Author's Note: Just know that I will try to stay as true as I can to the characters and the way they would handle certain situations. I will not use any Japanese terms in place of English ones like "thank you", "sorry", or "thanks for the food!". It confuses some people. I will not use Japanese suffixes like "sama" or "kun" and "chan".

The story will go all the way into Sasuke Shinden. I will go by the anime since not everyone is as well accustomed to the novel as others. Though, I will use some instances that I prefer. I also draw every character on my DeviantArt for better visual.

For Imposter Naruto, use this URL: art/Sasuke-and-Imposter-Naruto-675163051

Thank you and enjoy.

Chapter 1: Sasuke's Journey

"Well, I'll be honest with you," Kakashi began, "under normal circumstances, you'd be imprisoned for life. The only reason you've been pardoned is because of your involvement in undoing the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Try not to forget, however, that all of this is thanks to Naruto as the war hero, and me, as the 6th Hokage. So, take it easy and don't go crazy on me again…It'll be on me if you do."

Sasuke looked onto Kakashi with a certain amount of remorse, yet you could barely see it, "yeah, sorry."

"You're leaving already?" Sakura asked, "Lady Tsuande is just about to complete your prosthetic arm from Lord Hashirama's cells…" "I..." Sasuke interrupted, "I need to see it for myself. I need to see how the shinobi world looks from my own eyes. I need to see all the things I have overlooked. I have a feeling that I would be able to see them better now, and if I miss this chance, I don't fully believe another will come…plus, there are a few things that have been bothering me."

Sakura looked at Sasuke then glanced down with a flushed look plastered upon her face, "What if..." she hesitated, "if I told you…that…I would like to, um, come, too?" she peeks up nervously participating his answer. "This is my journey to atone for my sins. You have nothing to do with my sins." Sakura slumps her head down hard in disappointment mumbling "Nothing to do…you say". She lifts her head up to find Sasuke moving towards her, 'I'll see you soon," he says poking her forehead affectionately. "Thank you".

Sakura can only look onto Sasuke as he walks away from the gates, though she is happy that he seems to reciprocate her feelings positively. As Sasuke walks down the long dirt road, he notices Naruto to his left, leaning alongside one of the many trees. "Huh," Sasuke started, "I didn't think you would come". Naruto returns his statement with determined eyes and a smile, 'again with those eyes…'.

'You fought to stop me…to the point that you lost your own arm. All because you were my friend. Naruto, you saved me.' Naruto pulls out a scratched headband and stretched his hand out to Sasuke's. 'I have noticed that these feelings of mine aren't just about us, I am sure it's the same for everyone else.' "You kept that old thing?" 'But, there aren't a lot of people like you. Things won't always go as planned, just look at us…it's especially true when it comes to bigger things.' "Here, I am returning this." Sasuke begins to reach out for it with a response, "I'll keep this until our real battle." 'I believe it's like praying, and until I can do it, I will stay strong, we are the beings that have been entrusted with the world's hope. That's what makes us Shinobi.'

Attaching the headband to his hip, Sasuke sets off on his journey leaving his friends behind, this time on a good note. This time, with no regrets to hold him down.

After walking down the road for a few hours taking in his surrounding, Sasuke thinks that to start his journey, he should begin by visiting the Five Great Nations. 'I will start with a detour to the Land of Waves before I travel towards the Hidden Sand. It wouldn't hurt to visit the nation I had my first true battle, I didn't quite get to admire the city when I picked up Zabuza's Kubikiribōchō

.'

By nightfall, Sasuke had arrived at the edge of Tanzaku Quarters, opting to stay in a hotel for the night and start the second day of his journey in the morning. He heard all the joyous laughing and screaming of crowds while walking through the gates. 'I guess I won't be able to find a quite hotel to sleep in.' he thought as he walked through the rambunctious crowds. Soon enough, he found a hotel he thought to be decent and decided he should check into it for the night. While doing so, he bumps into a man who then fell to the floor while he was trying to making his way out.

While still on the floor he starts screaming out, "God damn it, why don't you watch where you're going, ya purple-eyed fre-freak!" Sasuke looks down at the man feeling his appearance his somewhat familiar. He nonetheless offers his hand, but the man slaps his hand and stands up on his own allowing him to get a better look at the angry man. He wears dark brown eyes and curly dark blonde hair along with a plain dark orange shirt and dark pants along with regular blue sandals and a blank headband. Obviously, he's not too fond of bright colors. Though oddly enough, it reminds him of Naruto, he even had one scratch on each cheek. Before he walks past the angry blonde, he begins to yell in his face, "Don't you know who I am!? How dare you be so rude!" Making a grumpy face, he sighs "at least you were kind enough to offer your hand, but still, you should know when to say excuse me! Now your actions have drawn a crowd, you idiot!" It is in that moment that Sasuke does notice that a crowd has formed behind him around the entrance, though, they seem quite scared and peeved.

"I am sorry", Sasuke says, "but you are just as in the wrong as I am." A few people behind him starting freaking out, one man brown headed man with brown clothing taps on his shoulder gaining enough of his attention to turn his head, "Psst! Sir! You must be more respectful! That man is the war hero, Naruto Uzumaki! You mustn't be so rude! You must bow!". Sasuke couldn't help but chuckle as he saw the smirk residing on the face of 'Naruto".

'Naruto' didn't react too well to the chuckle, "Gah! How dare you think this is even mildly funny! You wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for me, ya know!" ''Ya know?', must be coincidence' Sasuke thought with mild amusement. The crowd behind him began getting louder and bigger, all hampering on about how grateful Sasuke should be.

"You're not Naruto" said Sasuke. The crowd silenced at such a bogus statement. 'Naruto' began to yell out at Sasuke, a bit flustered by such a statement, "I am!"

"No, you're not." He continued

"And who the hell do you think you are, punk! Would you like me to show you my awesome power!" he says cockily, knowing that the mere statement of Naruto's power is revered through the land. The land also knew that, all cheering with screams of "Yes, Lord Naruto!", "Show him how to be resepectful!", and "Don't rough him up too much, Lord Naruto". Again, silence was disturbed through the crowd when Sasuke agreed to fight him.

"Come and show me, I am interested in how far you can back this up." 'Naruto' was a bit taken aback, he never had to actually go through with a challenge. 'No matter', 'Naruto' thought, 'I did fight in the war, I am a shinobi, a former Chunin at that! What are the chances this guy is a ninja, he doesn't even have a headband. He is a bandit at the most.' He began to walk past Sasuke and into the road with a crowd giving them room with Sasuke behind him.

"I'll even be so generous as to offer you the first move!" 'Naruto' exclaimed resulting an eruption of cheers of support. "No need. I don't want this to end too fast." Said Sasuke resulting in boos and an angry opponent, "Ugh! Fine! But you asked for it!" he responded.

'Naruto' spread his legs and got into position lifting his arms up to begin weaving signs. He has a serious look on his face, 'I need to keep up my image here, so I will use my most powerful jutsu!' Sasuke just stood his ground in mild curiosity wondering what he could do. He obviously understands how to use chakra.

'Naruto' weaves his signs while taking a deep breath, 'Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere!' exhaling several small blasts of wind chakra in such a manner that they are dispersed over an expansive range endangering the surrounding crowd. Sasuke acts quickly and spreads Susanoo's arms to cover everyone in harm's way, and using the ribs to cover himself form the attack. 'This is a jutsu Danzo used. It takes quite a bit of chakra.'

'Naruto' looked on in amazement at such a display of power 'he..nobody was hurt, he, who is this guy!? That took more than half of my chakra, damn it!' He then ran towards Sasuke while whipping a kunai out his pouch, but before he could slice Sasuke's throat, Sasuke activated his Sharingan to knock him out and fall to the floor.

"Agh!" he grunted while on his way the ground, leaving the crowd flabbergasted. How could the strongest man lose so easily? Completely oblivious to the fact that he didn't care if he injured them in the battle. "That was impressive, a jutsu such as that could cause a lot of damage to your opponents and the shinobi around them, and you also weren't completely knocked out by my genjutsu, but you endangered civilians who wouldn't be able to help themselves." He continues a bit louder so the people can hear him "you are not Naruto Uzumaki and I won't have you tarnishing his name in such a place." Sasuke then began to walk away to a different part of the town, as he was not comfortable in that area anymore.

The imposter began to struggle sitting up, but he did get there, albeit breathing heavily, "Who…the hell are you!?" he yelled out as Sasuke walked away. He stopped, turning around to humor them, seeing everyone's anticipation in the question as well. "Sasuke Uchiha." He replied as he turned back around to walk away all the while everyone freaked out at such a famous name. The imposter was speechless and just fell back down holding his head 'I challenged THE Sasuke Uchiha! No wonder he was so confident in my appearance AND in battle!'

After walking away for a few minutes, everything went back to the regular screams and joyous laughing. He found a hotel, checked in and entered his room. As he did so, he noticed it was, well, crappy. The walls had multiple cracks in it, the bed was hard and uncomfortable, the blanket was too thin, there was no pillow. The bathroom had a sink and a bathtub full of mildew. Sasuke took his cloak and sandals off and sighed, "You get what you paid for". He laid himself down and fell into a light slumber.