Chapter Six – After Jeju Island
[Uchiha Sasuke] had been in this world for three days.
Three days,and he had discovered that this world was different from his previous one.
Not by a small degree,but to such an extent that he couldn't accurately comprehend the reality he had landed in.
He had used a transformation technique to assume a form that resembled the people moving around.
While his dark hair and sharp features still drew glances,he looked less like a warrior from another dimension and more like an unusually intense, pale teenager in simple, dark clothes he'd… acquired.
It was true he still didn't understand the strange language these people spoke.
Even with the Sharingan,the process of deciphering the intrinsic nature of their words, their syntax and cultural context, required time—more time than he'd had while being hunted by cameras.
But what was more baffling than the language were the screens.
Everywhere.
Enormous flat panels mounted on buildings,showing moving pictures, news, advertisements.
Smaller ones in people's hands that they stared at while walking,their fingers tapping with soft click-clack sounds.
The city itself was a shock.
The buildings,monolithic structures of glass and steel, reached heights that dwarfed even the Hokage Monument.
The sheer scale of the metropolis surpassed Konohagakure by hundreds of times.
The population density was a constant,buzzing hum of life that he could not even begin to imagine.
Because of all these new, overwhelming things, his focus had, for a fleeting moment, drifted from his primary goal of returning to his old world.
The mission remained,but his silent, hidden bewilderment at these surroundings was profound.
At this moment, [Sasuke] stood in a bustling outdoor market, holding two apples he had taken from a stall.
He couldn't understand the rapid-fire chatter of the vendors and shoppers around him,their conversations a meaningless stream of noise.
If he could have understood the language and looked up,he would have been met with a startling sight.
On a massive screen mounted on the side of a skyscraper, a news broadcast was playing.
The footage was crystal clear,showing the devastating aftermath of his strike on Jeju Island.
Aerial shots displayed dozens of kilometers of scorched,glassy earth, the crater a permanent scar.
"This is unbelievable!" a news anchor's voice boomed from the screen's speakers, translated here for comprehension.
"This Japanese hunter managed to eliminate that monster with a single blow!"
The image cut to a slowed-down,blurry clip—hundreds of times slower than real-time—showing a flash of purple lightning and a dark figure.
"After the battle,the hunter known only as 'The Strange-Eyed Hunter' vanished without a trace."
For everyone, it had become an accepted fact: the hunter who ended the Ant King was Japanese.
Translations of the words he spoke at the crater's edge had been broadcast globally.
Analysis of his appearance,using national security facial scanners and advanced computer systems, pegged him as a youth, approximately sixteen years old.
The clarity of his image—the stark black hair,the pale skin, and most of all, the mismatched eyes—one a swirling, bloody red, the other a serene, rippling purple—had spread across the internet like wildfire.
The live broadcast of Jeju Island,though scrambled at the climax, had been dissected frame by frame.
On the screen, an excited field reporter gestured dramatically at the wasteland behind him.
"The Japanese hunter who prevented the catastrophe about to unfold on Jeju Island has disappeared!After his feat, he left abruptly. No one from the Hunter Association has been able to find any information on this hunter. Furthermore, all Japanese units have denied this hunter being part of their group. Japan itself is searching its records but has found no match for the 'Strange-Eyed Hunter'!"
The epithet 'Strange-Eyed Hunter' had stuck, attached to the figure with heterochromatic eyes.
His image was displayed on every major news platform,social media feed, and smartphone screen across Korea and Japan. He had been the topic of every hour for the three days since his appearance and subsequent vanishing act.
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In the conference room of the Korean Hunter Association headquarters, the atmosphere was thick with tension and frustration.
The Association Chairman,the most powerful hunter in Korea, stared at the S-Rank hunters who had been responsible for the Jeju Island raid.
The air hummed with the low whir of climate control and the fainttap-tap of a secretary's fingers on a tablet in the corner.
"Did he disappear immediately after the battle ended? Didn't anything happen? Did he ever approach any of you?" the Chairman asked, not for the first time.
His voice was a low gravel of controlled intensity.
He couldn't let this go.
An individual of such staggering power—even relative to himself—had simply vanished.
It was illogical.
How could a hunter of that caliber disappear after completing such a monumental task?The Chairman was certain the hunter would come forward for the reward, or at least for the fame. Yet, he had evaporated.
"Sir, you know my sensory abilities," [Chae Ha-in] began, her voice calm but firm.
"His scent…it was completely different from the mana most hunters possess. It felt as if he wasn't using the same power we use."
She paused for a second,feeling the weight of every eye in the meeting room upon her.
The only sound was the distant,muffled honk of city traffic from far below.
"Furthermore,"she continued, "the power he did use was… brighter than anything I've ever seen in my life. There was something dark in it, yes, but it seemed pure. Clean. Unlike most hunters' powers."
A man with white hair and sharp eyes—the hunter known for his transformation ability and his S-Rank status—tapped a single finger lightly on the polished mahogany table.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound drew everyone's focus.
"We've searched for him for three days,"the White Tiger Hunter stated, his voice precise and cutting.
"We even attempted to use the sensory arrays installed throughout Korea.We found nothing. It doesn't seem he left Korea by any method we know. I suspect this man is still here, in Korea. Therefore, he will likely reveal himself soon, don't you think, Chairman?"
The White Tiger's deduction was sharp and logical.
It should be impossible for someone to leave Korea so completely,so utterly, that even nationwide mana-sensing grids couldn't pick up a trace.
Of course,they had no knowledge of the capabilities of the Rinnegan possessed by [Uchiha Sasuke].
True,he couldn't perform long-range space-time jumps anymore due to the dimensional distortion that blocked his more advanced teleportation.
But his gravity control abilities still functioned perfectly.
He could fly with ease at speeds multiple times that of sound.
Leaving Korea would be trivial for him.
The reason he stayed was his lack of understanding of this world he'd been thrust into.
He was a predator assessing new,bizarre terrain.
He needed information,context, a way to orient himself before making his next move.
Naturally, the Korean hunters had no idea that the person they were discussing was not a hunter from their world at all, possessing abilities they'd never heard of.
He was a person from another world who desperately wanted to return home but was now lost among new humans,trying to understand how he got here and what this strange, towering, screen-obsessed world was all about.
"You're right," the Chairman finally said, leaning back in his chair with a soft creak.
"We will do that.We will wait for that hunter to come to us. If he is still in Korea, it means he will contact us soon, or at least he will go to a dungeon gate. Or, he will contact the Japanese hunters if he is from Japan."
Even though the Japanese embassy had officially denied any connection to the Strange-Eyed Hunter, the Chairman, along with most of the S-Rank hunters and other intelligent analysts, couldn't shake the suspicion that this wasn't the whole truth.
The logic was tempting:Japan would want to hide such an asset, especially one who could single-handedly dispatch an S-Rank calamity. A hunter of that power would easily be of 'National Level,' a status Japan desperately wanted.
What convinced the Koreans that Japan was hiding something was one irrefutable fact:the Strange-Eyed Hunter had spoken Japanese.
His final words at the crater,captured and analyzed, were unmistakably Japanese. This was clear to everyone who had witnessed the broadcast.
"You're right, Chairman," the red-haired Flame Master S-Rank hunter said, adjusting his glasses with a sharp click.
"I will try searching again regarding this man's potential origins in Japan.It's possible the Strange-Eyed Japanese hunter is hiding due to orders, or for strange reasons. Korea and Japan are trying to hide this, which is why they deny any connection to him."
This conclusion was met with silent nods around the table. It was a plausible, if paranoid, line of inquiry. It gave them a tangible enemy to theorize against, a reason for the inexplicable silence.
The mystery had become a political puzzle,wrapped in a power enigma, shrouded in otherworldly silence.
And all the while, the subject of their intense speculation and international intrigue stood a few blocks away, in a quiet alley behind the bustling market, finally taking a bite of one of the apples.
Thecrunch was loud in the relative quiet.
He stared at the core,then at the towering, incomprehensible city around him, his mismatched eyes narrowed in thought.
The hunt for a way home had just become infinitely more complicated.
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End of Chapter.
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The aftermath is a storm of speculation, while the storm himself quietly samples local produce. Thank you for reading this chapter of quiet observation and loud misunderstandings! Your patience as Sasuke navigates this bewildering new world is the true compass for the story.
❤️🙂
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AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Friends, I'm here to explain a few things regarding the battle between [Uchiha Sasuke] and the Ant King.
If some people find that it seemed like Sasuke was far stronger than the Ant King,even though the King's power was immense and even [Sung Jin-Woo] had to use his shadows to defeat his version, let me clarify:
This Ant King was weaker than the Ant King[Sung Jin-Woo] faced.
The reason is simple:he hadn't consumed any S-Rank hunters.
You should know that in the original story,when the Ant King was unleashed, he killed many S-Rank hunters and gained their abilities.
Inthis story, he had only consumed A-Rank hunters and below.
Despite that,his power was still intense enough that the S-Rank hunters present couldn't act or move against even his subdued killing intent.
I hope my explanation is sufficient.
See you in the next chapter.