Settled

I don't own solo leveling or Naruto

...

"Hn."

...

"Oh! Check this out Captain Kirito!" Sakurai shouted excitedly. The pink haired male had stumbled upon a giant door with several rune markings on it.

"Whatcha you think?" He asked patting himself on the chest with a proud smile.

"We were going the same way as you, dumbass. We would have eventually seen this too Sakurai," Kenji deadpanned, the C-rank tank of the group. He was a middle aged man with grey eyes and scruffy beard, he carried a big mace on his back, and had brown leather armorments around his body.

"Nu-uh! It was my keen intuition that lead us here if we had gone right instead of left then we would have ran into a dead end!" Sakurai explained confidently.

"I think Itachi already decided which way he was going before you did..." Kenji muttered to himself not having the energy to challenge Sakurai on his point.

"Whatever! Sakurai what have I told you about being too reckless, huh! You're an essential part of this team if you go off on your own like that and get killed who's going to be the ones protecting our healers whilst we fight monsters!" Kirito berated causing Sakurai to shrink back in remorse.

"Sorry..." he apologized softly.

Kirito just sighed putting a hand on his head after seeing Sakurai's sad expression.

"Regardless, I think this is the boss room so... Good job on finding it," he gave the pinketee a thumbs up.

"Thank you, Captain!" Sakurai smiled enveloping the poor man in a big hug.

"Get off me Sakurai!"

He yelled struggling claw the young man off his body as the others laughed at his expense.

Rumble!

"What was that?" Kenji question as a loud tremble reached his ears. It sounded like it was coming from the direction of Itachi's group. He hoped it was nothing to serious, but Itachi was there so it would probably be dealt with. All he could do was focus on his task.

...

Twirling his dagger in between his hands standing over the kneeling Itachi, menacingly. Daku asked the Uchiha a simple question.

"Any last words?"

Looking down seemingly in defeat before looking up at the spiky redhead with a confidented smirk on his face. Suddenly a black crow began popping out of the teenager's left eye which caused Daku to shrink back, surprised. More and more crows leaped forth from Itachi's skin until Daku was swarmed by a murder of crows, obscuring his vision. He desperately swatted them away whilst backpedalling to safety until there was silence and only the sound of his ragged and panicked breathing could be heard.

"Behind you."

The voice of Itachi whispered from behind the prisoner before capturing him in a chokehold. Gasping for breath trying to claw the teen's vice grip of his throat, however he struggled massively.

"Wha-rgh! Another illusion?!" He gasped in shocked his eyes increasing to saucers.

"You think I would forget that you had poison in your vines? I told you that all your tricks are futile before my eyes," Itachi whispered in his ear whilst choking the life out of him.

"Hehe... You sure...have a thing...for dramatics!" Daku shot back still trying to break free from the Uchiha's vice grip.

"I've always been a good actor," Itachi quipped plainly ready to put the blabber mouthed redhead into unconsciousness through lack of oxygen.

"When?"

It was a simple question from Daku which Itachi understood. It was question that many asked when they were duped by his illusions and he would always reply with the same answer.

"From the moment we made eye contact. I waited for the best moment to take advantage of your hubris. You were careless," Itachi explained simply his scarlet eyes shimmering menacingly.

"What a...hypocrite you are...breating me on using diversions...when you did the same!But... I have one more... Trick!" Daku choked out before blood started spilling from his mouth.

At that same moment blood leaked from Itachi's mouth too with his eyes widening in surprise. His grip on the prisoner's neck loosened as he stumbled back holding onto his abdomen in pain. There's was a vine lodged into his stomach going through the body of his foe, who was laughing maniacally.

"*Cough*... *Cough*... How do you like that you bastard!" Daku shouted retracting the vine from Itachi's and his body causing more pain for the teen.

Daku immediately tried socking Itachi in the face afterwards but he was able to lean back to dodge the blow and delivered a kick of his own. They both glared each other whilst sporting similar wounds.

"Don't count your blessings. Even though I stuck myself, I've got an immunity to the poison inbeded within my vines," Daku wiped the blood from his mouth.

"Figures," Itachi muttered to himself. "Well looks I'll have to end this charade before the poison starts to take effect," he flashed over to Daku's side and delivered a brutal side kick that fractured multiple ribs upon contact.

Daku, reeling in pain, managed to counterstrike by launching vines at Itachi, but he saw through this and easily avoided each one. Speeding forward and slamming the back of his head into the cave wall, Itachi followed up with a two punch combination to Daku's face, a knee to the stomach, and then ended with a devastating roundhouse kick to the head making him kiss the ground.

'What's with all that extra power? He wasn't like this before!' Daku thought holding onto to his broken ribs after the beatdown he had just received.

He had been a hunter for many years so fighting monsters has been the norm for him some would even consider him a monster. But there were a select few humans in the world that exuded so much terrifying strength that they themselves were considered to be monsters.

S-rank Hunters.

There was no way the boy was an A-rank. There must have been a mistake, because right now the only thing he could be sure of was that he was facing a true monster.

"Hehe... Hgrh! You've been holding back this entire time, haven't you?" Daku laid on his back staring up at Itachi. "Why? I thought you wanted to kill me, huh?"

"I don't have to explain myself to the likes of you," Itachi said calmly. He walked forward intent on killing the bastard. He had entertained the idea of leaving him alive for questioning later, but after being tagged with his poison he couldn't afford holding back anymore, so he would end things here.

He pulled out his kunai and stabbed it into the man's throat and watched him gurgling on his own blood for a few moments before the light faded from his eyes.

Itachi sighed deeply letting the deathly silence surround him. He took in the sight of the dead bodies all around him and couldn't help but frown deeply, he hated that things ended up like this. It seemed the carnage of his old world couldn't escape him.

His attention was taken away from his thoughts to the rumbling of the vines which previously blocked the way back becoming undone. It reminded him of the crow he left with Kirito and his squad before they split.

Conjuring a hand sign so he would able to see through the eyes of his crow to find out exactly what was going on over there.

He was confused when all he saw was darkness but the confusion turned to apprehensiveness because the only reason that would be the case would be if the crow was dead.

'Why do things have to be so troublesome?' he grumbled internally before amplifying his speed to great degrees and try and get to Kirito's group as soon as possible.