Sasuke tried not to think too much about his recent encounter with those thugs, but as always, his mind tended to go against his choices.
"White Fang," the name left his lips, and it reminded him of the conversations he had overheard in that alley earlier. You don't need much to understand that they are a form of resistance made up entirely of faunus.
Meaning that the racial division in this world was much more extreme than Sasuke had initially imagined, and that led to questions.
Were the faunus the ones on the bad side of the world?
What drove them to it?
Are they the cause of all this racial division, or the result of it?
Sasuke didn't know the answer because he didn't have the necessary information.
"I need to get into that school." Fortunately, he had completed his first objective successfully and much faster than intended. Money always seems to be necessary, no matter the world.
Considering the decent amount Sasuke had gotten from those bandits, he wouldn't have to worry about money for a long time.
Or so he believed until he came across an interesting store, the only one that caught his eye apart from that bookshop, a store specializing in arming and dressing the warriors of this world.
Sasuke couldn't ignore the current state of his clothes after fighting in a war, being haggard and soiled with blood. Still, these clothes pleased him. With that in mind, he decided to order a replica of them along with his weapon that was lost in the volcanic dimension.
It was expensive, very expensive, even more so to have it ready in two days, but it was worth it. The only problem Sasuke had during the negotiation turned out to be his lack of knowledge and common sense.
When Sasuke presented cash, the shopkeeper questioned him about using a "credit card" to accumulate points and benefit from them.
Sasuke had no idea what the man was talking about, especially when he said that he also accepted payment via Scroll...
It had been a long time since Sasuke had felt so upset about something as simple as a lack of common knowledge.
In his world, scrolls only had value when used for sealing or storing rare Jutsus.
As this was hardly the case, Sasuke just assumed that there were objects in this world with different names or that the language wasn't exactly the same, as he had imagined at first.
With that in mind, Sasuke made some effort to dissuade the seller, saying that he had lost these things during a difficult mission and that he urgently needed his equipment restored to leave again soon, and couldn't afford to prioritize such trivialities.
His firm and direct tone convinced the old man without difficulty, even earning him some admiration as if he were a hero... how wrong he was.
That aside, Sasuke had to leave his used clothes behind, so they could replicate them perfectly. So, after removing his hoodie and turtleneck, which helped hide his face a lot, came the second expression of disbelief earned in one night.
The female assistant's shock was on par with the bookseller's.
For a moment, Sasuke could have sworn that she seemed to have forgotten how to breathe when she saw his upper body exposed during his change of clothes. As he had nothing else with him, Sasuke had to buy a few more things from the store, such as a new pair of black pants and some long, short-sleeved shirts to wear for the time being.
However, even though it wasn't anything flashy, it was enough for the young assistant to lose her professional seriousness and get all shy while making stupid remarks, insisting that Sasuke should be a model instead of a Huntsman.
Whatever a model was, it must be something to do with his appearance, and that could only mean trouble.
Worrying... Sasuke left the store, and that girl was acting like someone had killed her dog, sad that she couldn't talk to him anymore. Very worrying.
Even more so when he ignored her the whole time and only spoke to the store owner to confirm the details of his new Kusanagi.
Then there were the firearms that Sasuke had never heard of before, but which seemed to be extremely common in this world.
That old man really wanted to put one on his sword, but considering that Sasuke could breathe fire without needing a weapon or Dust, it would just be a waste of time and money.
The way the store owner looked at him when he said he didn't need one sealed the third expression of disbelief of the night, so extreme that it looked like Sasuke had committed some kind of heresy against the supreme god of this world.
At least, Sasuke managed to put things right by merely saying that he already had a firearm and that he only needed the sword the way he asked for, without alterations, and so, with much reluctance, the old man agreed.
Now, Sasuke had yet another riddle in his hands, holding between his fingers a number sequence handed to him, not to say imposed, by the girl in the store. Apparently, it was possible to contact her through this number if he wanted to go out for a meal together, but Sasuke was sure that he was the main dish she really wanted.
"How do I even use this?" Sasuke had no idea and was beginning to worry that he would have to return to that store in two days, and that girl would be there to greet him. I can assume that she won't be too happy that I haven't contacted her.
Not that he would, even if he could.
That girl really annoyed him, especially with the way she kept pointing a small electronic device at him and smiling stupidly while pressing her fingers against what looked like a very sophisticated video screen.
The technology of this world was something he needed to learn more about.
For now, however, Sasuke's concern lay in the reactions he got from the opposite gender.
"What am I going to do if all the girls I meet keep acting like that?" Sasuke wondered before disappearing into the night as soon as he was out of sight, being haunted by memories of his time at the academy and realizing something he had ignored until now. "Academy... I'm going back to an academy... one of Huntsmen and Huntresses..."
Regret was strong at that moment.
How could he have made such an abysmal mistake?
Beacon was a kind of place frequented by hormonal teenagers! Except for Sasuke, who had self-control that rivaled monks.
"The same can't be said for the others," Sasuke rambled, soon settling his feet on the side of a mirrored building, yet another reminder of the strange architecture and the fact that he was in a different world. "Those random girls are proof enough of the trouble that awaits me."
Kneeling on this glass wall, Sasuke touched the reflection of his face. No matter how perfect, handsome, or immaculate people claimed him to be, Sasuke didn't care. Likewise, no matter how troublesome and annoying the attention gained, Sasuke never wanted to disguise his face.
That's because every time Sasuke saw his face, he also saw his family.
His father's seriousness was in his eyes. His mother's gentle beauty was always present in his facial features. And when he smiled... Sasuke looked like his older brother.
And that was the reason why he stopped doing so a long time ago.
For all these reasons, covering his face with someone else's using a Transformation Technique was nothing more than an insult to the heritage given to him by his parents.
"And it's not now that I'm going to start." Sasuke allowed himself to soften his expression and smile to mirror an image that reminded him of his brother. "Hm?" The cape over his shoulders slid down, catching his eye, then he glanced back at his reflection and then at the storage seal on his wrist in realization, making his smile more genuine. "Brother, you always seem to be helping me, don't you?"
With this, there was a solution to his problem.
Although it still involved hiding his face, Sasuke wouldn't be using someone else's face to do it, and that was enough for him. Without further ado, Sasuke resumed his uninterrupted path to the club, the place where he would get the free pass to the information he so desperately needed.
What he found there was not quite what he had in mind, and not in a good way.
Music, Sasuke had never been very interested in the act of vocalizing words to entertain people based on a little fictional narration or distorted truth. His life was enough of a horror and pain to have room for this kind of distraction that added nothing to his power or purpose.
Or so he believed until he joined Orochimaru.
The man was disturbed, to say the least, but he knew how to find talent like no other. One such discovery came in the form of a little girl unlucky enough to have inherited a rare ability in one of the villages that abhorred shinobi, their endless conflicts, and especially powers that brought pain to those around them.
Sasuke wouldn't say they were wrong, but human beings have always been capable of cruelty, long before the creation of Ninjutsu.
Hagoromo made this very clear during his speech on the foundations of the world.
The girl, whose name he never bothered to learn, could freely control her vocal tone and chose to use this gift to sing of all things. She wanted to bring happiness to those around her with music and ended up being sold to the demonic serpent that his mentor represented at the time.
"Nonsense," Sasuke remembers thinking to himself. "A skill that, if used correctly, could incapacitate an entire city, shouldn't be wasted on a sentimental act, one that reached no one and turned against her..."
Except that it did.
At some point, Sasuke found himself enjoying the symphonic nonsense coming out of that cold, desolate cell.
Her words didn't tell heroic tales or falsehoods designed to please the bored masses.
She was talking about the world.
She sang with the voice of an angel, about the sun and the moon, rivers and forests, animals and flowers.
About the family that abandoned her at death's door and lived comfortably while she wasted away with each experiment more harmful than the last.
She sang only about life, beauty, love, pain, and... betrayal.
That girl was by far the most human person Sasuke had crossed paths with. Perhaps he identified with her because of Itachi, so before he knew it, listening to her from afar had become part of his routine, at least for as long as it lasted.
It wasn't long.
One day, the melody disappeared along with a life he couldn't save.
Sasuke still remembered his old mentor's exact words on the matter.
"Oya, Sasuke-Kun. Have you come to hear the bird sing? Too bad, she lost her voice in that last experiment, and the poor thing couldn't resist the temptation to bite her own tongue~" Orochimaru grinned with morbid amusement that seemed to grow with every word, waiting for a reaction from Sasuke, whose face was as expressionless as that of a corpse. "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll get my hands on another specimen, and then this lair can come back to life again~" He moved closer to Sasuke's ear. "Don't you agree, Sasuke-Kun?"
Sasuke never answered that question, nor did he know if Orochimaru had found someone similar. From that day on, he avoided any kind of human interaction and withdrew from everything, even going into total seclusion to focus solely on his training.
That day, Sasuke remembered one of his greatest fears in life: the fear of losing someone precious to him because he was too weak.
That day, Sasuke determined that Orochimaru would die by his hand, and so he did, even if temporarily.
Why did all of this matter? Because Sasuke came to hate the memory that the music brought with it.
When he finally found the nightclub, Sasuke was hoping for a place where men visited to drink and talk to beautiful women. However, what awaited him there contradicted his expectations as he met with a nightmare.
This club somehow managed to combine almost every aspect of what Sasuke hated in one place.
Noise, crowds, fickle and utterly annoying lighting, mindless music, made even worse than usual by the fact that it came from an electronic device accompanied by sounds that even Hagoromo wouldn't know what they were, not to mention the costumed idiot controlling the whole thing.
Sasuke had to resist the urge to use that ridiculous bear head and smash the bench responsible for all the noise.
As if all that wasn't enough, there was a complete lack of decency, not only reflected in these people's attire but in their inappropriate behavior.
Sasuke assumed they were dancing, but it looked more like an animal mating ritual.
If the local theme had been orange, Sasuke would have leveled the whole place without a second thought.
"You know, I can't tell if your goal is to attract attention or to avoid it." Sasuke found himself at the place where the drinks were served, being approached by the bartender. "Whatever the case, you've failed miserably at both."
Acceptable, Sasuke would say.
While he was indeed attracting some attention, no one dared approach him.
A fine victory in his opinion.
The infamous black cloak, adorned with red clouds symbolizing the rain of blood from the endless conflict, was the best answer Sasuke could come up with in the short time he had over the dilemma of his seemingly never-ending popularity.
The Akatsuki mantle represented many things, most of which turned out to be bad, but with Itachi's memories, he learned about its origins and the noble goal of seeking peace.
A contradiction that seemed appropriate for Sasuke.
Once, he had sought destruction, but now, he wanted to destroy and then rebuild in order to achieve peace and stability.
A revolution, although uncertain of success, remained his goal.
What's more, the hooded version of this cloak had seals for concealment, intensifying the shadow over the wearer's face, and that was exactly what Sasuke needed.
Although my clan emblem is missing, it shouldn't be a problem to include it later. That old man from the weapons store must have been skilled enough for the task, as he ensured that the emblem on his new shirt would be perfect. Now, for what I came here for.
He had to find the man called Junior, get what he needed, and get as far away from this place as possible.
"What's your poison, Hoodie?" the Bartender called out, wiping down a glass as he stared curiously at the unnatural shadow, which even the flashing spotlights couldn't chase away. It must be some kind of Semblance.
Meaning this guy was trouble.
"Tea," Sasuke said without looking at the man, searching for the one who must be the nightclub owner. A huge man who looks more like a bear than a human.
That was Tukson's description of Junior.
"Good choice!"
Sasuke stopped, turning to the bartender with slight confusion. He'd ordered tea as a way of telling the guy to get lost, not because he really wanted one.
The Bartender placed two glasses on the counter, pulled out two different bottles, poured the contents into the larger glass, added ice, gave it a good stir, and served, but didn't hand it to Sasuke before adding a mint leaf.
"Your tea," the Bartender offered with a professional smile, proud of his work. "Drink it while it's still cold."
Sasuke didn't know what Spirytus and Jack Daniels were, but from the smell, the distortion of the air above the glass, and the leaf melting so fast it was visible, it told him that this couldn't be considered tea anywhere.
"Are you trying to kill me?" Sasuke pushed that glass full of acid back, tempted to slip his hand and accidentally spill it on the face of the man in front of him. "I'm sure a spark would explode that glass."
Indeed, it could be used to kill someone.
"I wouldn't recommend it." The Bartender pointed to the bottles of drinks stacked on the wall behind him, a variety as colorful as the lights that illuminated the club. "There are plenty of babies just as deadly on these shelves."
A half-truth, since nothing there surpassed the alcohol content of a Spirytus...unless you added a bit of Dust, then it would turn into a completely different beast.
"Is this some kind of joke?" Sasuke stared at this man, annoyance laced in the tone of his voice. "Because I'm not laughing."
If this continued, soon this man wouldn't be either.
"Like ordering tea in a nightclub?" The Bartender pushed the drink back to Sasuke and slung his cloth over his shoulder, smiling in defiance. "No, I don't have a joke that good."
Sasuke just stared at this man for a few seconds, wondering if he was crazy or...
He's testing me. He couldn't rule out the possibility and decided to take the bait. After all, I'm immune to poison, so how bad could this be?
Besides, Sasuke was curious about what this other world had to offer.
One sip, and there was regret for his decision.
The last time Sasuke had felt anything remotely similar to burning his throat was when he had started learning Fire Style!
"What is this thing?" Sasuke needed to raise his Chakra levels to stifle the burning sensation. "Better still, why does this even exist?"
You'd have to be completely out of your mind to voluntarily drink something like that, even more so if you were a normal person.
"Well, I'll be damned." The Bartender lost his smile, unable to contain his surprise. "You actually drank that without fainting or coughing up blood."
Which has happened before, and it wasn't pretty.
"What now?" Sasuke wouldn't be surprised if what he said was true. "Are you going to try real poison?"
"Nah, that's not how we work." The Bartender admitted defeat and approached the counter, acting more seriously. "You're a tough guy, you have my respect. So, dressed like that, you can't just be here for a drink."
Time to get down to business.
"I'm looking for the owner, Junior." Sasuke hadn't expected the change of attitude, but he took the opportunity and postponed planning the murder of this brazen waiter. "Is he around today?"
If not, Sasuke would go to his house if he had to.
"Oh, the boss, I think he's on his way down." The Bartender relaxed a little when he heard that it was nothing to worry about. "He was in the middle of an important meeting, you know." Smiling, he pushed the glass back for this mysterious customer. "In the meantime, enjoy your tea~"
Sasuke said nothing and just took another sip of that explosive liquid, this time being less violent because of his Chakra, while he waited for Junior to show up.
That, and he also needed to decide how many of this bartender's bones he was going to break before he left.
The mere thought was amusing and made his drink taste so much better.