Title: Brace Yourself
Summary: Enter Uchiha Sasuke, the lazy class president who lives next door to a crazy Naruto Uzumaki. Living the fast life has never been easier until a strange encounter begins a series of supernatural events that pull Sasuke into a whole new world. Sad thing is, the world doesn't want him in it. SasuNaruSasu
Warning: Yaoi (Some to come /cough/), Violence, Character Death, Crack (at times), drama, slight OOCness, and cliff hangers.
Author's Note: So even though it doesn't seem like SasuNaru for now, it will get there eventually. For now, the plot is more important. /gets kicked in the ass by Naruto/ For some weird reason, it's really fun writing in Sasuke's point of view.
Chapter One
Ring it Louder
Welcome boys and girls, to the exciting world o-oh nevermind...
Every night, I have the same dream. Trite as it might sound, it's true.
In the dream, I'm always stuck inside a telephone booth. Yes, a 1960's telephone booth, complete with eternally muddy scarlet paint and squared windows. Though I barely fit in with my five feet, ten inches, if I reach up, it feels like there's an infinite sea above me.
Placed on a rectangular silver wall are three buttons, all dark solid colors without a hint of gradient. Underneath each button reads a single word in strange, curvy handwriting. It's definitely not Japanese, a romance language, or even English, but I can somehow still read it.
'End', 'Happy', and 'Mystery'. Apparently, the paths for the rest of my life have been composed in those three choices.
I know that choosing to 'End' my life is more than just bad. I may be a young'un and all that jazz, but I am not stupid. After all, I'm only fifteen years old. Life is valuable and every minute counts.
Besides, I've got a lot going for me. Not to brag or anything, but I'm pretty good looking. This crazy kid started a fan club for me just because of my looks. Never mind the fact that most people think I'm an asshole, which, I kind of am, but those sarcastic retorts I always say? Well, they just go "You're so hot!" and my words go through one ear and out the other.
'Happy' sounds enticing, but it doesn't end great. I distinctly recall all those fairytales ending in a "-and they lived happy ever after!" Now, why do you think every Disney-licensed story ends that way? Is it really because, as the directors and screen-writers intended, the couples really did end happily? Or was it because they refused to write the long, barely finite volumes of depressing struggles and political battles within the royal families?
Last, but with the most 'Mystery' shrouding it, is the said choice. I'm not sure whether 'Mystery' sounds better than 'Happy', or even 'End' for that matter. But hell, I've got nothing else to pick.
I raise a trembling finger over the small, circular button and pr-
"Sasuke! Good morning!"
"GET OFF OF ME!"
My childhood friend-slash neighbor was up and alive.
Damn.
Ever since that day, the momentum I've become familiarized with has been a little off. There is no fixed schedule of any sort, nor is there even the faintest warning.
But being near that person, somehow, I feel safer.
I feel like…
…I'm normal.
Uchiha Sasuke was not a happy man.
To be more precise, he was an angst-filled, moody seventeen year old boy with many needs. Needs that Uzumaki Naruto, who leaned over him while shoving his visage almost five centimeters away, could not fulfill. (1)
Which was precisely why Sasuke promptly stuck his leg up and kneed his neighbor slash childhood friend in the unmentionables. The poor boy unceremoniously fell off the bed and landed head first on the hardwood floor.
"Oww…" he whined, rubbing the throbbing lump. "Sasuke, my lovely wife, why'd you do that for?"
A series of punches, ending with a rather sharp kick placed at the stomach followed suit to a loud, "Fuck you."
Sasuke yawned, glaring down at the limp, abused body. "Damn it Naruto! I was in the middle of finishing that dream. And one, one time I play Snow White in that fucking play in the third grade and you still keep ragging me about it."
Naruto's head suddenly shot up and large, cerulean eyes blinked innocently. "Really? So you finally made a decision then?"
The raven nodded. "Yeah."
Naruto grinned. "Awesome. If I were you, I'd choose the 'Happy' one!"
The dark-haired boy pulled off his pajamas and carefully slid into a pair of dark pants and a creamy shirt. He ignored his friend's blatant stare and threw a pair of dark socks in the air.
"Here. Give em' back later," Sasuke added. "I don't want any bugs on these, you stupid shithead."
Naruto frowned, pouted with every bit of power he had. "I am not a shithead! Just because you PMS every morning doesn't mean you can call me shithead every time you get pissy!"
"Yeah yeah. Now go downstairs and grab me a banana. We're almost late for school."
"No!"
"You can't copy my homework then."
"Changed my mind! I'll go get it Master Uchiha. Want strawberry milk with that?"
"Hell no. I hate that sweet crap. And…it's pink. You can have the strawberry milk. I'll take the coffee-flavored one."
"N-not fair! I like the coffee one!"
"Too bad. I live here, you moocher."
"But I'm such a cute growing young man!"
"Sorry! Can't speak dumbass!"
"You little-Naruto, I can understand why you're late" "Hey!" ", but as class president, Sasuke, you have some explaining to do." Mr. Umino demanded.
"It was his fault!" the voices cried in unison, pointing desperately to one another.
"For the love of…" the teacher trailed off, staring into the distance.
An amused, cool voice cut in, "Iruka? Good morning."
The thirty year old man froze, gulping audibly. "H-hello Hatake-san. A-a pleasure to, uh, meet you!"
The silver-haired man grinned through the cloth mask.
Behind Iruka, Naruto nearly choked on his own saliva, while Sasuke barely held back a smirk.
"Oh?" Kakashi blinked, staring at the boys. A frown tugged at the corner of his lips. "Already beginning discipline in the morning?"
Iruka shook his head, laughing earnestly.
"Of course not! This young man is Uchiha Sasuke," he said, pointing at the taller of the two.
Kakashi quickly raked the student with a single crescent shaped eye and nodded with approval. "His eyes are very clear, but his posture's a little lax. He's very independent and sharp, though it seems he was raised in a tough environment. I take it, he's the kind of person who's naturally good at everything but doesn't give a care about the rest of the world?"
Sasuke started slightly before narrowing his eyes. What was with this guy?
In less than a minute, this weird masked man had already managed to guess, and hit dead on, his flaws, weaknesses, and strengths. Hell, he could probably guess his favorite color if he wanted to.
"And who might this one be?"
A blazing grin made its way onto Naruto's face as the three whisker shaped marks curved.
"Uzumaki Naruto, at your service Iruka's boyfrie-I mean Mr. Hatake," he whispered, grinning lightly.
Sasuke groaned, noting the steam that erupted from Iruka's ears and the grin spreading across Kakashi's mask. He turned around and walked off. If Naruto was going to die, he didn't want to stick around.
Sure enough, ten seconds later came a foghorn of pain and utmost suffering.
School passed by slowly in the same ritualistic fashion. Sasuke hardly raised his head from the desk. Instead of participating in school activities and other worldly topics, he chose to bask in the soft glow of a slightly clouded day.
Plunk.
Sasuke sighed as his head hit the cool, surface of his desk. Frankly, being an Uchiha was tough. There were days on which he felt like massacring everyone in school, but it didn't make him feel any better. Plus, that would be a pain in the ass to clean up.
"Psst! Sasuke!"
Sasuke refused to look up. If he did, he'd come face to face with the swarthy boy he saw almost every day of his life.
"Sasuke! Can you please oh please grab some dinner for me?"
Ears perking a little, Sasuke tilted his head to the side. "Late night shift?"
Naruto grinned sheepishly, unconsciously scratching the back of his head. "Yeah, my boss is kind of PMSing. Gotta' stay on her good side."
Sasuke nodded. "Alright. No dessert though."
"Thanks! I owe ya' one."
"Excuse me," a peeved voice announced loudly. "Naruto, is there something you'd like to share with the class?"
Naruto barely flinched. He smiled at Sasuke who couldn't help but allow his lips to lift a fraction of an inch.
"Yeah," Naruto answered innocently. "Actually, I do."
"Your fly is unzipped and you really should wear some underwear. I mean, yeah you probably shoot a load a day at school from reading all that porn manga, but carry some spares for Christ's sake."
"Oh man, fucking shit asshole fuck!" Naruto cried as he scrubbed the chalkboard. "Fuck!"
Sasuke shook his head, body slumping against the desk. "You're an idiot. Ebisu's usually in a pissed mood, but way to go to mess him up even more."
Naruto ignored Sasuke as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeves. Chalk dusk floated in a dense cloud around the blonde's head and without warning, he started to hack violently.
Sasuke sighed as the overused word came into play once more.
"Fuck!"
"Gotta' run Uzumaki."
Said boy made a face. Sasuke raised an eyebrow questionably.
"Don't call me by my last name. It sounds all formal and shit when you do that," Naruto explained. "I mean, doesn't it bother you when people call you that?"
Sasuke shrugged.
"Oh, right. Forgot Mister Perfect-with-a-stick-shoved-so-far-up-my-ass gets called 'Master Uchiha' all the time."
"Whatever,"Sasuke muttered, raising his hand in a mock solute. "See you later."
Naruto rolled his eyes and pouted childishly. "Alright. Don't forget, dinner!"
Sasuke didn't respond. Like he was going to forget with all that whining.
It was only a ten minute walk home with a few shortcuts, but Sasuke couldn't help but feel a little uneasy so he took a bit of a detour. It was a little discerning to feel something tug on his neck, but every time he looked over, lo behold, nothing.
Still, Sasuke felt a little paranoid and decided to run home. Maybe he had a stalker?
He really didn't want to have a stalker. Some of them did, as quoted from Naruto, "Crazy shit."
Once home, Sasuke hung his backpack on the wall and quickly changed into his uniform.
If only my parents could see me now, he thought wryly.
An Uchiha, working. As a waiter no less.
Naturally, it was somewhere inconspicuous and naturally, he drew a lot of attention.
Still, Ichiraku Ramen Bar had great pay compared to anywhere else. As a teenager, it wasn't easy getting a job, though Naruto had somehow managed to find one and introduce Sasuke to Teuchi.
Even though Sasuke only worked afternoon and partial evening shifts, he made enough to pay half the rent, buy decent groceries, and even had some left over for the occasional luxury item.
Of course, that was only after a group of girls from school found out where he worked and dragged their family to Ichiraku Ramen almost every night.
Though Sasuke didn't really appreciate the thought of drooling girls, he hadn't the heart to tell them to leave. Especially since his paycheck kept growing.
As always, at the end of the day, Sasuke felt disgusting. The smell of ramen was rather enticing and welcoming the first few times, but after a few hours, with the sticky sweat and humid weather, it was unbearable.
"Are there any left overs?" Sasuke politely asked Teuchi's daughter, Ayame. The girl was a stand-in waitress for whenever there were too many customers.
Ayame smiled knowingly. "Yeah. Table four accidentally ordered three bowls too much and canceled. Want me to throw in some dessert?"
Sasuke contemplated the offer. He really did. But knowing how Naruto would call him a hypocrite…
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Ayame began packing the ramen into disposable containers. "Dad and I made some red bean mochi. It's pretty good."
"Okay. Thank you."
Ayame wanted to reached over to rustle the stoic boy's hair. "You know, you really are the Naruto's opposite. He loves ramen, you bear with it. He's blonde, you've got black hair. He's-"
"-annoying and I'm not?"
"Well," Ayame laughed. "I wouldn't go that far. But you are a lot less talkative. Except when it's about him."
Sasuke grimaced. Nothing about Naruto was quiet.
The brunette handed the plastic bag over to Sasuke and winked. "Here you go."
"Thanks."
Ayame smiled again. She looked the boy up and down, expression flickering to alarm. "Sasuke, you should take a few days off. You look kind of worn. Been studying late into the night?"
Sasuke shook his head. He had been getting nine hours of sleep every day for the past month.
"Dad," she yelled. "Let me take Sasuke's shift for the next two days."
Sasuke began to protest, but Ayame quickly shut him up with another bag, only this one was filled with heavenly goodness in the shape of mouthwatering red fruit.
"You have some serious bags under those eyes and you look paler than usual. Just go home and rest. Go read some books, play a few games, whatever you high school kids do these days."
With that, Ayame pushed the speechless boy out of the ramen stand and into the streets.
Sasuke stood there for a full three minutes until he felt the bags against his leg. Then he began to walk home.
After all, who could argue against tomatoes?
As Sasuke walked home, he felt an eerie sense of déjà vu. The pinching feeling on his neck seemed to increase in pressure and was growing to discomforting levels.
No matter what Sasuke did, however, the feeling didn't vanish. He slapped the neck a couple of times but every time, his hand would collide with nothing but skin and flesh.
Without warning, the feeling exploded. There was white-hot pain that seemed to sear his neck and he screamed. It was as if a heated knife was being driven straight into his body, cutting and slashing at every place possible. The plastic bags dropped against the pavement as Sasuke fell to his knees. He grabbed at the pain as agony flowed through his veins and suddenly recoiled. His neck burned with an unnatural heat and the sensation refused to wade.
He watched in utter loss as the world's outlines blurred into darkness and his eyes seemed to lose focus.
Suddenly, everything was in a clear cut perfection. Shudders wracking his body, Sasuke sucked in deep breathes until his heart rate returned to normal.
As he looked up, bright effulgence blinding him for a short second until it quickly dulled.
"No way," Sasuke exclaimed in raw surprise.
Sasuke was back in the telephone booth.
Barely twenty yards away from Sasuke's limp body was a man leaning casually against the wall. He yawned, stretching as far as he could before pulling something out from a pouch on his leg.
"Mercury, Poseidon to Mercury. Status report?" a metallic voice whispered.
The man lazily scratched his head, sweeping up the walkie-talkie in a split second.
"Mercury present," the man responded without so much as looking up. "Target currently entering Stage Three. Awaiting further commands."
There was a moment's hesitation before a different voice, this time female, coldly commanded. "Ares present. Pay close attention and if he enters Stage X, take him down."
An interested gleam entered the visible eye. "Permission to speak?"
"Go ahead."
"Requesting permission to transport him to Olympus," Mercury simple stated before throwing the device a good ten feet away.
Even then, he could hear the outraged scream quite clearly.
"Mercury, are you willing to endanger the entire organization's welfare for the sake of one little boy?" the voice screeched.
The man stood up, patting non-existent dust off his clothes. He then calmly walked over to the walkie-talkie and pressed a button.
"Before you dismiss me from the case," the man said seriously, "Please look into the target's background and you might find some interesting information."
Mercury waited a few minutes as nothing was broadcasted until finally the female voice grudgingly replied, "Very well. If the target survives which is doubtful, you have my permission to bring him back to headquarters."
The man laughed with satisfaction and dropped against the ledge. Across the street, the boy's body began to spasm. Lights on the street burned brighter and brighter until they exploded, the glass shards scattering across the street.
"Very well then," the man blinked. "Let's see how you fare Sasuke."
Inside the telephone booth, Sasuke began to laugh.
What the hell was going on here?
He shook his head, grabbing a fist full of hair and pulling it back. The pain was slightly refreshing in a way that kind of made reality seem a bit more tangible.
Out of curiosity, Sasuke picked up the phone and held it against his ear. "Hello?"
There was no sound, not even the strange buzz that signified the lack of thereof. Hell, Sasuke would've appreciated heavy panting on the other line just to hear another living being.
He tried to unlock the door, but to no avail. He was trapped in the phone booth for good.
Well, at least until he found a way out.
Eyes raked the walls of the booth until they found the three familiar buttons.
Sasuke sighed. "For the love of..."
'End.'
'Happy.'
'Mystery.'
Which to pick?
Sasuke allowed his hand to hover over the first button and almost immediately, a voice began to whisper from the phone.
Interesting, he mused. That's never happened before.
He picked up the phone and instantly, a myriad of emotions crashed into his as a familiar voice urgently called his name.
"Sasuke, Sasuke! Pick this button! It's the only choice that won't destroy you! You have to believe me because I a-"
"Mom?" he cut it, voice trembling. How was this possible? His mom was dead.
"Yes, Sasuke. Baby, I really miss you. But I'm only allowed to intervene once. Please, just push the button. I-"
Sasuke flung the phone against the glass and watched as a loud thud reverberated through the booth. His mother's warm, yet worried tone was replaced by a standard dead line beep.
"What," he stammered, "The fuck was that?"
There was no way it could've been his mother. Sasuke had seen her die with his very own eyes and yet, there her voice was, as clear as he could recall.
Still shaken up, Sasuke put a hand over the second button while keeping an eye on the phone.
Another familiar voice answered, only it wasn't just one person. The memory of something any person had ever done which pleased Sasuke flooded his mind, filling it with something light and pure.
"Sasuke, this is the button you should choose. I'm not going to tell you to choose it since you're the only one that can choose, but-"
Sasuke swung his hand over the last button and waited in anticipation.
There was a loud click, and then an unnerving chuckle rang through the phone.
"So, the kind of person who's naturally good at everything but doesn't give a care about the rest of the world eh?"
"Kakashi?" Sasuke blurted out, eyes widening.
"Are you sure? Or maybe everything isn't what it seems. Maybe, you need to figure this out on your own."
With that, the line was cut and no further sounds were emitted.
Sasuke slid against the wall until his knees touched the sides of the booth.
What did that all mean?
For what seemed like an eternity, Sasuke pondered the choices. He debated each and every one until an idea suddenly struck him.
In that moment, Sasuke knew exactly what he wanted.
With a decisive move, Sasuke lifted his hand and slammed it against his choice.
(1) I beg to differ. I really do. /smirks/
AN: Reviews? xD
ALSO, before you guys go '...lolwut?' at the Mercury and Olympus thing, that will be clarified in the next chapter or so (which also have more yaoi interaction.) squeals