The sun was setting and he couldn't believe that he was watching it. Seriously, he couldn't. There had to be some justifiable reason for the fact that he was still alive.
Konohagakure was in ruins. Sunagakure was in ruins. Otogakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, Kumogakure, Amegakure... if it was a hidden village and/or contained ninja or samurai in some way, it was in ruins, all of their respective inhabitants dead. Sure, his new teammates were dead, as were his old teammates, but so was his brother, all of Akatsuki and a plethora of other people.
But why the hell was Sasuke Uchiha still alive?
It didn't make any sense. Not one single bit of sense. He was the primary target of most of the attacks during the battle, and after that incident that had killed Manda, well, Sasuke's snake contact had been cancelled on the other side, so he couldn't call them for backup, and he hadn't really bothered to procure another summoning scroll.
Sasuke gazed over at the deceased body of Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto had pulled out an unprecedented five tails of the Kyuubi during the battle, leading to one of the hardest moments of the battle.
But Sasuke had won.
Sasuke felt...
Disappointed.
Disgusted even.
There was no rational way he could have beaten Naruto with five of the nine tails from the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Yet he had. And now, he felt hollow.
After all, what was left after he'd defeated his best friend and most prevalent rival?
Tsunade and Jiraiya were dead, having shown up after Naruto had fallen, but before Itachi and the last of Sasuke's teammates were dead. The remaining sannin had even gone berserk, making them at least ten times more dangerous.
Even with his Sharingan-enhanced memory, Sasuke was a tad hazy on how he'd managed that. Just like he wasn't entirely sure how he was able to kill Maito Gai, Kakashi Hatake or the rest of the Rookie 9, and all of the Konoha jonin and chuunin. Iruka, Konohamaru and his friends, Ebisu... he'd even finished off Gaara and his siblings with ease, but he had little clue as to what the hell had allowed him to defeat any of them.
It'd just sorta... happened.
Sasuke was deep in thought, looking over his memories, trying to decipher what the hell had made him so powerful, when he suddenly heard someone cackling behind him.
"At last, Madara Uchiha's power is REVEALED!" came the cackling of an old woman, as she stood behind Sasuke.
Sasuke turned to glare at her, "Who are you?"
"Don't recognize me, Sasuke-chan?" came the inquiry from the old woman before her image faded.
"MOM?!" Sasuke blurted, his normally impassive face agape from the sight of his mother, looking as young and vibrant as the day before she'd died... or at least the day before she'd SUPPOSEDLY died. But with her standing here, he wasn't so sure. He subtly used a genjutsu counter, but found that nothing changed. If there was no genjutsu in the area...
"Hello, Sasuke-chan." Mikoto Uchiha said, extending her arms in a welcoming hug.
"What the hell?! How the hell did you survive?!" Sasuke growled, almost irrational in his shock.
"Easy. I killed a kunoichi and used the same skin puppet technique that Kabuto used when he tried to kill you while you recovered from your battle with Akado Yoroi during the Chuunin Exams." Mikoto Uchiha answered.
"Kabuto did WHAT?!" Sasuke snarled angrily, wishing he could go back in time to re-kill the obnoxious grey-haired man. If he'd known about THAT, he would have killed Kabuto instead of simply letting him live after he'd dealt with Orochimaru. At least the bastard had been killed off by Suigetsu.
His brain missed the part about her somehow knowing that, and it also conveniently skipped over the fact that she'd apparently been alive and in Konoha during his at least part of his childhood, yet failed to reveal herself until now.
Mikoto suddenly frowned, "You have Madara Uchiha's power and you didn't know that?"
"First of all, who the hell is Madara Uchiha? Kyuubi mentioned him when I peeked into Naruto's mind, but..." Sasuke started to inquire.
Mikoto's glare became almost venomous, "Sasuke, you DID defeat all of these ninja, correct?"
"Yeah, but..." Sasuke began, before recalling that he'd not only defeated and killed all of his enemies, but his allies as well.
"Then you have his power." Mikoto declared, "So, use it already."
"What the hell IS it? I can't USE it if I don't UNDERSTAND it! So tell me what it IS!" Sasuke demanded.
Mikoto suddenly stiffened, as if someone had stuck something in the back of her head, "Madara Uchiha's power is easy enough to understand. There are planes above ours, Sasuke, ones where people can view all of our actions, all of our thoughts, and feelings, and one of them can even manipulate these events in our favor. At the whims of this so-called 'Overworlder', entire nations are created, thrive or are destroyed and forgotten."
Sasuke blinked in surprise at the crisp answer, but also at the momentary stunned look on his mother's face. Her face became stern as she glared at him, and whined, "Sasuke-chan, don't use it on ME!"
Sasuke was stunned as he came to realize what he had. Madara Uchiha's power was to manipulate the overworlder who controlled their destinies. In essence, his victory over the other ninja was done by manipulating someone else into making sure he won.
Sasuke felt ill to his stomach. No, he hadn't WON. He'd CHEATED! He'd something more vile than even copying all of Rock Lee's taijutsu, when it was all the boy had; something more vile than turning his back on his home village and even the memories of his dead clan; he'd something far worse than betraying his best friend and trying to kill said best friend.
He'd beaten people by default.
They could never win while he had this ability.
Ever.
It was like magically getting every card that one needed to win a card game, regardless of the odds of getting the aforementioned cards, without deliberately stacking the deck in one's own favor. Or like magically gaining an dojustu-based kekkei genkai that let one cancel all other kekkei genkai without affecting one's own kekkei genkai. (A/N: Stupid Haxigan Ranmaru.)
Suddenly his memories became clear. Even during the battles, when it was certain he was about to die, his enemies would ALWAYS make a fatal mistake, either by choosing to try and use a technique that had too long of a setup or by using an inaccurate attack that would leave them wide open or even by accidentally tripping or bumping into someone else. Whatever it was, it had ALWAYS given Sasuke the opening needed to turn the situation around.
There was no glory in such a cheap win, no sense of pride that could be attained by simply GETTING victory, nor was there even a sign that his prowess was as great as it was indicated.
It was like having people fawn all over him simply because he kissed NARUTO ONE TIME and BY ACCIDENT at that! Or trying to change his sexuality because of he felt some comarderie with Naruto!
In other words, Sasuke found himself hating the very power he now had.
"There's only one thing I can do..." Sasuke began[A power like this shouldn't be in the hands of foolish mortals like us.
"Oh, I knew it would come to this..." Mikoto purred, undressing rapidly before lunging at him, "COME TO MAMA! LET'S MAKE ALL THOSE SASUMIKO UCHIHAFEST FICS A REALITY!"
Sasuke stared at his mother in horror. She was apparently far more insane than he'd originally believed.
[Note to self: Remember to try and keep mother from being such a freak. Sasuke thought as he quickly activated Madara Uchiha's legendary ability and began to rewrite what he once knew to be the history of a series the overworlders called 'Naruto'.
Moments later...
"Hey, Sasuke! Let's go get some ice cream!" five-year old Naruto declared.
"WAI!" five-year old Sasuke cried happily[At least here I don't have to worry about a power-abusing mother who wants to jump me.
Then he saw a wicked gleam in his mother's eyes as she watched him and Naruto start to head for the ice cream stand.
[OR DO I?! Sasuke wondered.
Then, he smacked his forehead, wishing he'd kept Madara Uchiha's powers. He'd removed the part that made her want to manipulate him into GETTING the power, but he'd forgotten the OTHER half of the equation: she was a pedophile with a incest fetish.
But since he no longer had the power, for better or worse, he had to deal with things the normal way. And frankly, no matter how twisted this universe was without it, he could deal with being THAT kind of normal.
The End.
I just had to comment on the Uberness of the Sharingan Post Timeskip. Bakamoto's giving Sasuke FAR too many powers for free, and I somehow doubt the original version of the Sharingan included even a tenth of the crap Sasuke, and by extension ALL Sharingan wielders, are now capable of. I'm almost half-convinced two-thirds of the clan is going to start popping up, alive and well.
Anyway, I felt I had to write something to put a bit of a positive spin on Sasuke that isn't a prelude to a Yaoi fanfic, or a angsty emo-drama where Naruto is somehow the villian or at least a misguided hero who doesn't understand what it's REALLY like to be lonely. Because ya know, living without parents or any kind of love? Apparently, fangirls don't see that as lonely. (Here's a clue-by-four girls: people sometimes smile to hide the pain.)
So, in this fic at least, he did ultimately choose to do the right thing in re-writing the Naruto universe to get rid of the power of Madara Uchiha. He also got rid of any notions of an overworld, so no one could try and "rediscover" it.
So, yeah, Sasuke's a hero who saved everyone.
After he killed everyone.
Meh. There are people who've done worse, and at least he revived everyone through his actions, rendering their deaths a moot point.
As for Mikoto? No one's really messed with her. Since I'm almost certain all of the living characters have been suspected to be the secret mastermind or main villian at one point or another, I wanted to mess with the characters who've already been established as dead. Some of them could have survived, in a fashion similar to those cheesy kung fu movies: "Ah-ha, you saw me fall, but you did not see me die!"
And frankly, I'm almost certain that if Kabuto could pull something like what he did during the Chuunin Exams arc, a former jonin like Mikoto Uchiha could too.
Plus, why can't the other Uchiha be just as messed up as Itachi?
A-kun
P.S. Before people go whining about "MIKOTO'S NOT A NINJA", it's indicated in her personnel files that's she and Fugaku are both listed as jonin, even if it wasn't shown in the manga/anime. Check out the proof at (under Biographies, click the link for the letter 'U', her rank as a Jounin is right about her age.). Besides, even if it's not correct, it's MY story.