Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and kill a certain someone…"

The loud and annoying blond one was staring at him in surprise, along with the pink haired one.

The grey haired one was unsurprised.

Sasuke looked blankly up at the sterile white ceiling tiles. The room he found himself in was cold and dark. He was tired, far more tired than anyone his age had a right to be. It had been the longest twenty-four hours of his life.

First his parents dead, their bodies bleeding and broken, right before his very eyes…

Then his brother, his precious aniki, taking on the blame, revealing his betrayal, his insanity…

And now these frickin' dreams plagued him, destroying whatever hope for rest he could have had.

They were so realistic, so real, almost as if he was living them. Each time he felt as if he knew what they were, they vanished, and he snapped to consciousness, lying in the dark until sleep claimed him again, along with yet another vision, another lie.

They were probably a genjutsu by Itachi, a memento to keep the pain fresh.

After all, Sasuke didn't think he could ever become such a hollow shell, living his whole life just to end another, without any personality, any real purpose…

"How would I know? My body just moved on its own…"

Well, maybe not completely hollow. Apparently he hadn't been hopeless. He'd made friends after all, friends he had considered worth saving. Even if it was an illusion made to torture him, it hadn't been so bad.

Maybe Itachi wasn't as good with genjutsu as he thought.

With that amusing thought, Sasuke yawned, and decided to get some rest. After all, two in the morning was sleeping time. No eight-year-old should have to wake up that early (or was it late) because of nightmares.

He closed his eyes, and tried to sleep.

It was the blond one again, in that annoying orange jumpsuit. He was saying something, but over the sounds of the roaring waterfall, it was hard to hear.

"Do you… no longer consider me as your friend…!

The whisper became a furious shout, and Dream-Sasuke closed his eyes as the boy continued his tirade. "Everything we did together as Team Seven, WAS IT ALL JUST MEANINGLESS TO YOU?"

Dream-Sasuke apparently came to a decision, as he opened his mouth to reply. "…No. It wasn't all for nothing," he said, quietly and slowly. "To me…you have become…"

Dream-Sasuke opened his eyes, blood red eyes that locked onto the blond's blue eyes, eyes that stared up at him, expecting an answer.

"My closest friend."

With that, Sasuke sat up with a snap, sweating in the morning light that streamed into his room, horrified at what he had seen.

He didn't understand what Dream-Sasuke's motivations were, why he did the things he did, or anything really. All he saw were flashes of the most realistic illusion he'd ever witnessed in his short life, not thoughts.

However, Sasuke knew that he never attempt to murder a friend with a fist full of lightning.

He knew then and there that he would never become like Dream-Sasuke, and that Itachi would pay for making him see such horrifying things.

"Best friend…" he told himself. Why was that important to Dream-Sasuke again?

Sasuke then remembered: "The shrine!"

He raced out of the hospital, ignoring the nurses and doctors calling him.

He ran through the streets, paying no heed to the random people that called after him in worry.

He ran through the yellow police tape at the entrance of the Uchiha complex.

He ran, ignoring the ghosts of his relatives tugging at his mind, ignoring the pouring rain, the mud on his bare feet.

He reached the shrine, ripped out the seventh tatami mat on the far side of the shrine, and found the secret stairs, leading into darkness.

Sasuke slowly stepped down the stairs, steadying himself against the wall as he almost slipped due to his muddy feet. It was a short walk down a dark tunnel, and he quickly reached a shadowed room.

He looked around, and lit a lamp he found near the stairs without thought, using a spark of chakra as he'd done countless times before (not noticing he'd never done such a thing before), and continued in, staring at the ornate tunnel walls, decorated with posters of famous Uchiha warriors and depictions of magatama and swords and swirling black on red designs.

He reached his destination, a little meeting room with bare floors and more posters. On the far wall, directly in front of him, he saw a slab of stone, flanked with frescoes of uchiwa fans and unlit lamps.

A few lit lamps later, and he saw what Itachi wanted him to see, cut into the stone and unmistakable.

"Kill…your closest friend…"

Sasuke didn't know what to feel when he read that. His mind was swimming with contradictions, and in the end, he concentrated on what he could understand.

Rage.

He threw the lamp, and stormed out into the rain.

It took a few days before he felt ready to step outside of his home, days in which he saw Dream-Sasuke fall further into the darkness, days in which his only activities were to sleep, drink, and eat whatever food was left in the fridge.

After taking a bath and changing into his customary clothes, he walked out of the complex, no destination set in his mind. He had always felt relaxed while going for a walk, and one was long overdue.

As he walked, nodding politely to greeters, he tried to reflect on what had happened.

"I spared your life on a whim, nothing more. But this time, my whim is telling me, to finish what I started..."

"Just shut up for once! What the hell do you know about it? It's not like you ever had a family in the first place! You were on your own right from the beginning, what makes you think you know anything about it? Huh? I'm suffering now because I had those ties, how on earth could you possibly understand, what it feels like to lose all that?"

That was one of both the best and worst moments. It was great because after what seemed like years of training and experiments and killing, he saw the blond guy again, older, wiser, more determined, and most importantly alive, and thus he knew Dream-Sasuke had potential to be a good guy.

And then Dream-Sasuke opened his mouth and showed what an ass he was.

Things moved faster after that. Dream-Sasuke began to really get into action, killing the androgynous bomber and the strange snake-man, until finally…

"You see me dead?" Itachi closed his eyes, before vanishing out of sight.

"Let's see how good your eyes are," a voice from Sasuke's back said.

That had been one of the most intense of all the visions he had had. Dream-Sasuke had been skilled, extremely skilled (Vanish with the roaring thunder came to his mind). And the things they said…

"One's reality might be another's illusion. We all live inside our own fantasies. Thinking Madara is dead is merely an arbitrary assumption that you made. In exactly the same way you once assumed that I was your gentle older brother." Itachi stated, elegant and cold even with a sword through his gut.

Sasuke frowned. "I was so young…" he said, "My only explanation was that it was all a horrible nightmare. I wanted to believe it wasn't real, that I was just trapped into someone's cruel genjutsu.

"But it did happen! I WAS TRAPPED IN REALITY!"

A flash of lightning, and suddenly Dream-Sasuke was looking at the real Itachi, who sat calmly on his throne, even as the deadly bolt crackled inches from his face.

"My eyes can see through your illusion!" Sasuke continued, glaring.

"Strong words," Itachi replied, standing. "But I've noticed you still don't have the same eyes as me."

Sasuke stood as well. "Use your eyes all you want. I will use my hatred to turn illusion into reality. And your reality is death."

Sasuke had already begun to accept the massacre as his brother's twisted idea of a joke, when the dreams threw an unbelievable twist in the form of a masked man who tore apart every idea he had clung to.

"We will destroy Konoha," Sasuke said to his followers, the tears on his face dried, his eyes cold.

After that, everything was a blur, from attacking that foolish rapper Cloud-nin, to holding his own against the five strongest ninja in the world, and murdering the future Hokage Danzo…

To killing his new teammates, abandoning two to their fates and murdering the third…

To yet another confrontation with the blond boy, Naruto.

"I'm taking you back to Konoha," Naruto announced, fist outstretched.

Dream-Sasuke became furious. "What the hell do you want from me? Why are you so fixated on me?"

Naruto just smiled. "Because I'm your friend."

Then he took Itachi's eyes, and met with Zombie-Itachi.

"The more I'm able to hate Konoha for the suffering they put you through. In fact, it's becoming even stronger than before. I do understand what you want me to do. It's probably because you're my older brother that you feel the need to put me on the right path. But it's probably because I'm your younger brother that I'll never stop, no matter what you say. As you'll always exist to protect the village… so will I to destroy it. Goodbye."

After that, the visions were unrecognizable. Just flashes came to his mind, melting into each other each second until it was all over, and he awoke.

Sasuke's stomach grumbled and he finally looked up, ending his introspection. He felt his pocket, and knew he had enough money for something cheap. Like…

"Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen," said the smiling man with a weathered face. "What would you like?"

Sasuke thought for a second. "A tomato ramen, please." He decided to treat himself to something tasty, and tomatoes were his favorite.

"Coming right up, Uchiha-san." said the smiling man, turning away.

As Sasuke sat down, he noticed the other customer. A blond boy with a sleeveless hooded orange jacket and orange shorts, with blue eyes and strange whisker-like marks, who was slurping down the noodles as if it was his last meal.

"Hello, Uzumaki-san," he said, years of being taught manners kicking in.

"Hey," the boy said between bowls, not looking up.

With that, Sasuke sat calmly, waiting for his meal, cataloguing his feelings and thoughts slowly, until…

"Hey, you're that Sasuke kid!"

Sasuke's eye twitched, as he turned in his seat to face the accusing finger of the other customer. "And you're that stupid blond kid that's being rude."

Uzumaki seemed to ignore that comment in favor of asking, "Why the hell haven't you been at the Academy?"

"My entire clan was brutally murdered by my older brother earlier this week," he said dryly, breaking his chopsticks.

With that, the rest of his meal went on in silence.

Later that day, as Sasuke walked through the complex, he tried to understand himself, tried to understand his other slef, and what he would do, and why he would do it.

For starters, he didn't really understand his little outburst at lunch. Maybe Dream-Sasuke was rubbing off on him. After all, he'd seemed like the type of bastard that would throw things like that in other people's faces.

Not only that, he was feeling…different. The massacre…he no longer felt so numb about it. After crying his heart out the first day, he hadn't given it much thought. It seemed distant to him, as if it happened long ago.

Then again, in his mind, it had.

And what would he do about…everything? Should he take the visions on faith? Should he treat them as an Itachi induced lie?

Sasuke decided…to learn from them. To take his time. To think things through. If he took them on faith, and killed Kabuto, and Danzo, and Orochimaru, and Gaara before they became threats, there was no guarantee he'd succeed. In fact, if he started acting up, odds were that someone would assassinate him.

No, it was better to train, to take his time, and once he was ready…

Itachi would tell him everything, whether he liked it or not.

And then he would see to the rest.

One of the great things about the visions, Sasuke decided, was the realism.

It was also one of the worst things. After all, Dream-Sasuke had done horrible things, and he could feel everything he did.

Sasuke could still feel the slick warmth and tingling sensations of punching through Naruto's lung.

Morbid thoughts aside, he could feel everything. And that meant he could recall those feelings and try to emulate them.

"Raiton!" Sasuke said forcefully, shaping his chakra into crackling lightning that lasted for a few seconds before fading away, faint tingles remaining.

It was slow going, but he was making progress. His chakra was slowly developing a lightning affinity, and his fireball had never burned brighter. Not only that, but he had done extremely well in the taijutsu forms he had moved through.

He'd also activated the Sharingan, but didn't use it all that much. He didn't have enough chakra to do use it for extended periods of time or really intense ninjutsu training, beyond chakra control, so he concentrated on other things.

Such as archery.

He hadn't done any archery training since going on the mission with Itachi to take down the wild boar a month ago, and he'd seen the bow lying around when he'd been going through his family's old weapons, looking for a chokuto. Since he'd been doing so well with everything else, he decided to give it a try.

It was a disaster, and since then, he'd been practicing archery in between chakra exercises.

He was about to snipe down an approaching bird when he realized it was a messenger. It perched itself on a training post and held the note it carried out to him.

Sasuke frowned as he took the note. "Why would the Hokage send me a note?" he asked quietly, as he knew only ninja used birds as messengers.

Sasuke, please come to the Hokage tower. I would like to speak with you.

Sasuke vaguely noted the hawk leave, as he wondered why the note sounded…foreboding.

With a shrug, he left, strapping the bow to his back, along with the quiver. He wanted to get accustomed to wearing them together.

"You wanted to see me, Hokage-sama?" Sasuke asked, as he was ushered into the office.

"Ah, yes," the venerable old leader said, sounding weary, "I did. Please, have a seat, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke did as he was asked, looking around the office nervously. It was cluttered with books and scrolls, as well as paperwork, and rather down to earth. A crystal ball lied near one of Sarutobi's elbows, and the sun streamed in through the windows behind him, leaving the God of Shinobi in silhouette.

"I wanted to talk to you about funerary arrangements, Sasuke-kun," the Hokage said, lighting his pipe slowly and methodically. "If you want, I can take care of everything, on behalf of the village."

Here, Sasuke realized that he could do something important. "I want every Uchiha's body and eyes accounted for, Hokage-sama, every single one, including those buried whose corpses may still be fresh enough to harvest from. Then, I want them all burned. The Sharingan is too dangerous to let anyone get their hands on, and with my clan dead, there is no one to protect it."

The Hokage was silent for a second, and he nodded, blowing smoke through his nose. "I will see to it personally."

"Arigatou Gozaimasu," Sasuke said, rising up to give the Hokage a formal bow.

"Think nothing of it," Sarutobi replied, nodding in response. "And please sit. I wanted to ask you about something else."

"Sure," Sasuke said, returning to his seat.

"I heard from Naruto-kun about your little encounter. I also heard that you haven't been going to the Academy. Do you have anything to say?"

Sasuke looked away. "Well, I forgot," he said, "But I promise that I will try to attend next week. But I will not apologize to Uzumaki," he finished contritely. "He was being rude."

The corner of Sarutobi's lip twitched, as if he had suppressed a smile. "Well, I'll be sure to inform him. However, he is an orphan, like you, and has had no one to teach him manners. I don't think he realized he was being rude."

Sasuke didn't know what to say to that. Dream-Sasuke had never cared about Naruto's status as an orphan. As for him, well, he was a child. He didn't understand tact, and subtlety. "Oh, well, I guess I can talk to him."

"Maybe you should," Sarutobi said, a small smile on his face. "I was also going to ask you about that bow you're carrying."

"I was practicing when the hawk arrived, Hokage-sama." Sasuke said. "I was looking through old weapons, and I found this. I remembered how poorly I did on the mission with Itachi, and I decided to give it another try."

"Ah," Sarutobi's expression became blank. "How do you feel about him? What are your plans now?"

Sasuke hesitated, before telling the truth. "I don't know what to feel. I don't hate him," I don't want to hate him, I don't want to become like that, "I hope to be strong enough to take him on, and confront him about everything."

Sarutobi considered that, taking a few more puffs. "That is well, but I advise you not to lose yourself in vengeance. Please remember that."

"I will, Hokage-sama," Sasuke said, with a determined nod.

"Very well, you may leave."

Just as Sasuke reached the door, Sarutobi called his name. "Sasuke."

"Yes?" Sasuke turned, hiding his frown.

"You were named after my father, who was a great ninja," Sarutobi said. "I know you may feel alone, but you are not. You can come to me at any time."

"Thank you, sir."

With that, Sasuke left.

A/N

Something that was on my mind. I dislike canon-Sasuke. A lot. However, I really like playing as him in Ultimate Ninja Impact. He's a badass. So, I decided to make him dislike canon-Sasuke, and want to better himself.

Most of the quotes are from the manga. I won't be doing much more of it.

Edited 8/27/12.

Please review, and tell me what you think.