Sasuke POV
The warriors dressed in rags charged at him with indecipherable war cries on their lips and outdated weapons in their hands. It was one thing to realize that the people of this world didn't have access to chakra, yet it was a whole other to see that they were using stone-tipped arrows and bronze axes to attack him.
Sasuke almost felt bad for them, but the image of the little girl with the bloodied face and the half-naked young woman behind him quickly disabused him of that train of thought.
Still, he hid a grimace when he imagined the kind of infrastructure available in this world. Though Sasuke didn't consider himself a particularly snobby person, he was still a proud Uchiha.
He already debased himself long enough after years of living in dimly lit tunnels and damp caves with Orochimaru. Looking back on those years, the lengths he went to in his pursuit of vengeance astounded him.
When the first attacker reached him, a tall man holding a large bronze war axe, Sasuke did nothing more than lightly step to the side, and he felt a light breeze kiss his skin when the weapon sailed past his face only an inch away.
This is disappointing, he thought to himself. He was no battle junky like Suigetsu, but he enjoyed a good fight where he could push himself. He was still a ninja at the end of the day. This, though, felt more like stepping on ants.
He had decided to be extra careful whenever he jumped worlds, and so he had kept both his Sharingan and Rinnegan eyes active since he first entered through the portal. That had been a waste of chakra, he realized that now.
Granted, he had more chakra than any man could ever want, especially now that his Hashirama arm had integrated with his Uchiha body. He had even managed to deactivate and conceal his Rinnegan at will.
So with a sigh at how slow the locals had turned out to be, Sasuke's Sharingan stopped spinning and faded into his usual black eye, but he kept the Rinnegan active for now. After hearing the strange language they spoke, he realized he would soon make use of the more esoteric powers of his eye of Samsara.
Another man swung a wooden club down at him with an overhead strike, and he used two fingers to redirect the blow into the path of the hacking axes of the woman with a scarred face.
Bronze axe-blades bit into the hard wood of the club, sending splinters flying in the air. The man cried and stumbled back as a sharp piece of wood cut him on the cheek.
Angered, the woman growled as she struggled to pull her axes away from the club. She spat and let out some kind of harsh word that could only be a curse, then kicked the man in the chest for getting in her way.
Behind him, one of the men stabbed at him with a stone-tipped spear, and Sasuke spun out of the way while taking hold of the spear's shaft.
He pulled on it, sending the wild man careening towards him with wide, terrified eyes, and Sasuke quickly chopped him on the neck with the same force he would use to down a genin.
The man collapsed to the ground, eyes rolled up to the back of his head. The other locals paused at that, watching him wearily. There were still six of them standing, trying to outflank him by circling around him like wolves hunting their prey.
It made for a pitiful sight, and Sasuke decided to give them a final chance to rethink their choices.
He had no problem putting a permanent end to enemies when they deserved, and some of these people here easily made that list, but having just arrived in the world, a small showing of mercy made for a better policy than wholesale slaughter.
He had already sent a powerful enough message by killing a couple of them. Still, in order for him to give them a fair choice to back off, one more person had to serve as a sacrifice.
Kneeling next to the unconscious man, Sasuke put his hand over the man's head and used the power of the Human Path to pull on the man's soul.
A cold feeling spread to him as his Rinnegan consumed the spirit of the man. Unconscious, the man didn't trash about or cry out in pain. He just expired while deep in sleep. Another small mercy.
It was the first time Sasuke tried the ability, and it was a strange feeling to feel all the knowledge the man once had poured into his mind like a tsunami, washing him in foreign feelings and sensations of an entire life.
He winced at the deluge of information, but he wasn't known as a genius for anything. His mind, augmented as it was by both his Rinnegan and his mixed Uchiha and Senju body, was a fortress as solid as bedrock.
In the moment between heartbeats, he sorted through the man—Tork's—entire life, keeping and discarding knowledge as easily as a farmer sorted bad seeds from good. Language and information of the world, that's what Sasuke was after, and after a few seconds he had what he needed.
The strange locals—the free folk, as he now knew what they called themselves, didn't seem to understand what he was doing kneeling next to the now dead man. Naturally, they wouldn't be able to see the soul leaving the man's body and being consumed by him.
"What are you doing to 'im?" The scarred woman—Mother Mara, his new memories provided—asked. "Why'd he stop breathin'?"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Knowing what he knew about these people and their habits now, he was less inclined to provide any more mercy than necessary. They were raiders and robbers and rapists. Scum of the highest order.
He rose from where he knelt, his eyes now back to their natural black. Wind whipped across the clearing, sending flurries of snow all over them.
"I grow bored of this," Sasuke said, the words of this new language coming naturally to his tongue. "Leave the children and be on your way."
Mara cackled. "Oh ye can speak now, can ye? Ye sound like a prissy southron more than ye look, pretty boy."
The man known as Skair spoke next. "This isn't how this works, kneeler," he said, frowning. "We stole these girls. By all the customs of our gods and the free folk, they belong to us. It be the law here."
A spike of fury shot through Sasuke at those words. His voice came out low and steady. "At this place and at this moment in time," he told them, "I am the only law that matters. Leave or die, those are your choices."
For a moment, there was silence in the clearing as the locals took in his meaning. Then came the anger.
Mara's face twisted into an ugly sneer. "Piss on that," she spat, and got nods all around from the warriors that still stood.
Even Skair, who Sasuke had noted was a more cautious man, didn't seem willing to budge on the issue. The tall man hefted his large axe, then as one the group of free folk started closing in on him.
Good, Sasuke thought. These people deserved what came next.
"Wrong choice."
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