Chương 49

"At least the reality-warping teleportation nightmare ended up with the one guy in the room who doesn't look five seconds away from a psychotic break. So yeah, not exactly shocking he's the brains behind the discount hero group over there." Tony said.

"We aren't heroes, Tony.." Haku reminded him.

"I know.. I know.. Look at this.. Seems cool, right?" Tony asked as he finally built a 3D hologram of his new armor after copying it from his drawings.

"Much sleeker than the previous one." Haku said as he remembered the half-done armor in the cave. And thus the heavy lifting started. Haku too helped in this and Tony also enthusiastically explained things with the minimum knowledge Haku had. And for some reason he loved learning these new things. It was all but foreign to him, but it gave Haku a kind of normalcy.

"Tell me about the one-eyed guy? What is the deal with him?" Tony asked.

"He is the famous Copy Ninja. He became famous during the 3rd Great Ninja War, and now he has a huge bounty on his head in what you call the black market." Haku explained as he provided him the screwdriver he needed.

"Copy ninja? Why is he called that?" Tony asked. Haku then went on to explain the whole concept behind the Uchiha Bloodline Limit.

"Hold on—so you're telling me you can literally pop somebody's eyeball out, swap in a new one, and call it a Tuesday? That's not creepy ninja magic anymore, that's straight-up top-tier surgical science.."

"Konoha has some of the best medical shinobis, so you shouldn't be that surprised." Haku said. This made Tony touch his own arc reactor. If he couldn't find any solution to his chest problem, maybe he would just ask Rei for help since he belonged to Konoha and he himself was a doctor, or whatever they were called.

"So this lad named Sasuke has the same genetic cheat-code that lets the white-haired cyclops copy basically anything he sees? And there's more people from that clan? Fantastic. Because apparently one overpowered eye-hax bloodline wasn't enough for this universe. That whole family tree sounds like a balancing patch waiting to happen." Tony said mindlessly while fixing the leg attachments. But all he got was silence from Haku. He turned his head and saw Haku having a blank face.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No. It's just that his clan doesn't exist anymore." Haku replied.

"Oh no! Not another sob story.. Lay it on me straight. One trauma a day keeps the heart sway.."

"His clan was annihilated by one of their own. I don't know much, but I have heard it was an Uchiha himself who killed every last one of them. And for some reason Sasuke is still alive." Haku said. This made Tony stop right in his tracks and just look at Haku, hoping it was some kind of prank. Nope. This guy never did prank. Who was he kidding?

"I really need to stop pulling on threads in this place, because every answer somehow makes things worse. But now I have to know. The guy who wiped out the whole clan… tell me Konoha put him down, right? Please tell me there's at least one part of this story that ends with basic human sanity." Tony asked. Haku just shrugged his shoulders. He was just a helper of Zabuza and his world revolved around him. Other things never mattered.

He didn't even bother to ask Sasuke as he also felt it was personal and they weren't some close buddies. They literally fought against each other and were at each other's throats. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Tony slowly stared at Haku for several seconds afterward. Then finally leaned backward against the workbench dramatically.

"... Nope." He pointed immediately.

"Absolutely not. Your world is cursed." Haku blinked slightly.

"Cursed? Hmm.. Maybe.." Meanwhile Tony rubbed his forehead tiredly afterward before muttering.

"... Jesus Christ, no wonder Rei acts like a forty-year-old war veteran trapped inside a child's body." He stopped thinking much about the multiverse and gave more attention to his armor after that. Tony worked obsessively. Sometimes barely sleeping. His experiences, his knowledge, his secrets now bore heavily on him. Though he had Haku, it didn't mean he liked every bit of it. Someone who had loved his privacy wanted to have "me" time always.

Having Pepper and Haku around also was good, but he would love to have something that could safeguard him in case Haku wasn't around. Thankfully Haku was very helpful. He didn't understand advanced engineering yet. But his precision and patience made small tasks absurdly efficient. Holding components steadily, organizing tools, reading measurements carefully and assisting with assembly. Tony slowly realized Haku learned frighteningly fast. Probably shinobi training.

The kid adapted to systems and patterns absurdly quickly. Soon enough even Yinsen got discharged from the hospital too. The moment he arrived at Tony's mansion and saw the partially completed armor standing in the garage, the older man genuinely smiled for the first time in a long while.

"You finished it."

"Almost." Tony corrected proudly afterward.

"This time without terrorists yelling at me every ten minutes." Yinsen chuckled softly while slowly walking closer toward the armor. Compared to the Mark 1 cave monster... this looked elegant. Having Yinsen there again felt right. The three of them slowly settled into a strange workshop rhythm afterward. Tony engineered. Yinsen stabilized Tony's increasingly chaotic work habits. And Haku quietly assisted while learning both technology and normal life little by little.

Sometimes the conversations became ridiculous too.

"... So wait." Tony looked toward Haku one afternoon while welding stabilizers.

"You're telling me people in your world can walk on water?"

"Yes."

"And walls?"

"Yes." Tony slowly placed the welding tool down afterward.

"... I'm building a flying metal death suit while somewhere out there a bunch of chakra crackheads are violating gravity using tree-climbing exercises." Yinsen laughed quietly hearing that. Another time Tony showed Haku early flight stabilizer tests through holographic simulations.

"... So the suit flies using controlled propulsion?" Haku asked curiously.

"Exactly." Tony nodded proudly. Haku thought briefly afterward.

"... So very advanced Wind Release?" Tony stared at him silently.

"... You know what? Sure." And thus after that Tony did that funny maneuver where he hit the roof at high speed.

"You need to learn more Wind Release, Tony." Yinsen couldn't help himself again and just laughed out loud. But it didn't take much time for the armor to become fully functional after that. He went for a test run and unlike in canon where he froze high in the air, he was able to return safely and also stay warm. The whole reason again was because of Haku.

Haku had showed him his Ice Release and this made him more aware of the fact that he needed to make sure it didn't fail in front of Haku and thus he added heating systems and provisions to thaw out ice if frozen. But after he returned from his first flight simulation, instead of celebration and congratulations on his return, he saw a somber Yinsen looking at the TV along with Haku. He was going to complain but he stopped once he heard the name Gulmira on the news channel.

He was beyond furious and asked for Obadiah.

"I am going for this gala. And I need some answers." Tony declared while getting out of the suit. None of them said a word. And just like in canon, he went and met Coulson for the first time and also got distracted by Pepper herself. But when he met Obadiah, he went and asked questions only to be told that he needed to up his game as he couldn't go on defending him, and needed to help the company and not think of humanity.

It pissed Tony off in ways he couldn't even imagine and when he returned he declared that he would go and take care of the terrorists there.

"Tony, if you do this, you will be alone. I can't safeguard you there." Haku said.

"Tony, I know you mean well but it might not be the best-case scenario. Why don't you just ask your military friend to do something and stop this arm smuggling." Yinsen said.

"Yinsen, we have both played this game and we both know how the narrative works. Since those were my missiles and guns, it's my job to take care of them." Tony said as he slowly put on the armor in the garage, assisted by JARVIS himself. Haku didn't stop him after the first warning as he knew it was useless. This guy was stubborn to the core, and Yinsen, too laden with sparks of revenge, allowed Tony to do whatever he wanted to do at the moment. And without further waste of time, he flew off.

He took care of the terrorists that were using his weapons or at least those who did so in and around Gulmira and while returning had a run-in with the Raptors.