Pleasant Scent

I don't own solo leveling or Naruto

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"Impressive! I must say that I wasn't expecting you to take out my entire pack!" Ivar clapped his hands in mock congratulations as soon as he saw Sasuke emerging from the woods.

The tattooed and scarlet eyed boy glaring daggers at Ivar the whole time.

"They were more trouble than they were worth, but now it's just you and me."

"I guess you're right." Ivar pulled out the dagger strapped to his side, shifting his feet, ready to clash with the Uchiha.

Sasuke pulled out a dagger of his own—curtsy of his dead enemies within the forest.

Another moment passed between the two before sparks started flying off every which way as their weapons clashed.

Sasuke was sent tumbling, having lost one of their many exchanges, and Ivar pounced on him in nanoseconds aiming to pierce his heart. He managed to avoid the strike and double foot him in the face, springing up to kick him in the sternum. Flashing through multiple hand signs, he puffed out his cheeks and…

[Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu]

A beam of flames left his mouth and exploded right on Ivar's chest. Smoke rose up around him obscuring his figure, but Sasuke's ocular prowess wasn't fooled.

"Wahh! What a thrill! You're definitely an exciting guy!" Ivar burst from the smoke at impossible speeds and if it wasn't for his Sharingan's precognition he wouldn't have a head anymore.

'He's gotten faster?! More excited too...' he saw Ivar ripping off his charred armour and then started caressing his burnt skin for a moment.

"Let's see what else you've got!"

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They were locked in a stalemate. Even though Ivar was faster and was able to land strikes on him, they were never too lethal because of his sharingan.

He needed to find a way to catch him off guard, enough so that he could land a lethal blow. Using the second stage of curse mark was out of the question with his current reserves —even now he was struggling to keep up.

'Tsk, he's not giving me any chance to pull off my jutsu. If I don't create an opening he'll take my head off,' Sasuke grimaced.

"Don't space out in the middle of combat! I might just take your head off!"

Sasuke managed to block Ivar's attempt at decapitating him. He kicked him off and created distance between them.

"Huh?" Sasuke suddenly started to kneel on the ground, holding onto his stomach in pain. He knew what this was.

"Hehe, looks like the poison is kicking in! I must say, you have very high resistance, but it seems you've reached your limit," Ivar grinned, approaching the Uchiha's kneeling form with a confident gait.

"That blade of yours is laced with poison, eh?" Sasuke said matter of factly, managing to rise to his feet despite the pain all over his muscles. It seems that Ivar had managed to nick him during their previous skirmishes. "It doesn't matter." He decided, "I'm not dying here!" his sharingan shimmering a brighter scarlet red.

He threw his dagger with deadly accuracy right at Ivar's head. It surprised him for a brief moment, wondering why he would throw away his weapon, but he ultimately decided that it wasn't his problem. Suddenly the dagger multiplied at an alarming rate, nearly blocking his entire view of Sasuke.

'Like a charm!'

A chirping of birds alerted him as the Uchiha appeared behind him with his left hand laced in lightning. 'What?!' he was barely able to react to the insane speed that Sasuke ran at him with. He wouldn't be able to move out of the way at the speed Sasuke was moving, so he did the next best thing he could think of at that moment. Bringing his arm forward and meeting Sasuke's lightning charged palm head on.

His arm was completely ripped off when Sasuke drove past him, but at the same time the dagger that was thrown beforehand had pierced his head.

'I didn't think genjutsu would work so well considering the difference in our energies, but it was worth the gamble,' Sasuke was breathing heavily, dropping to his knees in exhaustion.

He watched as Ivar's body collapsed to the ground in a lifeless heap. He felt his muscles spasm from the poison still flowing in his veins causing him to hit the ground.

As his body laid there he watched as the once red portal shifted into a calm blue. Was Ivar the master of this strange dimension? If so then that meant he could leave and continue his trek towards Orochimaru.

His vision was fading fast, noticing that the poison was shutting down his bodily functions. Before his vision went black he was able to spot a speck of blonde, making him frown.

'Why the hell are you here...? Naruto!'

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Beep

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What a peculiar boy.

Those were the thoughts of Cha Hae-in looking through the thick glass of a raven haired boy's hospital room. Watching the steady rise and fall of his chest she couldn't help but wonder. What happened for him to end up in a red gate? Why was he there? Did he join in with the recruits? It wasn't impossible. After all there are no laws prohibiting minors from raiding dungeons. But if that were the case then Miss Kil Nari would have recognized him, because she was the one monitoring the gate.

Who was this boy?

"Any changes on our mystery child?"

She didn't have to turn her head to know that it was Master Choi. She had become quite familiar with his smell, no matter how much it stung her nose. It seemed that his meeting with Chairman Go Gun-hee had reached an end.

"No, he was pretty badly poisoned and suffering from high levels of fatigue. It was lucky that the gate opened when it did, otherwise I fear we may have lost him," She answered, recounting the condition she'd found the boy in.

"And our recruits?"

"All dead, unfortunately." the words coming out as hollow. She heard Master Choi click his tongue and picked up on the distinct clicking of his lighter. "You shouldn't be smoking, sir. This is a hospital." she reprimanded him, her eyes still glued on the peculiar child.

He released a wordless breath of frustration before chuckling,"You're right Miss Hae-in. I'm just frustrated is all. We'll have to keep this incident as quiet as possible so that we can get all the information once that boy awakens, the media are quite the pests."

She knew that Master Choi was right. They couldn't let anyone know that so many recruits had perished in what was essentially supposed to be a practice raid. Routine raid. If push came to shove they could always pin the blame on the Association for their faulty magic sensors, but that would only make future dealings with them more troublesome so she knew that he would avoid that outcome as much as possible.

"You're dismissed." He said simply, watching from the corner of his eye Hae-in touching the glass. "Thank you, sir, but I would like to stay a little bit longer," she answered.

Well that was certainly a surprise.

"Hoh? Why's that?" He asked, genuinely curious. However, she stayed silent, silent for so long that he thought she wouldn't answer him. Which would have been fair considering he pulled her into work on her day off, but her lips finally parted to release words that took him aback.

"... He smells nice."

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AN: Also posting on Fanfiction. Net