Hi there, my first story on this site, yay.
Warnings: There won´t be anything else, which you did not already have in the Manga/Anime. So if you can read/watch it, you can read this story, too.
Disclaimer: I don´t own Naruto, only the story is mine.
Oh I forgot: I´m not a native English-speaker, so there will probably be mistakes. But I love constructive criticism.
Awakening
Something was off, but he couldn´t quite put his finger on it. And that troubled him like those things always did. If his mind wasn`t able to catch a hidden message seen in the eyes of his counterpart or like in this very moment where he couldn´t identify the wrong of the situation.
But after more than two years with Orochimaru you simply learned to listen to your feelings otherwise you would with a high certainty end up dead. That was also the reason why he promptly stopped his thoughts, which were going to freak him out in the long run, in the short doubtless they would, too.
He wasn´t any more in Orochimaru´s hideout. Of course underground you wouldn´t hear birds chirping or feel shafts of sunlight or cool wind on your skin…A feeling, he realized, he had missed.
And maybe that was exactly why he took his time to open his eyes. Sasuke didn´t want to destroy this illusion.
It couldn´t be anything else, right?
Apparently he had a nice dream for once, not this cruel nightmares which were haunting him since that one night so many years before.
As he did open his eyes, he was greeted with a bright blue sky and fluffy clouds in the distance. Sasuke blinked: one time, two times. But they remained at the spot such as sunbeams and the cool wind.
What the heck?! Normally his dreams weren´t so real… He could descry his surroundings clearly. He lay in the grass. On his right side was a lake. He raised his brows in confusion. It looked a lot like the lake he used to spend his afternoons at as he was still attending to the academy. The lake his father taught him his fire style…
Rapidly he turned his head to the other side, still in the movement a cynical thought crossed his mind. And it was telling him if he would look now he would see extension of the village, of Konoha, of a hopefully long forgotten past.
And so it was, everything looked exactly the same as it looked like as he had gone and it looked peaceful…A smirk spread over his lips, his trademark. What irony he was laying more or less in the center of Leaf village. He the traitor, the deserter, a criminal.
But everything was peaceful. There were no hostile ninjas, who were going to attack him not even an ear-defeating sound of alarm to declare of his presence.
It was better to get away and that fast. What didn´t happened yet, still could. And Sasuke would try to prevent it by all means.
Under the impression that he shouldn´t rough-handle his fortune any longer he stood up, but before he could even make a step he heard a voice calling:
"Suki, are you here?!"
"Here" is nobody but himself, he was sure of that but that guy wasn´t and so would he unavoidable come here and wouldn´t find "Suki" but himself instead.
Why did he even hoped that his fortune wouldn´t leave him? Kami was a rotten traitor, just like himself…
And there he was our Suki-boy, no correction, Suki-man that guy was tall. Above on the path stood he, his head moves wildly from onside to the other. It only took seconds till he spotted Sasuke but instead of looking astonished, which would go over into anger or horror based on it if he was a ninja or a simple civilian, he looked relieved…?
Quickly a happy slightly silly expression took over his face. An expression, which resembled the ones Naruto used to give him if he wanted to piss him off, which was always and on multiple other occasions as well.
Sasuke was so dumbfounded that he was still standing on his spot as the Suki-man approached. He had been right about that man being tall, he was a giant. He wore a jonin-vest and under it a high-collared dark shirt. Well that answered the question: He was indeed a ninja, but that perception didn´t make him happier.
Furthermore did he wore ridiculous looking orange goggles on his forehead, which were covered here and there with spikes of his dark hair. However what now occurred didn´t make it better at all:
"Suki, what were you doing here?! You know that running away is stupid. Your father is even angrier than before", he sighed and let his hand through his hair.
Sasuke blinked, he slowly turned his head and peeked over his shoulder. Nothing. Nobody was there…that meant…
What the heck!? I think I repeat myself already.
This guy can´t really mistake me for this Suki-girl! I´ m a freaking guy!
Okay, I know that I resemble my mother pretty much (that's what all my relatives always said) but-
Promptly he was ripped out of his chain of thought as that Suki-guy raised his voice again. Luckily he had been able to miss the rest of that telling-off, but unhappily not the following next words:
"Be so kind and look at me while I´m talking to you, young lady!"
After that Sasuke simply gaped at him, not able to form words. He was just nodding here and there, he wasn´t even listening. Never before had anyone even dared to speak to him like this, besides his parents but they never did. His mother has always being kind and his father had just ignored him or complained that he wasn´t like Itachi…
Still in this phase of aftershock he hardly realized that Suki-guy had snapped his arm and was dragging him after him in a direction he would have maybe recognized if he had been by his senses.
-X-
Dreams had the characteristics to be unpredictable and uncontrollable, that's what Sasuke painfully realized once. Even so it doesn´t change the fact that he always fought against it and he was ready to do it again.
But this time was different, it doesn´t look like a nightmare to begin with. It does look like a- no, not a nice dream but a better one-, something he never experienced. Maybe that was the reason why he was so clumsy and didn´t know what to do at all.
Suki-guy, whose name he still didn´t know, had dragged him successfully through what have felt like the entire village just to stop in front of one door, no, that door. One he knew too well and thought he would never see again. But now he was glad that he had the chance to and besides if he had been mistaken for a girl, in his mind everything could happen.
The man knocked on the door. In a split second it shifts to the side and he found himself in an unescapable hug. It was a woman. She shivered and sobbed in his embrace, silent tears wetted his cheeks.
All of a sudden he felt a sullen sadness overcome him, just a second ago he was about to say to whoever would open the door just to fuck off. He was not the person, they were searching for, he didn´t deserve to be screamed at and to be dragged through Konoha. But he was hit frontal by her sorrow and didn´t found himself able to form the words, which had seemed right just the second ago. But they weren´t anymore.
"Suki, my stupid- my so stupid little girl", she glanced up and looked directly in his eyes. In every normal situation he would been greatly insulted by being called stupid, but this time not because he recognized this eyes. They were the eyes he grew to love so much, they were…his mother´s eyes.
Therefor the only word, which escaped his lips was:
"Mommy?"
Mikoto dried her tears with her sleeve before looking up and turned to the man, who was still standing by the door looking slightly uncomfortable.
"Obito, I thank you. If there´s anything I can be of help, let me know", in contrary to her appearance, with her swollen eyes and puffy cheeks, her voice emanate confidence and dignity.
Obito…didn´t he heard that name before? So Suki-guy was also an Uchiha but how can it be that he can´t remember any Obito Uchiha?! Or does his mind simply made up people to irritate him?
Obito simply nodded, wished his goodbye, turned and vanished in to the arising night. Now he was all alone with his mother and if he listened right to Obito, probably with his father as well. Mikoto´s features softened just a little as she took his arm gently and together they walked up to the kitchen.
A nice smell poured out of some pots, which were standing on the kitchenette. It made him feel nostalgic. The kitchen still looked the same as he remembered it: with the Tatami-mats and the low table with its seat cushions. And the figure behind the table was also like Sasuke remembered him. His father with his stern features and his piercing gaze on him, it always made him uneasy and let him run out of words and now again after more than 8 years.
"Your back…"
"Father", he did answered out of instinct. He know that he wasn´t Suki, that he wasn´t the one spoken to, he know that he wasn´t the one who did something wrong.
O he did make wrong decisions, don´t get me wrong, and surely they were even worse than that mistake "Suki" did, but they weren´t the ones referred to. Nonetheless that man in front of him was his father, as he lives and breathes.
To say Sasuke was slightly confused, was an understatement.
-X-
In contrary to all expectations: dinner proceeded quietly. Some people would have called it an awkward silence, but for Sasuke it was a pleasant pause due to the sudden events of this day and it allowed him to think.
Even if his train of thoughts was from time to time halted when he noticed the nervous glances of his mother, who peeked from him to his father and seemed not suited with this situation at all.
But Fugaku reacted like Sasuke remembered him to be: not at all. Sasuke was used to be ignored by him and besides that he had decided for a long time now, that the opinion of others doesn´t matter to him anymore.
Or more precisely that's what he wanted it to be, but he couldn´t deny the slight chills which run down his spine whenever his father took a glance at him with his cold disapproving eyes. Through that doesn´t count, right? He was supposed to be dead, everyone he meet today was supposed to be dead!
They shouldn´t walk around, drag him through entire Konoha, embrace him or flash him evil glances. That was not right, that was simply not right!
A clunk was heard as his chopsticks made contract with the end of his bowl. He looked up in astonishment as his thoughts have enraged he must have begun to increase his speed while eating.
His food was gone and his manners as well if he interpreted his father´s gaze right. A slightly sick feeling began to spread in his stomach.
He had enough! He stood up without hesitation and excused himself properly like his mother had taught him, which brought him amazed looks from both his parents. Really, what is up with them? What did they expect? It had looked like they thought of him as rude? -Even as an expected disappointment? What…had he had missed?
He shook his head to cast out this wild thoughts and took the steps to his old room. He hoped it was still his room. He would go to bed and when he would awake tomorrow. Sasuke would find himself back in Orochimaru´s hideout, in front of him a grinning Kabuto, who would nervously explain that some crazy experiment of his had gone wrong and that he was so terribly sorry. With a pissed off Orochimaru not far behind.
He opened hopefully his door and entered the room behind. It was almost his room like he remembered it. Almost. With some certain differences…
His bed and his shelves were still at the same place, but they were a terrible mess. His shelves were filled with his accustomed books and scrolls, which looked like they were disheveled and without a second thought shoved into them.
But that wasn´t the worst, the worst was that they were filled to overflowing with odds and ends, he can´t even remember buying. In other words: absolute rubbish!
His bed was a mess of red and purple blankets. And that were the things he recognized somehow.
The floor was covered with, he hoped, only clothes. His window was adorn by light purple curtains and besides it stands a vase with white flowers? The walls possessed still their nice white color, but on the left wall hung a rather large mirror.
A mirror, which you simply can´t prevent looking in. In the second he saw his reflection, he bit his lip so hard that it draw blood to prevent a scream forming up in his throat.
But one thing does he knew now it wasn´t a genjutsu, that amount of pain would have him sent straight back to reality if it had been one. However that thought doesn´t made him happier, because it didn´t quite reached the place in his brain where it would have been reworked and as useful information recognized, his mind was far more occupied with other things like: who the heck was that figure in front of him?!
Sasuke blinked, shaking his head and looking again, but nothing changed. He was looking straight into onyx eyes like his own but instead of holding a piercing gaze like his did, all they hold was confusion and vulnerability? He grimaced.
Yet aside that, the eyes were the only things he recognized to some extent. The only thing that should be there. In front of himself was a girl…looking back at him.
What startled him was that the girl was just a kid. She couldn´t be much older than, what 13? He observed her closely.
She had short hair (even shorter than his own were), dark as midnight with bangs covering her cheeks. She wore a dress of sorts, these which Ino and Sakura had worn back in his days in Konoha. It had a dark purple color and was complemented by dark arm guards on her shoulders and forearms. The bluish ninja sandals had remained the same.
He slowly rose his arm and the girl did the same. He spread his fingers, turned his head in a shaking motion and still the girl followed his every move.
Sasuke shook his head in disbelief. This couldn´t be…there was simply no possibility that… He buried his throbbing head in his hands, seeing through narrowed eyes the girl in the mirror doing the same. Her face pained out of a non-visible reason.
No, she wasn´t his reflection, never…She was weak, she looked pathetic in her current condition. Pain, fear and confusion openly rushing over her face. There was no way…
He felt his breath quickening and his entire body shaking. His vision seemed to zoom in and out of focus on an erratic pace. Blood was rushing in his head as well as in his limbs and they became heavy.
The last thing he saw was a girl falling to the ground as his vision went black.
-X-
Sasuke didn´t know when he woke up again. Anyway now it was fully dark outside, moonlight shining into the room -he refused to call it his- and on the pile of clothes he was laying on.
He rubbed his temples. Okay that answered at least the next question, which would have been: Why nobody had come rushing into his room after he had collapsed? It was plain: Nobody had heard. He should be thankful, he supposed. He doesn´t want more palaver than absolutely necessary.
He rose to his knees and than slowly to his feet. This time he looked into the stupid mirror as his old stoic self, accepting as he found the girl –Suki?- looking aloof back at him.
Sasuke looked over to the bed standing in the corner attempted to lay down and continue sleeping. However he shook this idea out of his mind. He had slept enough, he should use his time wisely.
Like going around observing. This was the first ninja-rule:
Be aware of your surroundings!
Sasuke couldn´t allow himself to do dumb mistakes. It was against his pride and what was even more important: even if this all was only a dream the pain he felt earlier had been real!
So he could with a high possibility die here (wherever "here" was) as well. Damn you Kabuto and your stupid experiments!
Decision precipitated, he opened slowly the door and peeked out. The hallway was dark and silent. With feather-light soles he crept through the dark corridor. It wasn´t thus far to the frontdoor. He knew the house, he knew how the tatami-mats were laid*, he knew how to avoid making noise.
He opened the door a tiny crack and was meet with a cold night breeze. Sasuke peeked out before deciding that no one was there and therefor it was safe to get going.
He flitted into the night and merged with the shadows around him.
Ninja rule 2: Don´t let yourself be seen in operation.
-X-
His path had brought him once again to the lake where he had been earlier this day. Glistening moonlight was reflected on its surface. It was a nice view, but it only took a second before a stone splashed it and the reflection became blurred.
Sasuke watched as the stone sunk into the deep water. His face was blank but his mind was racing, reworking his new gathered information.
He had found nowhere any sign of an illusion or jutsu, it was frustrating! It seems he had to temporize for now.
Yet another stone was sent across the water´s surface.
But what he had found out surprised him even more. Konoha seemed to be frozen in time, as good as everything was like he remembered it from the time he was 13, with just minor differences.
Minor differences, he mentally laughed, but grotesque ones for him.
The Uchiha-district was still standing and was no longer marked of the occurrences of that one night, its inhabitants were according to all common sense well and alive.
This allowed only one conclusion:
The jutsu-caster did know him somehow!
That would explain why out of all things the Uchihas were alive again, but why he had been turned into a girl, a maybe 13-year old teenager, just a kid in his opinion was beyond him.
Though what did the jutsu-caster think, he would achieve out of his effort? To bring him pain? To get information out of him? (Wherefore should he do it otherwise?)
And besides that, information about whom? About Orochimaru? He would have given them freely. Sasuke had no strong or worth bond to him and he is not fussed about morality or any other do-gooder stuff.
Naïve fool…
A third stone sunk with a hardly audible gurgle.
"That was a pitiable cast…you should do it more energetically!", proclaimed an all too cheerful voice behind him, Sasuke immediately froze. Yet even in this moment of shock, he realized he knew that voice. He just couldn´t bring himself to remember wherefrom.
He slowly turned and gets face to face with Suki-boy-ah, he meant Obito Uchiha. He stood in an easygoing-manner behind him, one foot stabled on a rock, and eyed him curiously.
"What are you doing here?", Sasuke asked grimly.
"What am I doing here?", repeated Obito while he scratched his chin musing.
"Wouldn´t it be an even better question why you are here?", Obito asked wearing a bright smile. In that second Sasuke decided that he hated him, but let´s play that little game…why not?
"Why should it be a better question?"
"Hmm…", Obito made a pensively face, "maybe because you already run away this afternoon- your father will be angry-, maybe because it is suspicious to be outside that late at night or just maybe because we have a public closing hour…either way you shouldn´t be here-"
"Were you sent by my father?", Sasuke interjected.
"Fugaku-sama? No actually I was on my way home as I saw you…", Obito gave him a piercing glance. It didn't matched his happy-idiot attitude at all, Sasuke averted his eyes. He had the feeling that Obito could look into souls like the dobe had could…
"You were on your way home from where?", Sasuke tried to distract him. A wide grin spread on Obito´s face.
"Is that an interrogation?"
Silence.
"I´m just curious?", nothing better had come to his mind so Sasuke settled with it, but he knew without looking into Obito´s disbelieving eyes, that it had taken him too much time to answer.
Obito´s eyes became playfully with only a hint of suspiciousness in the distance.
"Can you keep a secret, princess?"
Princess?!
A bit startled and without anything else to say he approved.
"I was at an ultra-secret meeting, even the Hokage was there", he gesticulate wildly.
"If it was so secret why are you telling me?", Sasuke thought, but said nothing.
"We had many important things to discuss-"That's why, Sasuke thought, you´re telling me everything and nothing at the same time…
"-and we were informed of a potential spy. And it took so long, that is the reason why I was going home so late and then I saw you and thought : that's suspicious!" , Obito looked directly at him, his silly smile slowly fading.
Sasuke´s blood froze in his veins, just the minute before he had been happy that he had tricked him to blab unknowingly some information out.
But he came to realize that it hadn´t been unknowingly at all. That guy was a jonin, he knew exactly what he did.
"You don´t really think that I am the spy, do you?", to Sasuke´s dismay his voice sounded not as steady than he would have liked.
Obito closed his eyes before reopening them.
"We will see…" He took a stone from the shore and threw it over the water, with several bounds it hit the other bank.
"Do me a favor and go home…you should be thankful that you just met me and not one of the wrong people tonight. By now Konoha isn´t as secure as I would have liked it to be, you can´t trust simply anyone anymore", he signed.
"Take care, Suki…", with that last sentence he vanished into the night and Suki alias Sasuke remained, even more frustrated and confused than before.
Author´s note:
Yeah…that was the first chapter…surprised? I am, it turned out differently than I thought it would.
Why did I choose the name Suki? I don´t really know, it simply came to my mind as I looked at a fem. Sasuke picture…
*Suki means beloved, loved one.
What else?
I chose that the story takes places in the time were Sasuke was still with Orochimaru. Why is pretty simple I didn´t want him to be too powerful.
*He knew how the tatami-mats were laid:
In the feudal-era in Japan, people used these mats as a kind of anti-ninja alarm system. They were laid differently and if you stepped over them the wrong way you produced noise and that alarmed the inhabitants that someone was there, who shouldn´t. In Japan they are still used, but as a nice floor and not against ninjas anymore.
Tell me your thoughts.
Till next time, your Crow.