Future & Present Clash

The sound of the water cascading down from the high fall drifted continuously into the natural cave behind the deadly drop of liquid. He had his eyes closed, listening to the natural melody around him. His mind was going back three years, as it usually did whenever he found himself resting. He had his arm over his eyes, but that did not help to erase the visions of blond hair and sky blue eyes, the goofy grin and loud voice of his best friend, a best friend he had only spend a few minutes with in the past few years, one whilst trying to kill him in the middle of a destroyed hideout and another whilst being saved by him from a falling flying country.

'That idiot is still trying to save me. Like I need to be saved' he thought bitterly but the small portion of his mind, one that he had tried in vain to crush for the past few years, reminded him that the bond he so tried to hate was the only bond that kept him sane since he met that dobe all those years ago. The trouble was that the small part of his brain that constantly kept an image of Naruto in his mind had begun to grow and grow and the bond that he believed to be a brotherly one turned out to be much stronger and filled with as much romantic love as ever. But no matter how he felt towards the blond idiot he could never follow that love.

'It's not like they will welcome a missing-nin with open arms, my clan depends on me to survive' but the Uchihas no longer had a place in Konoha so rebuilding his clan was not much of importance now. But sometimes he wondered what his life would be if he had staid. Probably he would have become weak and then married some girl for the sake of it and have children, Naruto would have been his best man whilst Sakura cried and sulked in a corner somewhere. He chuckled, he could bet that a tiny portion of Naruto was happy Sasuke was gone, now there was no one to stand between him and Sakura, they could be already married with a kid by now for all he knew. They could both be Jounin for all he cared.

All Uchiha Sasuke wanted was power, power to kill his brother and avenge his clan. Yes that was the main priority. What he would do after he did not know, since he was eight all he cared about was becoming stronger and stronger to fulfil his single ambition, not caring if he had friends or simply lived in loneliness. Truth was, now nearly seventeen, his mission was reaching completion, he had learned all he could from Orochimaru and practiced everyday hoping to have enough power to kill Itachi. He knew the old snake was almost finished with his preparations for the body transfer technique but Sasuke had no intentions of letting him take over his body, he was stronger than the old snake, he knew that, and he was planning to kill him sometime soon. However he had to kill Kabuto first, Orochimaru would have a hard time without his assistant to prepare his medicines and so would become slightly weak for a few days.

A splash interrupted his train of thought, splashes were common around here because of the waterfall but this sounded like someone just divided into the water, if there was someone around here they better run off before he electrocuted them; this was after all his private training ground. He walked out from behind the water fall and looked down at the natural pool under him; he saw a silhouette swimming under the water making its way to the shore. The surface of the water was broken by a blond head with black highlights, and it rouse he identified the body was definitely female. She had an orange sleeveless shirt and black shorts and incredibly pale skin, very much like his own, but was otherwise barefoot and had no weapons or shinobi gear that he could see on her. He silently hid behind a rock, he knew he could listen and see her much clearly from there. He then analysed if she was a danger or merely someone in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Okkkay! I won't fall off this time! Stupid rock so slippery" somehow the way she talked made him remember Naruto. She went jumped on top of a large boulder which he guessed she had fallen from and resulted in the splash that awoke him from his mind travelling. Her back was still turned to him so he could not see her face. He saw her arms move slightly, but they were so fast he hardly noticed. The words that came out of her mouth ultimately shocked him.

"Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu" (Fire Element: Blazing Fireball)

Sasuke's eyes widened, that technique was mostly used by the Uchiha clan, how could this stranger know it? His hand instantly went to his sword, one: this person was a shinobi, two: she knew a Uchiha unique jutsu which could possibly mean she had a sharingan which enabled her to copy it. His surprise did not end there, because the jutsu expanded throughout the whole valley and even scorched the rocky valley walls. The heat from the massive fireball hit Sasuke in the face and he fell backwards. He got back up straight away; the fireball was now gone.

'Great' he thought 'a jutsu that big must have cut her chakra levels by at least half, she should be getting tired, I can take her down' he planned to ask her exactly how she managed to do such a large jutsu, especially one that belonged to his family. The stranger was silent for a moment and then jumped in the air, fist up. Sasuke noticed that her hair (which went down to the middle of her back) was now dry as a result from the heat given off by the jutsu, and the black highlights he thought he saw were actually dark blue and now shinned in the sun; the remaining blond hair was exactly the same shade as Naruto's.

"I did it!" she planned to land, but her foot slipped on the wet surface and splashed into the water. She came out looking annoyed. Sasuke felt it, the tip of a kunai touching the back of his neck, his eyes widened in shock.

"I knew you would come out if you saw me using that jutsu. Uchiha Sasuke" a voice said behind him.

'What? A clone?' he thought

The tip of the kunai was removed and he turned around. Finally he saw her face, a young one, around his age, what he didn't expect was her face to be covered by a mask; exactly like the one his old sensei uses only white in colour, with only an opening for the mouth. Blue eyes just like his eyes, was the last thing he saw before everything went dark.

He woke up to the smell of some kind of meat cooking; he noticed the sky was dark. He groaned as he sensed a headache coming. What happened? He was lying down; he didn't feel anything restraining him which was good. He turned his head; the young woman was sitting by a fire cooking a rabbit which she was in the process of sprinkling some herbs on. The fire was right next to him.

"What did you do to me?" he asked, "Who are you?"

"Calm down, I mean you no harm. My name is Namikaze Sasunara, I'm a Seals masters, I knocked you out and removed Orochimaru's seal from you, he could track you with it and it would eventually kill you, whether you wanted it or not. You're going to be a bit disoriented for a bit, it will pass. Your chakra is purifying itself"

"It's impossible to remove that Seal" Sasuke glanced at his neck, it was plain, there was nothing there, shocked he ran his hand over the spot where the seal should be. Usually the skin was warmer around that area, but now it was smooth and the temperature was the same as the rest of his body. Damn it without that seal he did not have enough power to kill Orochimaru and his brother now. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. He was seriously annoyed now.

"Is this some sort of genjutsu?"

Sasunara rolled her eyes, she cut a rabbit leg for herself and looking at Sasuke with her large blue eyes she said, "Come on help yourself" she threw the kunai at Sasuke who caught it. Sasuke cut a leg as well and performed a jutsu to determine if it was poisoned, not caring if it offended the cook, who was now rolling her eyes again.

"So have any family around here?" she asked innocently.

Silence

"Friends?"

Silence

"Master?"

His eye twitched

"Oh, judging from your clothes, Orochimaru right?"

His eyes stared into her face, she grinned.

"I hope you don't mind but I finished your master off two days ago, a few hours before I met you actually. Did I mention you've been sleeping for two days?"

Sasuke tried to get up, but his legs gave out under him, "What did you do to me?" his voice was getting angrier.

She looked innocent, how could someone like her have killed Orochimaru?

"I told you I removed the Seal and your body is getting used to it, geez could you be anymore ungrateful?" he noticed a hint of hurt in her voice.

For some reason he felt bad, he had no explanation but he felt this really deep connection to her, it was different from the love he felt for Naruto but he felt like if he separated from her he would hurt all over. Noticing his pained expression, she grinned and hugged him.

Shock spread through his veins. No one had hugged him for years; the last proper hug he had received was from his mother, the morning of her last day of life. He stiffened and tried to shake her off, but she wouldn't budge. Her grip was made of metal, how could someone with such a slim body have such strength, much more than his own?

"I've looked everywhere for you" she said into his hair, he noted that she said this with great relief.

"What are you talking about?" he asked

"I came to get you"

"Why should I go with you? I don't know you; I have half a mind to kill you" Sasuke said, his face emotionless as usual.

"You know you could show some emotion from time to time, so far I've only seen expression on your face whilst you're sleeping. So who's Naruto?"

Sasuke was taken back, but he didn't show it, "How do you know that name?"

"You kept saying it during your sleep. You don't have to say anything, but I am a good listener"

……Silence…..

"And obviously you are not a talker" she said.

Sasuke sighed. It felt strange, he couldn't refuse her. Maybe it was some kind of poison! He was worried about poison in the food, but maybe she already poisoned him, a truth serum or some other kind of medicine that made it harder to refuse her.

"I didn't poison you if that's what you are worried about"

How did she know what he was thinking?

"It's your eyes, in case you're wondering how I'm doing it. I can read people very easily, your eyes are the window to your soul, has no one ever told you that?"

"Hn" he said. He lay down, back towards her. He analysed his position, his sword was right next to him, but his right arm was still frozen, his legs would not obey him, only is left moved properly but he could feel the sensation gradually but slowly return to his body, it would take a while. Maybe he could stay and learn who she was and then perhaps find out how she killed Orochimaru like she claimed. He didn't go to sleep but instead waited for her to fall asleep first. His eyes began to close against his will. He heard her cleaning up; when she was finished she jumped atop a nearby tree and fell asleep. Seriously, didn't she know that trees give out carbon dioxide during the night? She would suffocate, but oh well, it's not like he could stand up and get her down. He turned his head towards her, she had her eyes closed and a peaceful expression on her face, he activated his Sharingan and read her chakra levels, he could see she had a massive reserve but not much larger than his, so how did she manage to do such a large jutsu back in the waterfall?

A bush nearly shock, his eyes snapped open. A large fox came out, smelling the air for predators, the fur was a shinning orange-red, its eyes were red too which Sasuke thought was odd, foxes have dark eyes. It came closer, to be honest Sasuke was not really scared he generally got along well with animals; they were silent like him and mostly lonely too. The fox came closer and nuzzled his hand. He moved his hand through the fur; it was so soft and warm. The fox lay down next to him and Sasuke found his eyes closing and both fell asleep.