Sasuke didn't bother with knocking as he came into the Hokage's office. Naruto greeted him with a serious look. "You've found something?"

"Some sort of underground criminal organization. They're experimenting with high-level Yin-Yang jutsu to recreate the world how they see fit. I've found evidence they're planning an attack on the village within a year."

The blond tilted his head. "Well, I don't think the world's changed much since yesterday. The ANBU can handle a few kooks. What's the big deal?"

"They've already created some high-level space-time jutsu. On the level of my jutsu."

That got him out of his chair. "That's not good. Did they get anywhere?"

A nod.

"Shit."

"I'm not sure where they've gone, though. I'm going after them."

A pregnant pause. "Sakura's not going to be happy you're going away on another long-term mission."

"And neither is Sarada." A sigh. It had barely been months since he had been able to finally be a part of his family, and he was being torn away from them again.

Naruto came out from behind his desk, and put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Keep in touch, alright?"

"Maybe if I can find a damn outlet for my phone." With a shared chuckle, Sasuke vanished, not even a blur or swirl of leaves marking his departure.

Most space-time techniques operate through their own unique dimension. While using a different technique to access another's dimension is possible, it places a much greater strain on the user, especially if the dimensions are great distances apart. That was why Sasuke's still-unnamed (he had to fix that) dimensional portal technique was so powerful – it didn't make use of a unique dimension, but could access other dimensions with relative ease. The fact that a technique of that magnitude of power was not only out there, but in the hands of people who had plans for the destruction of his home was unsettling, to say the least.

But now was not the time for pondering theory. It had been a couple of weeks since discovery of the organization, and the hideout was now totally empty of anything that would be useful. He'd taken care to store what he could his first time, but much of it had already been destroyed.

What could not be destroyed so easily was the chakra trail of the mystery technique. Time had made it thin, but he could still trace its destination with some effort. What he hadn't expected was for all the strands to point in the same direction. Clearly, they'd made more progress on the jutsu than he originally thought. At least it made finding his destination easy. Opening his own portal, Sasuke stepped through.

"You're leaving again." It wasn't a question. Emerald eyes gaze into his, and he doesn't have the heart to meet the eyes of his wife. "Damn it, Sasuke, just when we were a family again-"

She moves as if she is about to hit him, one step forward, the opposite arm cocked back as the other grabs the nape of neck. He instinctively braces for the hit as her arm swings forward, but all she does is throw her arms around him. It takes a moment for him to realize what has happened before he reciprocates the hug with his one arm.

"It better not take you another ten years to come back, you jerk."

"Hn." They pull apart, hands on each other's shoulders. There's a small smile on her face, even with her eyes watering. The sound of footsteps grabs their attention, and they see Sarada walk in. She fixes her eyes on her father.

"So… you're leaving again, Papa?" He sighs and nods, and kneels down to hug his daughter.

"You better come back, shannaro. I won't forgive you if you don't, Papa." The corners of his lips turn up, and he pokes her forehead before rising to face his wife. Sakura leans in expectantly. He turns and strides away, and can hear her hang her head as she sighs.

"You're still… such a tease…."

Even without the Sharingan, the look of her surprised face as she lifted her head as he poked her forehead would never leave him.

Sasuke was fairly sure he hadn't made a mistake. The chakra threads had clearly pointed to the same direction, and he'd followed it to the best of his ability. In fact, he could clearly still feel the ends of those threads. That did not explain why he had ended up only a ways down the road from Konoha's gates. He had assumed the technique was meant to point outside his dimension, but perhaps he'd been mistaken. An examination of his surroundings with his Sharingan ruled out genjutsu, too. Still, enemies who could get this close to the village without alerting any outer patrols or scouts were still a potential threat to the village.

'Small blessing,' he supposed, 'that I'm so close to the village. Might as well report to Naruto on this development.'

He shook his head as he walked through the gates and saw the four faces of the Hokage defaced with paint. Clearly, Boruto hadn't given up his mischievous ways despite making amends with his father. He only hoped he wasn't dragging Sarada into his schemes. He really couldn't approve of the budding romance between the two. Oh, it was just a harmless childhood crush, Sakura had said, but he'd been quick to point out both she and Hinata had ended up marrying their childhood crushes.

Wait a minute. Four faces of the Hokage?

Sasuke had come to three conclusions in the short time that had since passed.

One, Naruto was a really bad influence on his dietary habits if he had come to Ichiraku's to think things over.

Two, the fact that neither Teuchi nor Ayame (nor anyone else, come to think of it) recognized him meant this likely wasn't his home dimension.

Three, the fact Teuchi and Ayame existed here at all meant this probably was a mirror or replica dimension of his.

He scowled. Naruto and Sakura had told him about when someone had manufactured an entire replica of the village, but slightly different so as to lure them in and trap them there. Had he been caught in a similar scheme too? It certainly was a possibility he had to keep in mind.

"Something wrong? You've barely touched your ramen."

Sasuke looked up to see the concerned faces of the owners. He waved them off. "It's nothing. Just thinking about some things."

Some things indeed. He was going to need a cover story – claiming to be an Uchiha, let alone Sasuke Uchiha was simply not going to work. Publicly displaying his status as the second most powerful shinobi in the world – probably most powerful right now – would attract dangerous attention, so he'd have to be selective in his techniques. He groaned inwardly. He was an Uchiha. The Sharingan was a core part of any serious combat strategy he had. To have to not use it would be… frustrating. Not to mention he still only had a vague idea of what this strange organization was doing here. Was it an elaborate trap? Was there a cell hiding here?

Picking at his ramen, he started to think up possible names. He hadn't need a fake name in a long time. He certainly hadn't needed it while he was busy trying to take vengeance on whatever entity he felt slighted him or his clan. Even in his recent service to Konoha, anywhere someone of his caliber would go, a henge would be useless at best. And his face… He was one of the four great heroes. One of the saviors of the world. There wasn't anyone worth his time that wouldn't know his face.

Hero. He hated it when people called him that. Made it sound like he'd saved the world out of the goodness of his own heart. He didn't want to die; was that really such a noble goal? Well, that wasn't totally fair. He'd wanted world peace, and he had been willing to murder world leaders and throw the world into an unending cycle of hatred to ensure it. But most people didn't know that. No, his past transgressions had been mostly swept under the rug thanks to his old team. Only shinobi were really aware of who he really was, and even then, most didn't know the half of who he used to be. Oh, he's done some bad things, but he helped save the world, so it's okay.

How, exactly, was this helping him arrive at a cover name?

"Something you wanna talk about, son?" Again, he dismissed Teuchi.

He'd let his guard down. Sitting here, at Ichiraku's, it had felt just like home. He could have been waiting for the rest of his old team to show up and talk about… well, old times weren't usually fun for him to talk about. But this wasn't his Ichiraku's. He couldn't trust these people. He had to get that through his head fast.

Thankfully, before he'd been pressed to respond, someone else showed up.

"The usual, Teuchi."

Sasuke froze as he saw Iruka and a young Naruto sit down at the ramen bar. He'd known he was in the past. He could guess that he'd see young counterparts of his friends. But actually seeing Naruto here… he turned back to his ramen before he could be accused of staring.

"Why would you do that to the Hokage faces, Naruto? You know who the Hokage are, right?"

So today was that day. He'd heard this story before. Idle thoughts of interfering wandered through his head. He'd contemplated going back in time in passing, perhaps leading little Sasuke down a better path or even preventing the Uchiha Massacre. But he'd never given it serious thought. For all the heartache and mistakes and pain, his life had turned out alright. He was happily married, had a beautiful daughter and a loving family and set of friends. He wasn't about to throw that all away. But with the opportunity laid out to him….

No. This was not his world. He had no investment in these people. They were not his precious people. They might even be constructs, lies built by his enemies to distract him. He had a mission to complete to protect his Konoha, his family.

"'Cause I'm going to be greater than any of them! I'm going to be a ninja legend, the next Hokage. Then everyone will have to stop disrespecting me. Believe it!"

Despite every ounce of him fighting it, Sasuke's lips turned up into a smile.

"Here's your key. Enjoy your stay." Thankful the recent proposal of the Shinobi Union to change the currency system hadn't gone through yet in his time, Sasuke accepted the key and walked to his room. The room itself was modest. A bed, a nightstand, a wonderful view of one of Konoha's back streets.

Sasuke's fell into the bed, mentally reviewing what evidence he had. There'd been mentions of a planned attack on Konoha in the documents he'd recovered. He'd caught repeated references to yin and yang chakra. A set of letters discussing back and forth whether or not to involve dreams. Dreams… obviously code for some other element, but Sasuke couldn't think of anything.

Rolling over, Sasuke contemplated his plan of attack for tomorrow. In theory, he should be able to go back and forth between this dimension and his with little difficulty, but doing so would tax his eyes, especially if he went back now, with so little to report. There was definitely something to find here, so he would find it, trap or not.

Satisfied, he closed his eyes, and rested.