Chapter 89: Verdict?

Bonus Chapter at 2.5k stones.

...

Under the careful watch of the nearby agents, Natasha and John entered the nearby coffee shop. After getting their orders, which were basically strong black coffee with no sugar, they headed for the tables.

As they sat down at the table by the window, Natasha kept observing everything about him. He usually had a sort of intimidating air about him, even more so after the Centurion Club incident, but today it was a lot more subtle. That creepy air that surrounded him was also very muted.

Still, it gave her a stronger bad feeling in her gut, but also made him quite attractive.

’Is this the scaroused things Maria was talking about?’ Natasha took a sip of the strong coffee while taking in this new feeling settling deep inside her.

Also, it was quite something to see him not even batting an eye about the leak she had told him about earlier. He was a lot more confident in his assumption than Fury had expected. Even she only thought there was a 40% chance a leak would happen.

How did he know about this so clearly?

And the real reason he wasn’t shocked was much simpler

John had given his blood already, expecting that to happen, but the real reason he didn’t react was because of Natasha’s eyes. In the previous meetings, she had been constantly trying to extract information from him, but today her eyes had a much sharper glint.

Like she didn’t want to miss even a single clue from this meeting.

Her eyes had been studying each of his movements and reactions to the small piece of information she had given. But why?

Did she want to see if he would lose his cool? Or was she waiting to gloat with the ’I already told you so’? Could be that she was just curious about how he knew and expected some grand reveal about John Doe’s sleeper agents or something.

But John had no interest in doing that; there was no point in doing any of that. So, he maintained eye contact with her, drinking coffee in the empty shop.

"You’re no fun." She smirked at last. "The information did leak, but it wasn’t the real file."

John barely held back his sigh, watching her crafty expression.

"In the entire agency, only two have seen the results. First is Agent Hill, who did the test in a secured facility, and second is Fury himself." Natasha didn’t hold back anything this time. "Then they placed fabricated data in the system to lure out the rats. I am sure Fury did it out of spite, but they got a hit."

"Fury and his trusted agents have been very focused on this newly popped-up security threat." She added. "So much so that there was almost no one keeping an eye on the recent signing until an unexpected incident happened."

"Quite the sorry showing." It was mostly what John had expected.

"Indeed." Natasha didn’t even try to make any excuses, and neither did Fury. "To make up for it, she will be getting extra support pretty soon. It’s Fury’s way to make up for not measuring up to the promises; he won’t admit it, though."

It wasn’t something that they could make up for what could’ve happened that day if Gwen hadn’t reached his place out of instinct. But there was no point hassling further about an incident that had already passed. And there was another reason he decided to drop the topic.

"Putting Vulture into confinement was quite the chore with those fabricated reports and evidence of his capture." Natasha placed the empty cup on the table and shook her head; the only saving grace was that the guy was too scared to even make a peep, much less talk about who caught him.

Even then, it was a tedious job pushed to her since she had basically become SHIELD’s liaison for John and Gwen.

"It would’ve been much easier for me if you just killed him." She grumbled, placing her left hand on the table.

"Not worth it." John didn’t exactly flinch at the idea of it; he had even considered it that night.

But it wasn’t his place to do that. Gwen had enough power to do it herself, but she never did so. And he also didn’t expect SHIELD to play nice and not use the incident against him later on. That’s why he just contacted them after calming himself the best he could.

Natasha quietly smiled because it was the correct decision, and he wasn’t showing any cracks even after she tried to egg him on. However, the reason she had come here was because of the reported injuries he had treated.

When she had a follow-up meeting with Gwen the day after the incident, she tried not to make a big deal out of the injuries. But Natasha was really surprised that John had healed all of that by himself; there weren’t even any scars or shadows of the injuries shown in the scans or reports.

"She was quite literally beaming on the way out." Natasha had watched Gwen leave his place; any other day, that girl would’ve caught her, but her mind seemed somewhere else as she almost fluttered away with that goofy smile.

When they were cuddling on the dinner table after breakfast, she was watching then too.

"You’re quite gentle with her, aren’t you?" It was quite the shift from the usual air around him, even more compared to what he did during their first encounter.

"I’ve been pretty gentle with you as well." John shrugged.

"That’s the problem... I am built for a bit of rough handling." Natasha gave an amused smile as he didn’t even bat an eye at her words now.

"Maybe in the future." John understood the underlying meaning of her words.

’It’s not like I don’t want to heal her, but there are still things I have to look into first.’

When John healed Gwen, he had help from her already enhanced healing rate and a steady supply of Cursed energy because of the negative thoughts swirling within him in that moment.

But he couldn’t really generate that semi-endless supply of cursed energy on command, and it would only do more damage to his deal with Natasha if he failed to restore her. And it would be a brand-new headache if he failed to restore her properly, pouring cold water on all the hype he had built till now.

Reconstructing an entire organ and all its functionalities, his output and reserves were a real bottleneck for him. Not to mention his mastery with the technique.

’Should I get Hakari’s technique?’ For now, he decided to put a pin in that problem.

There was still something he wanted to confirm at this moment. So, John reached over the table and took Natasha’s hand into his own.

Even if the bold action did make her raise a brow, she didn’t move her hand away. In fact, as his long fingers wrapped around her palm, her fingers curled around his palm as well.

"I wasn’t expecting this." She smirked at the charming boldness as his face remained neutral.

But before her light teasing could continue, Natasha suddenly felt a wave of cold spread over her skin. It was similar to the feeling that was around John, just a bit stronger now that she was feeling it.

The creeping wave soon covered her body and started to sink into her flesh like needles. It was uncomfortable as this pointy energy started to feel around her insides, slowly covering each of her bones and organs.

It almost felt like she sat naked in front of him. But even if cold sweat dripped down her forehead, she kept her eyes on his focused expression and sharp jawline.

’What is he trying to do?’ Maybe he was just teasing her a bit because of how she had irritated him, or he just wanted to torment her a little?

Both of them were fine with Natasha as she did little to resist him, but John had another reason.

He was currently using his cursed energy and observation haki to the fullest extent in order to get a feel for her soul. And with her full compliance, he was able to get what he wanted.

At start, he felt the outline of her soul; it matched perfectly with her body. Each scar and the bullet wound it was all there. But that made him worry; maybe he’d need a stronger healing skill before he could help her.

Still, remembering Gwen’s case, he went deeper, peering inside the shape. And that’s where he found it.

The part that the soul had but the body didn’t.

After years of living like this, she had accepted her circumstances to the best she could. Still, Natasha’s soul had held onto the part that was forcefully ripped away from her body.

Reversed Cursed technique would work on her, and it would give her what she wanted as long as he had enough reserves and a stable output.

’But there is a different problem with her brain.’ The red room had messed with her brain as well. Especially the Hippocampus, Amygdala, and the Neocortex.

It wasn’t an area he wanted to touch with his current mastery of reversed cursed technique.

"So, what’s the verdict?" Natasha’s words made him open his eyes.

Even if she was physically uncomfortable and covered in goosebumps, there wasn’t a single change in her expression or tone. Just that her grip on his hand had tightened a little.

"I’ll need a few months before I can heal you with 100% certainty." Even though it was unfortunate, she did something else to work on in the meantime.

"I mean, the success rate doesn’t have to be 100% ju—"

"No, it has to be 100%." There was no room for negotiation here.