AN: This is rated M for a reason. Fair warning you have.
Disclaimer: Kishimoto Masashi rules the world from within a dark castle filled by plotbunnies at his command!
Summary: The Gedo Mazo has been destroyed but with the Five Kage dead at the hands of an immortal Madara and Naruto weakened from his fight with Tobi, the path is clear for Sasuke to complete the Tsukiyomi Moon Plan.
To see the world in a grain of sand,
And heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
- William Blake, The Auguries of Innocence -
Prologue
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Coughing up blood, Naruto stumbled, falling to his knees. "Don't do it, Sasuke. We can make a world where people understand each other..." He murmured weakly as more blood dribbled down his chin.
Gazing down at his onetime rival, Sasuke considered how pathetic he was; if not for the regenerative powers of the Kyuubi, Naruto would have died a hundred times over before he had even reached thirteen, never mind during a fight at this level.
Now, without the freakish chakra of the Kyuubi to bail him out at the end, Naruto was less than nothing.
Raising his chokuto, he brought it down on Naruto's neck.
Steel met steel. The clash ringing out across the field.
Lifting his blade, Sasuke brought Madara's katana about and away from Naruto's shoulder.
At the Uchiha elder's raised eyebrow, Sasuke simply said "He honestly believes that what he fights for is the salvation of the world." Turning to Naruto, Sasuke said "Naruto, close your eyes."
Naruto stared up at him, his blue eyes bright despite the odds.
"Don't do this, Sasu-"
With a flick of his wrist, Sasuke ended Naruto before he could complete the sentence.
Gazing down at the body, he idly noted that there was hardly enough blood left to spurt out of the neck. Focusing, Sasuke felt a growing pain in his left eye as chakra gathered there. Releasing it, he focused the flames on Naruto's body.
"You were a naive fool, Naruto. Go now in peace."
Madara turned away, hands blurring into a string of seals. "He was a fine warrior, even by the standards of my time. A pity that he was our enemy, I would have liked to have known him."
Sasuke did not say anything as stepped over Sakura's bisected corpse. Hands blurring into seals, he quickly caught up with Madara's own string of seals.
Together they slammed their palms down on muddy earth, spidery lines of seal work exploding outwards around them for miles around. Focusing their will, the two Uchiha gathered the ambient chakra released with the destruction of the Gedo Mazo.
Harnessing it, they drew the foul chakra into the seal array to act as the initial charge.
Now, they would lock the world into an endless peace, free from lies and deceit; all through the power of the Ten Tails.
The Sage, weakened and dying on his deathbed, had chosen the lie that exalted him rather than than the ten thousand truths presented by his elder son.
It was time to rectify that mistake.
As one, the two Uchiha gazed upwards at the moon as they released their respective Tsukiyomi.
The silvery orb in the sky seemed to shudder, changing color from a bone white to a bright blood red.
Slowly, small fractures appeared, followed by whole chasms and gorges. An earthquake splits apart the outer crust.
From the darkness at its core, a single eye with nine tomoe gazed out, brightening with an inner light.
In between one breath and the next, the Infinite Tsukiyomi was cast.
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Chapter 1: A grain of sand.
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Sasuke blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Three times in a row.
He had been about to release his Tsukiyomi on the moon and...something had happened. No matter how hard he focused, all he could draw was a blank.
Naruto was dead. Yes, he remembered beheading him and noting how there hardly enough blood left for a good spurt; he had practically half dead already.
So what had happened and where was he?
The floor beneath him is nothing but an endless stretch of dusty grey earth, unremarkable in any shape or form from the ground anywhere else except for the fact that it was illuminated by a light from...everywhere and nowhere at once.
Walking back and forth brought no discernible change to the terrain. It appeared even and uniform in all directions.
Drawing a line in the earth, Sasuke initiated a body flicker roughly fifty meters right.
Appearing out of the body flicker, he could detect no discernible change. Looking down, he saw the same mark he had left in the ground just seconds before.
Well, whoever had cast this genjutsu seemed to have little imagination.
Drawing his chokuto once more, Sasuke used it to stab through his left hand, barely noticing the sting.
The the grey earth with its bright light remained beneath his feet. Sighing, Sasuke moved to sheath the blade as he healed his hand on reflex. As he did so, several droplets of blood slide off, falling to the ground. Quickly activating his Sharigan, he watched the blood fall in slow motion as he tried to focus on the minutia and discern visible flaws in the chakra weave making up this annoying illusion.
The moment the first droplet hit the ground, pure pain assaulted his senses.
Gripping his forehead, Sasuke crumpled down agony. Hitting his knees, he let loose a voiceless scream as his skin burned while the blood in his veins turned to acid. His mouth and throat filled with acrid smoke even as his lungs burst at the seams from icy water. His eyes saw shades of color that did not exist. His heart pounded in his chest while his mouth gasped vainly, trying to expell the water and pump some air into his lungs.
It was beyond anything he had ever experienced; words alone could not describe the sensations that gripped him. Time became meaningless, emotion and strength were merely two pale phantoms, empty and meaningless as the sea and rain.
It could have been one second or an hour or a year. It might have been an eternity.
Lost in the throes of pain, his body convulsed as another voiceless scream tore at his throat. Tears, acrid and hot and stinging and pathetic and stupid, rolled down his cheeks as his eyes boiled.
Visions flashed before his eyes.
It was like some sick movie, improperly edited; some scenes were in color, some were in black and white, some a dull grey, some in colors and shades he had no name for.
One second he was staring at his blood soaked hands, crying. In another, he was looking at himself as a child, screaming and laughing as he carved an unidentifiable torso into pieces with a blunt kunai. His mother was looking down at him, smiling wistfully as she ruffled his hair. His handsome father changed into rotting carcass, stinking and putrid and nauseating as it – he – the creature opened its mouth to speak in a voice that was like wind through the branches of trees.
Itachi was staring down at him, eyes filled with contempt. Karin was crying, arms around his shoulders, pleading for him to come back. Suigetsu was staring at him from across a field, the Kubikiribocho in his hand. Drawing the chokuto from its sheath at his back, Sasuke rushed at him.
Kakashi's bloody head was on a silver platter, its eyes comically wide with shock and fear and pain and remorse. Blood was pooling at base, growing growing growing until it split, staining the ground a deep dark red.
Sakura lies prone a reedy mat, coughing up blood as pus leaks from the boils and sores covering her body. Looking into milky white of her blind eyes, Sasuke saw in them the reflection of his own eyes. An endless loop of mirrors set in a never ending cascade of reflections, one of the other.
Juugo was sitting alone in the forest, surrounded by chirping birds. He is wearing a red muslin robe, the kind used by the monks or ascetics. Breaking off pieces of bread, he fed the birds, a sad smile on his face as tears trailed down his cheeks. With the flash of daybreak, he became locked in stone, a strange smile on his face, hands entwined in one another. All at once the birdsong ended and they all fly away.
Itachi reaches forwards, blood dripping down his lips. His eyes, the signs so clear now, were already in the last stages of the Mangekyo Curse; he would be utterly blind within a week, three on the outside. The edges of his mouth twitch upwards, almost forming a smile; Itachi died with a smile on his face; it suddenly strikes Sasuke deep in his heart that this is more than could be said for most people.
The rasengan in Naruto's hand cuts into his headband, a few inches lower and it would have burst Sasuke's head like an overripe fruit. Driving his arm forwards, Sasuke drove his chidori into...
...Orochimaru, standing across from him on another tree. The Snake Sage is talking, making handseals as he does so, a sick smile on his face. The handseals seem so pathetically slow. Unable to act, Sasuke watches as his younger self stares stupidly at the approaching head. Once his child self is branded like livestock, he watches as Sakura makes the best of the situation, hiding him as she does all she can to simply keep him alive. With tears in her eyes, Sakura faces off against the trio of Sound Genins. Why did she not run away? Sasuke felt that she...he longer knows; such petty things are meaningless.
The collage of visions switches to the Academy taijutsu field, where Naruto is mouthing off at him. With the Instructor's cry of 'Hajime', the two boys rush at each other. Just as always, Naruto telegraphs his moves to all and sundry; easily ducking under the initial blow, Sasuke moves into his guard and rises...
...to face Sakura sitting next to him, a vapid smile on her face. Hatred bubbles up from within him. Just as she opens her mouth to speak, Sasuke drives a chakra enhanced knife palm thrust into the bride of her nose, breaking the cartilage and causing a spurt of blood to fall from his body as he stares up at Haku behind his Hunter-nin mask.
Weakness Weakness Weakness grips his limbs. Falling, he can feel the senbon piercing him like a pincushion jarred painfully on the floor of the bridge. A primal roar announces the fiery wreath of chakra that blooms behind his prone body.
In time, Sasuke came to awareness.
The pain is - was - gone.
But was it ever there to begin with?
He is not panting. He is panting.
The sweat makes his hair cling uncomfortably to his forehead. It itches.
His body is racked with fatigue but the cool rush of adrenalin makes him feel alive.
The tiredness that grips him forces him asleep. He is awake and refreshed.
He is sleepily calm; almost as if he has just finishing meditating. The fatigue that grips him is enough to wish for an end.
The strange duality abruptly ends and his stomach plummets, rises and jumps off the Valley of the End again before suddenly hitting a cement floor in mid flight.
Tasting the bile in his throat, Sasuke rolled his onto his protesting arms. His body is definitely sore and tired, his throat aches from the scre - no, from the overuse of Katon jutsu. He should limit his use of Fire techniques for a while.
Keeping his tongue low, Sasuke opened his throat, letting most of the vomit expel itself without touching him more than it needed to.
A voice chuckled.
.
.
.
Scrambling to feet unsteadily, Sasuke's right hand came to rest on the comforting grip of his chokuto. Forcibly pushing past the unease in his system, he activated his Sharingan to and saw...
...his father, staring right back at him.
Unable to help himself, Sasuke gaped as he stared upon the visage of his father, clad in his usual robes adorned with the Uchiha crest, a small smile on his face. He even had the same minty aftershave that he had loved to smell as a child. Healthy and hearty, his father was everything that he remembered; powerful and strong and handsome and aristocratic and great and...
"Are you alright, Sasuke-kun?" his fathe – the man asked in a concerned voice.
Without bothering to use any cancellations, Sasuke activated his Eternal Mangekyo to counteract the genjutsu. The sick bastard who did this was going to burn.
When that did not work, he closed his eyes and performed Orochimaru's most esoteric genjutsu counter; alternating the path of his eight main chakra centers, Sasuke temporarily reversed its flow to his sensory organs and brain, cancelling his Sharingan but also utterly flushing any foreign chakra constructs or weaves placed anywhere on him or around him.
Forcifully bleeding off the expelled chakra to create a field would have normally have been a huge waste, but given the complexity and strength of the genjutsu he faced however, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.
The interference field was simply formless chakra, wild and directionless; nobody could compensate for such random fluxes and spikes without taxing themselves greatly. No matter the illusion, it would fall apart like a shattered mirror or, at worse, come undone like a cloth with too many strings being pulled appart.
Any second now...
A warm hand came to rest on his forehead and Sasuke felt the connection to his chakra vanish.
Bewildered, he looked up at the genjutsu construct of his father. The ma – "It" – looked down on him with a rueful smile.
Driving his chokuto into its chest, Sasuke stumbled when the blade encountered no resistance. Moving through the construct felt like wind on a hot summer's day.
An intangibility technique, Sasuke wondered to himself as he moved through it, raising his chokuto defensively at the construct's back once he had exited. He was so sick of these space – time ninjutsu users. The moment he escaped, he would use the Tsukiyomi Moon Plan to forcibly wipe the mind of any fool who practiced such arts.
Turning, the construct faced him with an irritated look, patting its chest and stomach areas as a grin grew on its face. "Looks like nothing is damaged." It proclaimed blithely, looking somewhat smug.
Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke conceded to himself that he was in a bit of a bind. Careful to keep his voice as emotionless as possible, he asked "Who are you and what do you want?"
It seemed to take a moment to consider this, most likely stalling for time.
Just as Sasuke was about to attack again however, it spoke in a jovial tone "Well, I happen to be someone who wants to meet you."
At Sasuke's raised eyebrow, it laughed. A deep belly laugh, just like his father had when he heard a good joke.
"Well, we have met. What do you want?" asked Sasuke seethingly; more of these stupid games with all the usual bullshit. No doubt this fool had some spiel about the 'truth' and how he wanted to point Sasuke in the right direction.
"Well, I wanted to ask you why you desire to initiate the Tsukiyomi Moon Plan." It replied in a calm, feminine voice.
Blinking, Sasuke stared at the visage of his mother. She gave him a small, sad smile, just like she always did when Fugaku turned from Sasuke in favor of talking to Itachi. His heart clenched at the sight of her. Already he could smell the familiar honeysuckle of her shampoo.
Compressing his hatred, Sasuke pushed it deep into his heart; another shard of ice to complement the growing tundra. Within seconds, he felt his chakra surge forth, becoming colder as it grew welcomed the new addition. Soon enough, he felt the endless plateau of his chakra emanating from his center, calming his mind as it stripped away at all the unnecessary fear and doubt. Once the pathetic weakness had left him, he was clear headed and focused once more.
Whatever this fool had done, Sasuke had broken the block on his chakra. With a vicious grin, he opened his eyes once more, feeling the familiar momentary sting that came with his activation of the Sharingan.
The lies would end now. Who cared about the past anymore?
All that remained was the Truth, immutable and pure as always, and if he had to drag these pretenders kicking and screaming into the light, then so be it.
Kakashi stood across the clearing, his lone eyebrow somehow communicating the frown on his face. "I am disappointed in you, Sasuke." said the genjutsu construct in his former sensei's voice. Weariness dripped from every word; Sasuke swore then and there that whoever had cast this illusion would suffer greatly before they passed.
Darkness stretched in every direction, somehow below and above and around them simultaneously. The only light present was the small patch of ground where he and the construct stood.
Whoever had built his place was not only focused, but had an obscene chakra reservoir.
No matter.
Even if they brute forced their way past the interference of his earlier technique, they had probably wasted nearly thirty seven times as much chakra in compensating for his chakra flush; such an insane waste would have floored even Naruto.
A wild thought suddenly occured to him, meeting the eyes of the construct, Sasuke activated his Tsukiyomi.
The false world around them fell apart, leaving his target, now in the guise of a grinning Naruto, standing across from him on the field of Sasuke's choosing. His choler rise at the sight of their arrogance; hiding their visage behind the face of this dead fool. Who did they think they were?
"A genjutsu user of your caliber should know that struggling is worthless. I am God here." spoke Sasuke tonelessly. A thousand different thoughts vied for prominence in his mind; should he let them burn or impale them with his blade or allow them to drown over and over again in a lake of acid?
Not that it mattered, the moment he opened his eyes again, this stupid genjutsu would be cancelled via feedback, leaving him free to personally deal with whoever had initiated it.
Laughing, the Naruto construct walked free of its bindings and over a field of flaming skulls towards him. Blades raining from the sky could find no purchase against the construct. A thousand different deaths assailed his opponent from a thousand different mental angles but each left him unharmed.
With a self satisfied grin, the construct came to stand before him, hands on its hips in an oddly feminine posture. Inwardly, Sasuke sneered at their brashness; it would appear that this weaver was a woman. Slashing his chokuto across its face did nothing but distort the image.
Raising its left hand, the construct snapped its fingers and Sasuke felt the world of Tsukiyomi dissipate like the hazy campfire smoke into the night air.
Opening his eyes, Sasuke saw the patch of illuminated ground under his feet, two blue sandals with cherry pink toenails on them standing before him.
"You shouldn't go round using nasty techniques like that, Sasuke-kun. Especially on nice girls like me." piped the voice of Sakura with a suggestive inflection.
Growing worried, Sasuke nevertheless kept his cool. He had faced life threatening danger since he was child, this encounter would be no different. Instead of wondering how they had counteracted his Tsukiyomi, he simply unleashed an Amaterasu at the ground while he summoned his Susanoo.
A 'swish' of wind told him that whoever it was had retreated; they could be hurt in this place. Finally, things seemed to be going his way.
Sighing dramatically, the construct before him shook her head. Suddenly, Sasuke found himself before the Memorial Stone in Konoha, tied to a log in the place of Naruto. Glancing down, he saw that his feet did not reach the ground. His arms likewise, were thinner and weaker.
The dark flame was gone, just as with Susanoo. Looking up reflexively, Sasuke spied an utterly alien look upon Sakura's face. Shaking its face, the look was replaced by faint smile. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about -"
"The time for words has passed." said Sasuke bitterly, cutting off whatever stupid speech or question the construct was going to ask. Try as he might, he could no longer feel the cool embrace of his chakra. This idiot was seriously starting to piss him off.
"Tch. Fine. If you want it like that." huffed Sakura. With a wave of its hand, the construct made the binding ropes, the training log and the Memorial Stone vanish.
They were back in the patch of illuminated ground.
Flexing his muscles, Sasuke felt his old body once more. The Amaterasu was burning around the ribcage of his Susanoo as chakra coursed through him once more. So glad was he at its return that Sasuke nearly missed the lance of lightning racing towards him.
Dodging to the side, he was just a split second too slow to totally evade the attack; his right shoulder was scored, causing his flesh and skin to be flash fried.
Looking up, he saw the emotionless facade of his own face staring right back at him. One hand raised to perform the Chidori Sharp Spear jutsu. As the construct lowered its hand, Sasuke saw that It had copied his own Eternal Mangekyo.
But was it just ascetic or...
With a eruption of chakra, a mirror image of his own Susanoo arose, a bow in its hands. Shocked, Sasuke watched as it fired an arrow.
Forcing his own Susanoo to respond, he managed to block the arrow before it did any serious damage.
But the momentary lapse was all his opponent needed.
Eyes widening at the approaching chakra, Sasuke could only stare as he saw the other Susanoo rise up, giant like as it towered over the battlefield. A huge blade was forming in its hands.
It grew and grew and grew until Sasuke's own Susanoo was no bigger than its feet. Staring down through the slits of a samurai mask, the larger one held a giant katana. Bringing it overhead with both hands, the giant Susanoo brought the blade down with crushing force, shattering the earth and raising a cloud of dust.
Escaping his Susanoo, Sasuke performed a quick shunshin towards the bottom of giant feet. Exiting the body flicker, his hands blazed through seals. Breathing in, Sasuke turned his head upwards to unleash a Blaze attack...
...right into a same technique his enemy was using.
The false Sasuke was falling down, hands brought together into the same seal that Sasuke's hands had ended with.
As the two techniques clashed, neither could find overpower the other. Exploding outwards in a wave of searing flame, both combatants retreated.
Coming out of the flicker, Sasuke expanded his senses, detecting the falling blade two meters away from his neck. Dodging backwards, Sasuke narrowly avoided the initial slash of his opponent's chokuto. Alarmed, he found that his Sharingan could not predict the next move. Initiating another flicker, Sasuke decided to try a long ranged approach.
Hands blazing through seals, he saw the impassive face of construct following and somehow, overtaking him in the seal sequence.
Half a second before Sasuke completed his own sequence, the construct let loose a blast of fire from its mouth.
They clashed again and again.
Every ninjutsu technique that Sasuke could use, the construct could either do better or had the perfect counter ready to deploy. Ninjutsu and genjutsu were out, which left the dangerous option of taijutsu and kenjutsu.
Despite being a master in his own right, Sasuke instinctively knew that he would need every possible advantage for the coming fight.
Reversing his grip on the chokuto, Sasuke dashed forward in a Coiling Serpent Step, hoping to claim the initiative.
The world descended into a torrent of silver blades and ringing clashes.
.
.
.
Around and around and around.
The two swordsmen circled each other in a timeless dance.
It could have been days. It seemed like decades.
Whatever this thing was, it had matched him strike for strike. Their footwork was the same, the skills and tricks and tactics. Three minutes in, both swordsmen unleashed the Chidori Current, leaving a bitter tang in the air as they struck one another. Or maybe it was a year ago; Sasuke could no longer tell and did not really care.
Every advantage had been nullified. His feints were all incorporated into the enemy's tactics. Whatever was going on, it seemed like his enemy's Sharingan had its full range off predictive capabilities.
How else could he know create such a perfect genjutsu and counter every one of his techniques?
Grimacing, Sasuke felt the wind being knocked out of him as his opponent seamlessly molded into him, one fist striking the solar plexus as the other drove the respective blades away from their bodies.
Gasping for air, Sasuke coughed as his grip on chokuto faltered. Seething inside, he cursed everything around him; because he had fallen for his own Rising Serpent Feint. What was even more aggravating however, was the fact that his opponent was clearly not intending on killing him.
Standing across from him, the construct stared down at him impassively. Lazily, it sheathed its chokuto behind its back and folded its arms across its chest.
Perhaps he could use Inazagi to escape this place?
Glaring up at his captor, Sasuke discarded the plan immediately; whoever this was, they knew a dangerous amount of Uchiha lore.
The temptation was strong, but caution won out in the end; Sasuke did not want to end up like Kabuto, trapped inside his own mind by the Inazami technique. Perhaps this was Inazami, but if so, then what was the Reality?
Sighing, Sasuke decided on a different tactic. "What do you want?" asked Sasuke angrily as he swallowed the bitter pill
"What I want is for people to acknowledge me." replied the construct in his own voice.
Acknowledge me?
Wide eyes, Sasuke looked up, a whisper on his lips. "...Naruto?"
Shaking its head, the construct disappeared in a burst of speed and delivered dizzying kick to Sasuke's jaw.
Choking up blood and teeth, Sasuke glared balefully at his captor. His own visage grinned back at him, a peaceful serenity seeming to suffuse it, making it seem almost saintly.
"It looks like our time is up, Sasuke-kun." said the smiling construct gleefully, turning around as it did so. Sasuke watched it walk into the wall of darkness, vanishing at the edge.
As it passed into gloom, the entire world seemed to shudder as small earthquake shook the world.
Suddenly the ethereal light flicker, weakened and then returned to full strenght. It was like a bad horror movie that Karin had dragged him off to watch.
The darkness around him was no longer some far off entity, it was a wall of shadow, racing towards him like a dark wave at high tide.
A thousand whispers filled the air amidst the deafening sound of rushing water. Laughter, moans, shouts, screams, cries and curses, whatever they were saying, it was annoyingly faint and lost at the edge of hearing. Observing the approaching darkness, Sasuke noticed a riot of different colored shadows making up the incoming wall.
Monsters, creatures, faces, things without words to describe them filled the incoming wall of darkness. An endless horde, beyond counting or understanding made up the wall.
As it sped closer and closer, Sasuke could finally hear what they were saying and he immediately summoned his Susanoo once more.
They were all screaming his name.
As the light dimmed and the patch of illuminated ground shrank smaller and smaller, Sasuke sensed rather than saw the enroaching horde closing around him. Just as with the light, they were somehow below and above him simultaneously.
Despite everything, he was first and foremost, a shinobi.
Binding his fear with bands of steel, Sasuke opened his eyes, the Sharingan instantly burning into his mind the sea of malformed faces, with their screaming madness and their gibbering joy as they chanted his name in a thousand heathen tongues that caused the ear to ache.
Clenching his fists, Sasuke refused to look away from the hellish horde. No matter the cost, no matter the hurdle, he was the Avenger and he would not stop just because of some horde of demons.
Gripping his chokuto tight, he did flinch as he found his reserves dangerously low. Spitting out the last fragments of teeth from his mouth, he sneered at the oncoming abyss. "I am Uchiha Sasuke and I have weathered fiercer storms than this!"
With a defiant roar, Sasuke unleashed every spare drop of chakra into his Susanoo as the dark wave of malformed bodies crashed into him.
.
.
.
Strong arms held him down.
Blind but refusing to give in, Sasuke reached for his chakra, flaring it as hard he could. A hard hit to his sternum cut off the chakra from his center as burning sensation emanated throughout his body.
Swinging his arm in automatically in response, he felt the comforting sensation of cartilage under his fist even as pain lanced down his arm. It felt like he had broken a couple of fingers. A feral grin snake across his face.
He was alive; the thought filled him with a primal rush as his body, racked with pain, seemed to burst with energy and vigor as it sang in the triumph of his survival.
Alive because he could kill anything.
They would die.
They were all going to die.
Die and die and die and die and die and die and die and die and die and die.
Bodies surrounded him, but the press was manageable now. He did not need his eyes, he was greater than the Sharigan. He was the Sharingan. He was unbeatable. He was a god and they were insects.
Alive and alive and alive and alive and alive and alive and alive and alive.
He was not just a god; he was the first god, king god, emperor god, ruler of all.
These foes were but dust before his Might.
He was going to kill them all and when he had installed himself as King of Hell or wherever this hellhole was, he would return and repay his debts a thousand times over.
His laughter is cut off by a strike to the back of the neck.
Fear, pure primal fear, assaults his mind as he realized that there is nothing he can do to stop it.
With an impotent scream of rage, Sasuke tumbled down into darkness.
This time however, he finds no press of bodies or clawing hands in the darkness. There are no screams or chants or whispers in unknown languages.
Pure darkness, sable and without form enveloped him.