Sasuke's POV
Crunch. Crunch. Sssshlurp... Glug glug glug
I drained the orange juice bottle to the last drop before setting it down with a sigh. The room around me looked like the aftermath of a food war...snack wrappers everywhere, empty pizza boxes stacked like a tower, and cans of soda rolling on the floor.
… I might've gone a bit overboard.
Ever since I ended up in this world, I've been eating way more than usual. Partly because the food here actually tastes good way better than anything back in the Narutoverse or that Eminence mess. The variety here is insane. Burgers, Pizza, tacos… I could probably live off this junk for a week and still not get bored.
But taste isn't the only reason.
For the first time in my life, I actually feel full. Back in the village, even though the old bastard Hiruzen never stopped me from eating, he stripped away every single thing that belonged to the Uchiha name. My clan's inheritance, our properties, all locked away "for my protection."
What I got instead was a monthly allowance so small it barely kept me alive. When I once questioned it, the anbu shut me down with that same condescending tone , "You'll get everything once you're capable enough to protect it, Uchiha Sasuke."
So I had to play along, the quiet, obedient kid who "trained hard" to earn back what was already his.
But now? Things are different.
This body… it's not normal. It's mutated and the metabolism's cranked to eleven and demands fuel nonstop. The hunger hits hard and fast, like a furnace that never cools down.
I guess that's the price of power.
It actually reminds me of that speedster next door, always running, always eating.
I leaned back on the couch, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
"Buuurp!"
To really use the perks of this mutation like boosted reflexes, sharper thinking, faster movement I've got to keep eating. My brain runs quicker, my body moves faster, but all that power burns through energy like crazy.
If I don't feed this body, it starts to crash, can't sustain the enhancements, can't keep up with itself.
Just because I can absorb electricity doesn't mean I'm running purely on volts. The biology still needs fuel, protein, carbs, the usual human stuff.
"Stark!! A genius turned fool?"
The sudden voice from the TV made me glance up. The news anchor's dramatic tone was hard to miss.
On screen, Tony Stark sat in front of a podium, looking far too relaxed for a man about to tank half his company's value, as he announced the shutdown of Stark Industries' entire weapons division.
"Well, it's not wrong that people think he's lost his mind." After all, most of Stark Industries' fortune came from military contracts.
"I can start buying the shares again," I muttered.
When I first arrived in this world, Stark had been missing, presumed dead. Naturally, I did what any sensible transmigrator with knowledge of the Marvel timeline would do: I bought shares. Lots of them.
There was no shortage either. After months of Stark's disappearance, panic spread. Investors who'd once worshipped the man suddenly couldn't sell their stocks fast enough.
Of course, I couldn't buy them under my name.
So I created new ones, multiple identities, all clean, all legitimate on paper.
Finding those identities wasn't exactly hard. The streets are full of ghosts, people no one would ever miss. A few nights in the alleys, a bit of digging, a quiet interrogation or two… and I freed them from the dangers of this world. Permanently.
Using multiple aliases to buy smaller amounts made the transactions look random, unconnected. If one person bought everything, it'd raise flags immediately.
When news hit about Stark return, I started selling some shares.
Knowing future of Iron Man, I was ready to gamble again and buy more but this time under different identities so nothing looked suspicious.
I'm not obsessed with money. I want leverage. Those shares are currency I am going to trade for machines, channels, and resources I can't get by walking into a shop.
Assimilating Batman gave me more than paranoia and planning. It gave me tech know-how. I can't use everything back in my original world, but here? Here I can.
I should start working on the creation of a base something like the Batcave.
This world's going to be my playground for a long time, so it deserves a proper investment. And honestly… if there's ever a way to permanently shift my existence here after I finish what I started back home, I just might take it.
That other world has nothing left for me. My loved ones are gone. Revenge is the only thing still anchoring me there, but after I kill them all, then what?
The Otsutsuki might be formidable opponents, but they don't interest me enough to stay trapped in that endless cycle of war and destiny. I don't have some saviour complex; I'm not going to spend my life trying to make the world "better." That's not my path.
I'd rather spend my time getting stronger. I want to see my peak. Plain and simple.
Compared with my old world, this place scales higher, far higher. Yes, the dangers here will be greater, but that only pushes me to surpass them. It doesn't stop me; it dares me.
My Uchiha blood won't let me stagnate. I won't stop growing.
Ssszzzt.
********
Sasuke pov
"My future was to waste away as a hideous beast, but you saved me."
Hearing her I repeated again,"As I said, it was an accident."
Who would have thought that pile of rotten flesh would turn into a blonde elven girl?
Looking at her now, there's no doubt she is the young Alpha. Was her meeting with Cid preset? It makes me wonder was this destiny?
"Maybe," she said softly, "but it doesn't change the fact that you're my savior."
I sighed. Well, she wasn't wrong. Who could have imagined that stabilizing mana flow disrupted by a mana overload would be the key to returning them completely to normal? I knew shadow found the method but not how exactly.
My own symptoms have vanished too, and the flow of mana within me feels much smoother.
"Please, let me repay you," she said. Under normal circumstances, hearing those words from a naked woman would have stirred me, but her young body killed any such thought.
"No need," I replied, picking my robe up from the floor and tossing it to her.
As she covered herself, I continued, "Now that you're free, it's better for you to go and live whatever happy life you can."
Honestly, the safest choice would have been to kill her, to prevent her from revealing anything about me. But maybe because she's still young, and has done nothing against me, I couldn't bring myself to do it.
"But there's nothing left of that life," she said quietly. "My parents are dead. I was treated worse than an animal. And when I had lost all hope, you changed everything."
Damn. Is this girl really ten? The way she speaks, her composure, almost too mature.
Are elves generally more mentally advanced, or is this just a result of the medieval world they live in?
Despite keeping a straight face, I felt pity for her. Especially knowing her past... and her potential. Even without my knowledge from anime, I can tell her mana reserves far exceed my own. Even ten of me couldn't match her. So, I decided to accept her.
"From now on, your name is Alpha."
I waited to see her reaction to being renamed, but she simply nodded and said, "Understood."
Maybe I should've given her another name. But no it would felt weird. After all, I already knew her by that one in my memories.
"Welcome to shadow garden"
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