help her.

She was alone. It hadn't helped that she had quit her job- the chance that Sasuke would come back and she would be forced to share the same room with him was simply too much for her to handle. She had been unable to find another job since, being arrested for possession twice being enough of a reason for most employers to toss her resume. Three weeks later her finances were running low and her stash of cocaine had been completely depleted, adding withdrawal symptoms and possible eviction to her list of problems.

Violet knew it was a metaphor, but as she sat trembling on the floor of her room sobbing uncontrollably with the irrational but real fear that if she opened her eyes the monster that was tearing her life apart would be right in front of her, she could swear she could actually feel the walls closing in.

"No matter where you go, no matter what you do, I will be inside your mind, your very soul."

Eyes widened in terror- it took a moment to realize that she had not heard the words with her ears but inside her head, a vivid memory of the nightmare only minutes prior. She would take it as a plus that Sasuke was not actually in her room to say it, but hearing voices in her head was hardly a good sign either.

In a way, she couldn't be rid of him. He was inside her being, a dark shadow that had attached itself to her mind and implanted its DNA into its host like a virus, and would be with her until her dying day. She could not escape him in her life, his reach and influence corroding and rotting everything that had once been solid and steady. She could not escape him in sleep- she saw him every night.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly rose to her feet and stumbled her way toward her phone- the one thing it felt like he had not corrupted. She steadied herself as she scrolled through the contacts, pausing as she reached one number she had avoided thus far. She had done so for good reason- as horrifying as Sasuke was to her, the man whom this contact worked for was a monster himself. She had only occasionally used this contact to acquire high-end substances on special occasions, but she would be asking for more than just a refill of coke this time. The price was going to be much higher- potentially destroying her life every bit as effectively as the Uchiha currently was if the worse rumors were to be believed.

But desperate times called for desperate measures.

She pressed the call button, pleasantly surprised that her call was answered after only two rings.

"Well hello, Violet. A pleasure to hear from your lovely face again, you need a refill of your last purchase?" a smooth male voice on the other end of the line inquired.

"I need to leave the Kingdom of Vale, Shaves."

"Really? Well that's a new one. Did you have a particular destina-?"

"Anywhere. I just- I just need to leave!" she stammered, the stress finally catching up with her attempts to hide her desperation.

"Well with that attitude, how can I refuse?" he responded, his tone taking on a more playful note. "Tell me gorgeous, what is it worth to you?"

It was a loaded question, but the image of Sasuke Uchiha flashing in her mind prompted her to give her answer with no hesitation.

"Anything."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lemon Warning

Neo had crossed her fingers that Sasuke's disguised persona was hiding the same raw, passionate energy he seemed to have in spades whenever the chips were down. She had hoped that it would manifest as something interesting to behold in the bedroom just as it had been in battle.

She was not disappointed.

Mother of the Gods, this was better than anything she could have hoped for!

He was currently pounding her with almost enough force to literally fuck her right through the wall, her hips and legs feeling every powerful thrust as the soft flesh of her rear cushioned her from the force. She was positioned against the wall sideways, her hands pushing against the surface as he held one of her legs vertically into the air with her other dangling down to not quite touch the floor. Her legs were flexible enough to split a bit past a full 180 degrees, and he was exploiting that opening for all it was worth.

Tight coils continued to writhe in her core, even during the release of her orgasms that she had lost count of, the pleasure never died away. It continued building itself up, Sasuke's relentless thrusting and groping always somehow enough to keep her at a high level of pleasure. Her nectar continuing to gush forth to coat his welcome cock with lubricant to plunge into her depths with minimal resistance, the sweet fluid cascading down her leg in tiny rivers as heavily as though she had been caught outside in a rainstorm.

Between the flashes of stars that kept appearing in her vision and the waves of pleasure that rippled from her pussy that was being mercilessly fucked, Neo recalled just how she had gotten into this situation.

Oh, he had started off rather typically- grasping, brushing, and kneading her body to feed their mutual arousal, but then he had gone off-road.

She had lowered herself onto his cock for the first time that night after they had had the brief presence of mind to slip a condom on it, the tight ring of muscles gracing him with immense pleasure in their silken depths as he finally gave her a look of lustful hunger that betrayed his primal urge. Then, she felt it. She wasn't sure what he did, but at that moment the nerves in her walls felt twice as sensitive as usual. As he slowly began bouncing her up and down, Neo actually felt his length grip her walls instead of merely sliding back and forth. Her pussy was pulled and pushed, pulled and pushed, over and over at an accelerated pace that showed her no mercy as she began her silent screams of ecstasy. The expanding heat in her belly grew into a wildfire at a breakneck pace she had never experienced from anything, each thrust one step closer to releasing it in a blazing explosion.

She came hard- breathing so rapidly and deeply from getting to her first release that the passing air made an audible rushing sound as it passed through her lips and throat from the sheer friction it was generating. It made her sound almost like a wild animal. God, it was the hottest sound she had ever heard herself make!

Her pussy clenched like a warm, wet vice as she finally achieved her orgasm with a series of tremors racking her body. Her vision almost turning to black as her flower was stimulated to release a waterfall of fluid on the cock that had brought it to the most intense climax of its existence so easily. He had kept thrusting throughout her finale, bringing her back up from her fall even before it was done instead of having to build the coil in her belly from the ground up again. Readjusting her eyes, she stared at him in almost shell-shocked disbelief- how had he done that?

Then she looked at the clock, and realized her entire buildup, orgasm, and her float down had happened in three minutes. Her head shot back to the Uchiha, shock turning to apprehension and a slight bit of fear. He was no-where near done, and if he could pick her apart like that on his first try, what could he do with more?

Sasuke's predatory nature revealed itself, a small smirk on his face as he realized Neo's anxiety. He sensed her fear, and from that moment on was in undisputed possession of the initiative.

Again and again, she was brought to the zenith of feminine pleasure. His length pressing every single sensitive button in her depths with uncanny efficiency that made her skin flush so red with excitement it could pass for a sunburn. She was coming undone- her mind and body being dissected in the most rapturous of manners, and she was relishing every moment of it as her partner turned from a woman looking for a good lay into a bitch in heat in her own home.

A tiny sliver of her had been appalled; she had hoped that she would finally be able to one-up him in something; her Olympic-level flexibility making her capable of maneuvers most women could only dream of performing and most men could only dream of experiencing from their partner. She wanted to be the one who was making him lose his mind and wrest his control from him; not the other way around!

The remaining part of her couldn't say 'WHO CARES!?' hard enough. She had gone through a dry spell herself, and this was the best possible way to end it. The Uchiha repositioned her, varying the pace and strength of his thrusts, somehow always managing to find her most sensitive regions in what felt like a heartbeat before maneuvering his cock to hit them in just the right place to make her writhe in utter bliss. She didn't care that she was losing her mind after mere minutes of his efforts, she didn't even care that even with his primal gaze of lust he still somehow pulled off his patented, 'I'm in control and I'm better than you' look. None of that mattered- she just needed him to keep fucking her until she melted into an incoherent puddle.

Finally, after effortlessly switching position to doggy, a quickening of his breath and his pace gave the telltale sign of his own impending climax. The hand on her breast continued to squeeze, his pointer and middle finger pinching the nipple with a sharp pain that brought twice as much pleasure. The strength of his grasp was increased until it was powerful enough to lightly bruise the soft flesh even with her aura protecting it. His other hand leapt from her shoulder, not to pull her hair as she had expected (and hoped), but instead sifted his fingers through her pink and brown hair that had lost it's sleek, groomed luster and was now tangled and clumpy with sweat, to fully grip the back of her skull instead.

And then, he sprinted for his homestretch. Neo's view of her room turned into a blur as her head and body were thrashed back and forth from Sasuke's now fanatic thrusts and his iron hold on her. She was amazed the bed wasn't splitting in half with the force he was putting behind each and every lunge as her hair flew about so rapidly small droplets of sweat flew off with enough momentum to sling themselves to the surrounding walls.

He kept squeezing his reigns as he brought himself to his finish. She had no doubt her breast had a paler appearance now from his hand compressing the flesh so much the incoming blood flow was stalled, and her head- oh God! If she hadn't had aura her skull would have been crushed like a styrofoam cup.

Neo was a woman who loved it rough, and her pussy rewarded her lover's efforts with a fresh squirt of her nectar that turned into almost a mist from the sheer speed and tightness of their coitus as she began her ascent into the clouds again. The Uchiha continued plunging himself into and out of her core, hard enough to ensure her climax was a strong enough one to bring her to the brink of blackout and to still keep enough of her adrenaline flowing to prevent her from taking her final step into unconsciousness. As he dug himself to the hilt and beyond and let himself go with his cock's head penetrating deeply enough to rub her cervix, Neo experienced his climax with her senses of sight and hearing completely gone.

That left three muddled senses, and they were still all overwhelmed. The scent of sex permeated the air like a sex-induced smog, smothering her nose with their combined pheromones that kept her sexual arousal at peak levels. So strong was their presence in the air she could swear her tongue could taste them- a small dash of unknown flavor that covered the mass of saliva and sweat that had made its way into her mouth that she had not had the ordinary presence of mind to swallow as they built up.

But it was the sense of touch that had the most to say. She could feel his cock spasm and begin to pulse its contents with so much pressure and force she could feel the condom surge backwards with a discernable snap as it caught the first of his load. It throbbed inside of her, his hands holding her in place with an even tighter orgasm-fueled grip in the primal instinct to ensure she did not move from her position while he fired his load into her at the deepest point possible.

Her walls were squeezing him hard, refusing to allow even the most microscopic of empty space to separate them from their now beloved intruder. Her vagina pulsed, again and again, as it re-tightened its grip enough for her currently orgasming, sensory-overloaded brain to make out and feel every last contour and curve of the cock that had fucked her so well. He continued to pulse, the condom's end beginning to balloon.

Sasuke slowly brought himself back, reversing a few inches before slowly resuming his thrusting at a shallow, more delicate pace that did not batter or pull the walls of its hostess with overwhelming speed and force. Rather, he gently massaged the hypersensitive walls with whatever trick he did to make his cock clutch her flesh instead of simply sliding back and forth, small tugs to and fro as she began coming down from her peak. Her eyes began to form a dark, foggy silhouette and her ears picked up the muffled breaths of her partner.

And then, she fell back into the silent darkness as the small caresses of his cock on her overstimulated pussy halted her fall from her orgasmic high before shooting her back up into a mind-blowing double orgasm. This time, she left the circles of the observable world entirely, the last thing she felt as her perception of the world was erased being the cock that had thrown her above cloud nine continuing to tenderly thrust.

The world came into focus around Neo quickly, her lungs panting to get enough oxygen into her body to meet its sex-induced metabolism rush. Two warm wet trails from the corners of her mouth telling her she had drooled the contents of her mouth during her mental absence. Suddenly, she felt her pussy emptying. Looking underneath her, she saw Sasuke slowly removing himself from her depths, taking care not to pull too tightly and rupture the condom. With a small pop, it was free. He had really let himself go- the tip of the rubber was stretched slightly beyond its intended dimensions from the volume if its contents. He wordlessly tied it and threw it in the nearest trash bin.

Neo laid her head back on the bed as she recuperated herself from the experience, not caring that every inch of bed beneath her was flooded with her saliva, sweat, or feminine fluids as her partner fumbled around with something behind her.

Suddenly, without warning, strong arms threw her on her back. Startled eyes focused on her partner, looming over her like a giant. Raven locks framed his face as his onyx orbs focused on her with an intensity she had never seen from him. It was a sight she knew right then and there she would remember for the rest of her life.

This was the Sasuke she had wanted to see from almost the first day they had met- not the passive wall-leaner he showed to the rest of the world. No; this Sasuke had a goal in mind that he would not be denied.

With equal parts disbelief, fear, and body-trembling craving, she saw the Uchiha was still hard and ready for more. He was in her bedroom with her because fucking her, taking her, was his sole objective in this moment.

He did not ask if she was ready or if she wanted another round- he didn't care if she had any objections. His gaze continued to burn her, daring her to protest as he slid back into her.

Creamy legs wrapping around his torso locking him in place was her answer. Smirking in triumph, the Uchiha dug into her core as he began to fuck her again.

And he had not stopped since. His second load of the night had not slowed him down in the slightest even as her body became numb from the overwhelming cascade of endorphins he forced her to release as he played her body as easily as a master musician played their instrument.

It was downright terrifying how easily he controlled her here. Every thought that went through her head, every muscle twitch, every gasp of breath as her senses were overloaded with sharp pangs of bliss, every mind-breaking orgasm that brought her to reality's boundary, was because of him.

Her body was being violated and assaulted, her mind was being picked apart, and her soul was being dominated. And she loved every second of it.

'There, right there! FASTER!'

She vaguely felt him pick up his pace again, her senses dulled from being so highly overdosed still able to pick up her lover's change in momentum that divulged his release was upon him.

Neo could not do much at this point except scream and chant in her own head for him to finish inside her- begging he would do as much since she had long since lost any say in the matter. Her muscles had long since over-exerted themselves, unable to keep up with the Uchiha's brutal pace. Any of her limbs not held up by the Uchiha weakly dangled from her body, swinging limply with the timing of his thrusts being the only motion they were now capable of.

The world around her began to disappear as she was brought to what had to be cloud fourteen or fifteen, familiar enough with the sensation by now to prepare for loss of consciousness.

"No!"

With an assertive command, Sasuke pulled the leg he held above her further back, straining even Neo's ridiculous flexibility to the point her tendons started to burn. It was enough- just enough, to keep her barely anchored to the real world.

"No more blacking out," he demanded.

Even at the brink of his climax, the Uchiha still retained enough control to quash any trembling or inflections in his voice. The slightly elevated volume and more labored breathing the only things that betrayed his coming storm.

Neo clung on for dear life, every inch of her skin not covered with hair glistening with so much sweat it would be indistinguishable from a swimmer rising from a pool. Her heart pounded with almost painful force, her diaphragm expanding and compressing her lungs at the most rapid rate allowed as her adrenaline forced her body to its absolute limits.

'Finish! COME INSIDE!'

And then, with his cock making a final punch that pushed it far enough to occupy every last shred of space available in her tunnel, he came.

'YEEESSS!'

Even through the condom she could feel the liquid heat begin to force her walls open a fraction of an inch to make room for the cum that desperately needed to find some space to occupy.

The seeping heat triggered her own climax, and with this one she completely lost control. Her body did not tremble so much as vibrate, each and every muscle in her body forced to spend every last shred of energy they had left in a frenzy of writhing, random orgies of movement that had the appearance of a full-blown seizure. Every muscle fiber and cell burned from the unprecedented quantities of lactic acid that was bathing them, but the burns and aches were not enough to drown out the utter ecstasy that came with it.

Her senses began to leave again, rising up to reach the blank void. Suddenly they halted their ascent; rebounding as her previous vision of the wall in front of her replaced by the sheets of her bed as she felt her head bounce up from the mattress.

Sasuke was serious about her not losing consciousness again; he had swung her torso into the bed hard enough for the resulting centrifugal force to push enough blood into her head to force her to stay with him.

Fuck he was rough with her! Exactly how she liked it!

He could not have timed it more perfectly: before, her climaxes had brought her to untold pleasure even as her senses to fell and disappeared. But now, she came uninterrupted as her senses sharpened.

Her body was on fire. A raging blaze that consumed every cell of her flesh with both the agonizing ache of muscles completely and utterly spent with the flood of orgasmic pleasure that burst forth from her core in unstoppable walls of euphoria that unified into a divine rapture.

There were no thoughts- she could not think anything.

Her ears heard his hips crashing into hers with reckless abandon, punctuated by what sounded like water filling a bathtub. If Neo could have looked behind her she would have seen the true source- juice shooting from her sex in such quantity it formed a small puddle beneath her even as more of her fluids were ejaculated at force to fill it further.

Hilted inside of her, Sasuke continued to throb, once again refusing to budge until his penis had fulfilled its duty. As his length finally finished sputtering its last drops, both the Uchiha and Neo finally fell down from their high.

'Holy fucking shit…'

Flushed intensity gave way to warm afterglow, and the small woman basked in it with the satisfaction of a man lost in the desert stumbling upon an oasis. She felt a regretful feeling of emptiness as Sasuke removed himself from her, but at this point she was going to have to call it quits. She barely had the strength left to roll herself over now, if Sasuke somehow had any more rounds in him he would be fucking a comatose partner in short order.

Lemon End

Neo finished righting herself, unable to do more than lay on her belly as she stared at the clock in her room with awe- he had been fucking her for a little more than an hour already! She glanced fearfully at his length; hoping he had finally hit his end for the night. While he was softening, she noted nervously that there was still more than enough lingering rigidity for him to continue if he really wanted to.

Thankfully, her body would be given an opportunity to rest. Her partner was walking around the room (on non-exhausted and still working legs, somehow) to gather his clothing, his boxers already thrown as he began to dress himself to leave.

She had expected nothing less. His antisocial nature aside, staying the night after an evening of sex in an unfamiliar house was not a good idea for people of their profession if their partner was another assassin. They were known as hired killers and backstabbers for a reason; not people who could be trusted to sleep next to.

Still, she couldn't help but feel a pang of longing, the deluge of oxytocin produced from their mind-blowing session giving her an uncharacteristic urge to cuddle. Neo was hardly a woman who felt the urge to fall asleep spooned with her partner after a romp, but after a fuck like that even she was going to feel the post-sex yearn for skin-to-skin contact.

"I'll see you at the next job."

His aloofness was back in full force, a small puff of disappointment escaping her as it seemed her further desire for his company would not be returned.

He was fully dressed in moments, as impeccable as when he had first arrived in her home with no flushed skin or unkempt hair to betray the raunchy activities he had been at the center of for the past hour. The clinging and overpowering smell of sex being the only indicator of how he had spent his evening.

Right as he reached the door to her balcony, he stopped. Turning his head around just enough for a single eye to gaze at the naked, prone form of Neo lying on her sheets, gazing into her eyes that flashed a spark of hope at his pause.

"Or maybe sooner."

The spark blossomed into a shining glow of ecstatic satisfaction as her lips formed a contented smile. Roman had kept tabs on the Uchiha almost since he had hired him- a common practice for the crime lord to make sure he knew what his subordinates were up to. And so, Neo knew that Sasuke never spent time with anyone outside of his work. Ever.

She was more to him than a colleague now. They may only have been fuck-buddies, but it was more than anyone else in his life and probably about the best that people in their profession could ever get.

Managing to roll herself on her back, Neo stared at the Uchiha's now upside-down form with a small, coy smile. Using one arm to lift her breasts in a teasing display of cleavage, she gave a tiny flirtatious wave goodbye with the other as he lifted off into the night.

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AN: Okay, so that was my first lemon. Tell me if it was too much, not enough, or just right, all that stuff.

Also of note, I hope you found my comparison of aura and chakra durability to be a good one. I have been one of many fans of Naruto to try and find some logical reason why unlike other Shonen, Naruto's power scaling and character durability are so inconsistent. If you're in DBZ, One Piece, Bleach, or Fairy Tail the rule is simple: powerful characters are completely unaffected by weaker characters. Attacks bounce off.

Not so with Naruto. Unless the character has a jutsu or ability specifically designed for protection, such as the Raikage's lightning armor, Gaara's sand, Susanoo, etc., a kunai thrown from a fresh Genin will still cut and do just as much damage to an unprotected Kage-level opponent if it hits. They are seemingly frail glass canons, fearing any direct hit, which does give them reason to adopt ninja-like fighting habits such as stealth and deception, but still does not explain the superhuman feats of durability we do see. Naruto smashing a thirteen-year-old Sasuke through and across solid rocks at the Final Valley being a prime example.

I, like many others, have given this paradoxical inconsistency plenty of thought, and this is the best explanation I can think of. Chakra not creating an armor, but a reinforcement of sorts for its user. A good comparison is the difference between the durability difference between a person in a suit of armor and person who (somehow) is made of wood. The wood is nowhere near as effective as the metal is at blocking or stopping hits, but the wood has no soft spots and unlike the armor is not hollow. This also explains why chakra characters can handle blunt trauma relatively well but still get cut by an average kunai (I'm assuming every shinobi puts at least some chakra into their kunai and shuriken to enhance their cutting power to a modest degree).

Let me know what you think!