Chapter 11: Battle Trial: The Strategist's Shadow
"ALRIGHT, LET'S BEGIN THE BATTLE TRIAAAAL!"
All Might's voice boomed in the cavernous monitoring room. On the screens before them, the first teams were taking their positions. The rest of Class 1-A watched, their excitement a palpable buzz. They were all wearing their hero costumes for the first time, a vibrant and chaotic collection of armor, capes, and specialized gear.
Sasuke stood at the back of the group, a stark figure of darkness amidst the color. His own costume was a testament to his personality. He wore no mask and no cape. His outfit consisted of a high-collared, dark indigo short-sleeved shirt with the Uchiha crest proudly displayed on the back, pale grey shorts, and dark, functional shinobi-style sandals. His arms were covered by long, separate black guards, and strapped to his leg was a pouch for his kunai and shuriken. It was the attire of a pragmatist, not a performer.
"NEXT UP, TEAM B AS THE HEROES, VERSUS TEAM I AS THE VILLAINS!"
Sasuke glanced at the screen. His face appeared next to Ochako Uraraka's. He gave her a brief, sideways glance. She was practically vibrating with nervous energy, her custom-made pink and black suit designed for mobility. She was all bright eyes and bubbly optimism—the very antithesis of his own grim focus.
Their opponents were Midoriya Izuku and Iida Tenya. The objective was for the hero team to either capture the two villains or secure a replica nuclear weapon hidden inside a multi-story building. All Might's voice set the stage, "Villain team, you have five minutes to prepare! Remember, think from the perspective of a true villain!"
As they walked toward the designated building, Uraraka turned to him, her helmet tucked under her arm. "Wow, I can't believe we're a team, Uchiha-kun! This is so exciting! Okay, so my Quirk is Zero Gravity! If I touch something, I can make it float, but if I overdo it, I get super nauseous. What about you? What can your Quirk do?" she asked, her voice full of genuine curiosity.
Sasuke didn't even look at her. His eyes were fixed on the building before them, scanning its structure, noting the number of windows, the placement of fire escapes. "Forget your Quirk for a moment," he said. His voice was so cold and direct it made her flinch.
She stared at him, confused. "W-what?"
He finally turned to face her, his dark eyes intense and analytical. "Your physical limitations. How fast can you run the hundred-meter dash? What is your maximum lifting capacity without your Quirk? How many separate objects can you make float before the nausea begins? I need data, not a sales pitch."
Uraraka was completely taken aback. He wasn't asking to be a teammate; he was assessing a tool. Swallowing her surprise, she gave him the numbers as best she could.
He gave a single, sharp nod, his mind already processing the variables. "The one with the glasses, Iida, is their defense. He is fast, but his Quirk requires space to accelerate. He'll be predictable, guarding the objective in a large, open room. The other one… Midoriya… he is the real threat. He's an unguided missile. Our primary objective is to ensure he never gets a clear shot at us."
He pointed to a side entrance. "You will be the diversion. Go in, make noise. Use your Quirk on debris, make things float. Create a chaotic and visible disturbance on the lower floors. Do not engage them directly. Your only job is to draw Midoriya to you. I will secure the weapon."
The klaxon blared, signaling the start of the trial. Sasuke moved without another word, melting into the shadows of the building's entrance, leaving Uraraka standing there, a strange mix of unnerved and impressed. His plan was cold, but it was flawless.
Inside, the building was a maze of concrete hallways. Sasuke pressed a hand flat against the wall, closing his eyes. He wasn't using a Quirk. He was pushing a minute, thread-like stream of chakra into the structure, feeling for the faint vibrations of movement from the floors above. He felt the heavy, rhythmic stomping of Iida pacing in a large room on the fourth floor.
As predicted.
He pointed Uraraka down a separate corridor. "Go. Now."
She hesitated for only a second before nodding and running off, her footsteps deliberately loud. A few moments later, a crash echoed from the other side of the building, followed by the sight of floating pieces of drywall drifting past a hallway intersection. The diversion had begun.
Sasuke, meanwhile, moved like a whisper. He found a maintenance stairwell, taking the steps three at a time in absolute silence. He reached the fourth floor and slipped into the corridors, his movements economical and swift. He rounded a corner and there, in the center of a large, empty room, stood Iida Tenya, guarding the paper-mache bomb.
Iida struck a dramatic pose. "AHA! So you've found my lair, hero! I, Tenya Iida, will not allow you to pass this threshold! You shall taste defeat at the hands of true evil! Mwahahaha!"
Sasuke didn't respond. He didn't even change his expression.
Iida's engines roared to life. "PREPARE YOURSELF! RECIPRO BURST!" He shot forward, a blue-and-silver blur.
In the open space, Iida was fast, but Sasuke wasn't fighting him on those terms. As Iida closed the distance, Sasuke leaped, not away, but up, pushing off the wall to his left and twisting in mid-air over Iida's head. While airborne, he flicked his wrist. The roll of capture tape all students were required to carry shot out, its sticky end slapping onto the back of Iida's speeding leg.
Iida, not expecting an attack from above and behind, was thrown completely off balance. His leg was yanked back by the tape still in Sasuke's hand, and he tumbled forward, crashing to the floor in a clatter of armor. Before he could recover, Sasuke was on him. A single, sharp strike with the edge of his hand connected with a pressure point on the side of Iida's neck. Iida's body went limp. It wasn't a knockout blow, just a non-lethal move to temporarily paralyze the nerve cluster.
The 'villain' was captured.
Suddenly, a tremor shook the floor. Sasuke's head snapped towards the hallway. Heavy, determined footsteps were pounding their way, getting closer at an alarming rate. Midoriya. He saw through the diversion.
Sasuke stepped out of the objective room just as Midoriya rounded the corner, his face set with grim determination, his arm crackling with a faint green energy.
"I won't let you touch the weapon, Uchiha-kun," Midoriya said, his voice shaking but firm.
Sasuke looked at the raw power gathering around Midoriya's arm, then met the boy's eyes. He saw the resolve there. He saw that Midoriya was perfectly willing to shatter his own body to achieve victory. And Sasuke refused to engage in such a mindless battle of attrition. He chose a different weapon.
"You idolize All Might," Sasuke said, his voice dropping to a low, conspiratorial whisper that was more piercing than any shout. "But you are nothing like him. He controls his power. He saves people. Your power… it controls you. You break your own body every time you try to be a hero. You're not a savior. You are a self-destructing bomb."
Midoriya flinched as if struck.
"If this were a real battle," Sasuke continued, taking a slow step forward, "and I was a real villain, what would you do? Break your arm to stop me? And then what? You'd be useless, a liability. Your partner would be left alone. Your weakness would get them killed."
Every word was a perfectly aimed dart, striking deep into the core of Midoriya's greatest fears and insecurities. The timer on their headsets was ticking down. Ten seconds left. Midoriya was frozen, his mind a battlefield of conflict, his resolve wavering.
In that single moment of hesitation, Sasuke acted.
With a flick of his wrist, he sent a kunai flying—not at Midoriya, but at the concrete wall just past his head. The sharp clang of metal on stone made Midoriya instinctively flinch, his eyes drawn to the sound for a fraction of a second.
It was all the opening Sasuke needed.
He exploded forward in a burst of speed, darting past Midoriya, their shoulders not even brushing. He slid into the objective room, his hand slapping down onto the surface of the weapon just as the final buzzer echoed through the building.
A voice boomed from the speakers. "HERO TEAM… WIIIIINS!"
Sasuke straightened up, walking past a stunned Midoriya and a now-arriving, triumphant Uraraka without a single word or glance. His expression was as cold and unreadable as a stone tablet. He had proven his point. Victory wasn't about having the biggest explosion. It was about finding the enemy's weakness—be it in their strategy, their body, or their mind—and breaking it.