Disclaimer: Naruto is the creative property of Masashi Kishimoto, everything else is mine.
Chapter 1 – The Voyage Continues
Uchiha Sasuke was many things: 16 years old, the very last of his clan (now that Madara was truly dead as opposed to the sort-of dead he was before), a genius, an idiot, a traitor, a hero, a leader, a follower, a pawn and many more. But there was one thing that one this day, right here and now, this lovely day upon the ocean blue with the wind on his back and the sun overhead, that he was far more than any of those other things.
He was bored. Truly, truly bored.
He was expecting some boredom, being out by himself on the open ocean, with nothing to accompany him except the waves and whatever he caught to eat… but this was far worse than he could have predicted. He groaned, rising up from the ship's deck where he was laying, watching the clouds in a very Shikamaru-like manner, to go grab "his" fishing gear. When he commandeered this boat at the Land of Waves after sneaking across Fire Country, a feat Sasuke still isn't sure as to how he accomplished, he wasn't expecting it to have any tools for fishing, but it did. Lucky him.
He felt he would need that luck later. For now, the future, which he had once set for himself, was an open field, full of endless possibilities. Itachi was dead, Madara was (hopefully still) dead, and he had lost his desire to avenge himself against Konohagakure. That dobe Naruto was to thank for that, so now Sasuke had only one task left to him: the revival of his clan, the once-mighty Uchiha. But he was still young, so he could put that off for a while.
But that didn't explain why Sasuke, the last of the Uchiha and traitor to two different ninja villages, was now on a boat in the middle of the ocean, headed for wherever-the-wind-blows. By all accounts, he should be either dead or a prisoner in Konohagakure jail, which used to be run by his own family members.
It also didn't explain the bandages covering his eyes, a handicap which the teen was decidedly learning how to ignore. As he fishes, perhaps we should uses this time to look into the past and find out the story behind this strange ornament.
The beginning of this whole mess could honestly be predated all the way to Madara's birth, but those events are of no direct relevance to us. Turning the clock back about a week or so should be enough. On some day that week, the combined forces of the five major shinobi villages, along with a few samurai companies, were bearing down on Madara, Kabuto, and whatever else the two had prepared. Unfortunately, that whatever else happened to be the recently deceased Akatsuki members, brought back to life by the wannabe Dr. Frankenstein, Kabuto. Though the good shinobi far outnumbered the bad shinobi, the fact that the Akatsuki members were nearly immortal made the struggle to defeat them last far longer than it should. Casualties mounted, but they eventually were defeated, and Kabuto was forced to flee before he could captured or summon more zombies.
That left Madara alone to face the onslaught, just him and his seven tailed beasts whose chakra he was able to manipulate freely. Clearly, this was a fair battle.
It was during the struggle to subdue the tailed beasts that Sasuke had appeared, along with Juugo and Suigetsu, who were still a bit sore about that whole getting abandoned in the Land of Iron thing. However, they were willing to temporarily team with the Uchiha once more, since it was their only option besides remaining prisoners. Everyone who noted the appearance of the trio (read: everyone) expected them to join Madara's side, especially Team 7 and Madara.
So, imagine their surprise when Team Taka suddenly started attacking the tailed beasts, giving Sasuke an opening to head straight for Madara. The allied shinobi forces, while confused as hell, weren't going to argue with the aid – they needed as much as they could get. The tailed beasts were soon defeated, as they would have been, but thanks to the intervention of the Uchiha, Madara was killed. The defector had figured out some way to do it, in spite of the fact that the Fourth (and many others) had tried the very same thing and failed. However, as soon as Team 7 and the rest of the allied shinobi tried to find the two Uchiha, who had slipped away in the middle of the conflict while they were dealing with the tailed beasts, Sasuke had become very absent, leaving behind Madara's corpse for them along with a short note.
It read: You won't be seeing me again. Nothing else, not even his name.
From there, the last Uchiha had made his way to the only harbor he knew of, the Land of Waves, and escaped from the elemental countries along with a few items: a large amount of ryo, Orochimaru's written research (everything else was burned down), all the Uchiha artifacts he could get Karin to find, clothes, ninja tools and provisions. All the necessities. By this time, he had enough fish to augment what remained in the boat's pantry, so he ceased his efforts and prepared to cook what he had – a few good-sized tuna and salmon. As he did this, he felt a chakra signature suddenly appear with his range of "vision". While he was no true sensor, he did gain some ability after seeing Karin's power and attempting to replicate it using the Sharingan. It was headed his way too, albeit very slowly, so he quickly dragged the fish into the kitchen and the returned to the outside of the boat, unwrapping the bandages as he did so.
As he waited, the person that the signature belonged to, became visible. The person was alone on what looked like a lifeboat, and apparently unconscious, so Sasuke had a decision to make – should he ignore it or not?
At various points on his journey, Sasuke would regret the decision that he made this day, for he decided not to ignore the drifter, reasoning that she (he could tell its gender now that it was closer) might be able to help him in the future. She would, but not always in the way that he wanted.
The small vessel slowly but surely made its way up to Sasuke's vessel. He decided to get a good look at his new shipmate before he blinded himself again – her brown hair went down to her shoulders and her clothes were in tatters. She also appeared to be far skinnier than she should. Perhaps she was starving? It's not like she had any food in her boat, not anything to catch fish with. The Uchiha decided to ask her about that later, when she was actually awake, and carried off her boat and onto his, dumping her in his cabin. He then headed off to the kitchen, to cook those fish he had caught. Maybe the smell would wake her up or something.