Sasuke watched him go for a moment, knowing that he couldn't understand the shock Naruto must be going through but he had a good idea. He could liken it to when he discovered the truth about his family. In this world, this alternate realm, Naruto had achieved his dream of becoming Hokage. That explained why he didn't live in that cupboard of an apartment, he thought with slight bitterness. He would have been quartered one of the best houses in the village, not that he would spend much time there. That thought brought another to his mind. What else was different? He still hadn't confirmed if the Uchiha clan was alive and he wasn't sure if he overly wanted to. Their…Naruto's friends treated him as though he was one of them, a thought that made him feel slightly repulsed at the moment. There was no point in standing around, though. The only way to get through this was with that blond idiot who was no doubt dancing on his own head, literally.
Sasuke took off, using his superior speed across the rooftops and was a bit surprised when no one seemed to react. Clearly, he did this a lot. That only brought more confusion. What was he supposed to be like in this world? Did he have the same personality or was he more…friendly? He gave his head a mental shake. Right now, he had to focus on getting out of this warped dream world. He traveled swiftly through the village, finding the building Naruto was on and landing behind him. What he didn't expect to find was the normally energetic ninja standing still, staring at the stone faces.
He gave a small sigh, walking over. "We don't have time for this," he said, keeping his voice neutral and emotionless. He knew the blond was probably still out of it and he grabbed his shoulder, shaking it a bit. "Snap out of it, Naruto. This isn't real," he said, more focused on trying to get Naruto's attention away from his own face and back to matter at hand.
The moment the hand was placed on his shoulder and those words were spoken, Naruto's pupils dilated and he whirled around. "Are we dead?" The fearful whisper asked. Naruto was looking to Sasuke for answers, he felt lost, scared… yet part of him was also amazed at what this world was giving to him. In this world all of his dreams had come true. He was a Hokage, he was liked, and most of all, Sasuke was here… the thought of it caused a warm tingly feeling to spread through his stomach.
"Naruto! Sasuke!" A highly familiar female voice suddenly rang out from behind them. Naruto peeked over the Uchiha's shoulder and what he saw brought a smile on his face.
"Sakura!" Without missing a beat, Naruto was back to his old self, pushing Sasuke away from him, walking closer to Sakura and grinning. "What brings you here?" This was it, in this dream world everything was coming together, meaning Sakura being his girlfriend was the last piece.
But the pink haired girl only looked confused as she replied, "Uh… I was looking for you." Yes! She was looking for him! Naruto's grin turned into some kind of expression only a cat could pull off as he leaned closer to the girl.
"Yeah? Looking for me?" He leaned in, puckering his lips, expecting to complete his life goal right here, when Sakura politely coughed. Naruto's eye peeked open, and he stilled. Yes the girl was blushing, but she was now looking over his shoulder towards Sasuke. No wait, don't tell him… Sasuke got with her!?
"I'm sorry Naruto but… I don't want Sasuke to get jealous." NOOOOOOOO! That damn Uchiha had done it again! Stole her heart right up from under him! Naruto quickly pulled away, looking grumpy and annoyed.
His arms crossed, as if he was about to put on a pout, but instead he shot a dirty look at the black haired boy. "Yeah, wouldn't want to get Sasuke jealous."
He heard the shocked words leave Naruto's lips and his heart stopped for a moment. Were they dead? Had that tornado earlier been a jutsu that killed them? No…he refused to believe that. He had precautions, techniques and seals in place to prevent such a thing from happening. He was about to respond when a voice from the past spoke up from behind him. He wanted to scowl, roll his eyes or really any reaction apart from going over to the girl and actually conversing with her.
Naruto, on the other hand, had no such problems as he went bounding over to her. This time, he did roll his eyes before turning to face the two. He watched the exchange silently, arms crossed until Sakura said something that made his heart stop once more. Jealous? Sakura didn't want to make him jealous. He kept his face blank but inside, he was panicking. What? He and Sakura were…dating? Now he knew he had to escape out of this twisted, horrifying world. Despite her slow improvement from crazy, obsessed fangirl to just obsessed fangirl, she was still pathetically weak. While he had no doubts Tsunade had trained her apprentice well, she wasn't even close to the level of Naruto or himself and that was something no amount of training could change. It was evident when they met again after three years and he all but took their makeshift team apart. Regardless, if they were dating in this backwards world, he was going to put a stop to it. "Why would I be jealous?" He all but snapped, his thoughts slowly beginning to affect his attitude.
Sakura looked back towards Sasuke, then at Naruto, and back again. "Because Naruto was trying to kiss me? I know that you don't like it when he tried to do that before…" She seemed to be recalling something that Naruto had no idea about, all he knew was he had been rejected, AGAIN, after being a Hokage he still wasn't good enough for this pink haired woman!? This was an outrage, he was fuming! Not at the loss of his one ticket to a good romantic life, but that he lost to that bastard over there!
"It doesn't matter!" Naruto growled, shutting his eyes, frowning his brow. He looked all but happy to hear of this news. Though there was one difference… this was not the Sasuke she was dating… and when this thought dawned on him, he looked over at the Uchiha through thick black lashes. He was waiting for the boy to blow up, make a rude comment that would cause Sakura to run away crying, and only then Naruto knew he could pick up the pieces. It wasn't like Sasuke would mind right?
"Are you two fighting?" Sakura added in, pointing between the two with one hand on her hip.
Sasuke was completely lost in the situation, something he wasn't accustomed to. "Fighting?" He repeated, looking for at Naruto who was staring at him. "Why would I care if the idiot kisses you?" It was less of a question and more of an insult. This was completely ridiculous. At this point, he was almost wishing for the constant bickering between Karin and Suigetsu. At least he could understand what they were talking about and clearly see the underlying sexual tension that seemed to permeate both of them.
His glare turned to Naruto, wanting to grab the blond's arm and drag him off so they could try and salvage whatever was left of the situation. He wanted things to be back to the way they were. When his goal was clear and concise and when everything actually made sense. Right now, everything was a complete and utter disaster, as far as he was concerned.
Sakura bit her bottom lip, as if not wanting to reply to his rude question. She seemed to look towards Naruto almost sympathetically before answering. "Because you two are dating?"
Silence fell over the three. So they were dating, that made more— WHAT!?
Naruto took in a deep breath, then all at once, he began to laugh, hysterically. His knees were giving out, his eyes were watering. This had to be the funniest story ever told! Sasuke and him were dating? Did she see how unlikely that was?! "That was a good one, Sakura!" He finally choked out between gasps.
Sakura's eyes were wide, she looked down at Naruto then slowly shook her head. "Naruto, that's mean, even towards Sasuke." But he couldn't help it! It was funny!
The silence rang in his mind as he attempted to process those words. It was on the third time that Naruto burst out laughing and he finally comprehended what his former teammate had said. He and Naruto were…dating? As in a couple? Romantically? He couldn't even think about what that actually meant but at least his disbelief was overpowering the sheer confusion at such a statement.
It wasn't until Sakura's last words that he understood she was serious. He and Naruto were dating…he could barely string those words together in his mind let alone out loud. No. That was it. They were getting out of this world one way or another. He looked over at Sakura and took a step forward, earning her attention. His eyes immediately flashed to their final level of Sharingan, the Eternal Mangekyou fresh and barely used as he looked into her eyes. It was a strange sensation, one he still hadn't gotten used to as his new eyes, now possessing a star-like pattern in black and red with the three pronged star in the middlemet her green ones. It only took an instant for Tsukiyomi to activate, her eyes rolling back as she fainted. "She won't remember seeing us," he said, letting his eyes fade back to their normal obsidian colour. "We need to get out of here and back to reality," he said, looking down at the village, trying to think of way they could do that.
"AHAHAHAHAHA—AHH Sakura!" Naruto darted forward, catching the poor girl before she hit the ground. He held her close, giving Sasuke a dirty look before laying her gently on the ground and standing up. "Why the hell did you do that, you bastard!" He demanded, fists clenched. He did not like the idea of Sasuke using his powers on her, even if it was to get rid of the evidence of their existence. Yes, the weight of her words were still on his mind, and even as they stood there Naruto felt more awkward around him than before. It was almost like at any second Sasuke would jump at him with those lips. Naruto bared his teeth, then looked down towards his friend. They had to go, even if it meant giving up all the things he wanted most— besides dating the Uchiha asshole! "Then where do we go next?"
Sasuke ignored his insult, instead eyeing the village. His eyes briefly caught the Uchiha district but he deliberately ignored it, turning away. He looked back at Naruto, catching his expression and returning it with a small smirk. "We should go to Hokage Tower. We have no idea where you live and it won't look suspicious if you show up there since it's your job." He crossed his arms, contemplating what they could do. First, they had to figure out what this really was. His best chance was that it was a genjutsu but it would have to be an extremely powerful one to fool him. His eyes could see through even Itachi's illusions and those were the best and now that he possessed his brother's perfect eyes, there was no way he couldn't break out of this. At least at the tower, they would have access to all the scrolls, including the forbidden ones. There, they would be able to figure out what exactly was going on and how to counter it.
He turned, looking over at Naruto. "Until we know for sure what's going on, we have to act…normal," he explained, trying to get his point across. "If we don't, the people of this world will think we're impostors and will probably either have us locked up or executed. I don't think I need to explain why that's bad," he added, although he understood the implications of what he said. They had to pretend Naruto was Hokage and that they were…together.
They had to go to the Hokage's office, sure that sounded simple, even more so since Naruto was the Hokage… Naruto was the Hokage, see, even that didn't sound real. Naruto, the boy who dreamed to become the leader of the village for so many years, appears in a village just like his own but in this one, his dream had come true. The blond launched himself across a roof top, the speed of the jump made his normally spiky hair slick back against his head. It was only when he hesitated that he regained his normal look, yet his eyes were now on Sasuke. What was he thinking? Naruto continued on behind the Uchiha. If this wasn't reality then was any of his dreams coming true as well? Besides them being a couple- not that Sasuke's dream was to ever be a couple with Naruto! He just thought of that couple thing at the wrong moment. But what could the Uchiha want most? Then it dawned on him and he felt the need to turn his head towards the area in question but resisted. It was no use now, bringing up ghosts of the past. Naruto already realized that since he was Hokage then everything that had happened between the fox demon and the forth had come true… so he still lacked a family even in this time line, but that didn't stop Sasuke's story from being rewritten.
They managed to get up to the front door and even though Naruto had done this a thousand times over, entering the office now made him feel uncomfortable. Yet the guards on either side nodded and smiled at him- nodded and smiled… again, those words didn't usually go together. Naruto gave his best effort at a confident smile in return but it ended up watery, even forced looking. No one seemed to notice, and the doors opened. The two entered and the moment the doors shut behind them, Naruto flinched and whipped back around. They were trapped! Oh god, he had to stop acting like this! The village knew him, he was the fake/real Hokage after all, but he felt like an impostor.
"Sasuke…" Naruto stuck close to the other, trying not to look like they were sneaking around, but he hadn't also realized that when another person passed them, Naruto would walk on the opposite side of the Uchiha. "What do we hope to find?" Up ahead was the clear view of the Hokage office doors, they were shut, hopefully not locked. He swallowed at his dry throat and continued on ahead to the doors. With a shaking hand, he nudged open the door and watched as it swung to the wall. Inside the office looked completely normal! Almost like his bedroom… meaning somehow he managed to move in, making the office less professional looking. There were a few old ramen bowls on the desk, papers piled in a fashion that would suggest the slightest breeze would knock them over. A sock was laying a few feet ahead on them and a rather lived in looking couch sat off to the left. "Hey this looks awesome!" The boy finally exclaimed as he walked deeper into the room. He scanned the desk top, poking at a few items that were questionable and when his eyes scanned over to the right corner, there, his horror rested. *BANG* Naruto quickly shoved the picture frame forward onto its face, putting both hands on it as if it would spring back to life at him. That terrible, horrible picture of the pair sitting at an ice cream shop smiling like a couple- A COUPLE. Sakura wasn't trying to pull their legs, this was becoming clear… they were a couple in this world.
Naruto looked up when he overheard the other speak, and quickly removed himself from his desk to open the filing cabinets. "So we are looking for a file…" He stated, proving how much he had not been listening to Sasuke the entire time. His fingers skated across the file titles, while the rest of his office was a mess, it seemed like the filing was all up to date and organized at least.
Sasuke's eyes kept scanning back and forth as they went, ever alert for danger. He didn't admit it to his blond companion but his heart was hammering in his chest. Being around people he knew would kill him and being in a village he wanted to burn wasn't doing much for his current mental state. Add that to the changes this future might bring and-
No. He pushed those thoughts as far back as he could. He wouldn't consider it. He wouldn't even think it. Right now, he had to focus on getting back to a world where things made sense. Where Konoha was his enemy…where Naruto was his enemy. His eyes went to the hyperactive ninja as they made their way to the Hokage's-Naruto's office. Clearly he was unnerved by the changes, if his awkward sneaking was anything to go by.
Although, when they entered the office, he could see Naruto relax a bit, liking the atmosphere as he vocalized that. The Uchiha looked over the room, eyes flashing red for a moment to check for any traps that the other Naruto might have laid. He was immediately broken out of his search by a slam on the desk and he raised a thin eyebrow at the action. Whatever. The dobe could do what he wanted. They had better things to worry about.
Sasuke walked to where Naruto was now flipping through files and went to the cabinet beside him, Sharingan turning on to scan words faster. "Try to find anything on Madara or the Akatsuki in general," he instructed, pulling the top drawer open. "I'm sure that old man is part of this," he added in a quiet voice, more to himself. He scanned through the first half of the files, catching familiar names here and there but mostly ignored them. However, his Sharingan missed nothing.
Uchiha, Itachi. Status: ANBU Captain.
Sasuke slammed the drawer closed with much more force than necessary, not caring that there was now an inch deep dent in it. If he thought his heart was pounding before, now it was threatening to break out of his chest, the sound of his blood pumping echoing in his ears. Alive. He's alive. My clan. Alive. He closed his eyes, trying to will his body to calm down. This isn't real. This is a lie. My family is dead. Itachi is dead…and this village is responsible. He made a silent vow that if Madara was behind this, he would find the man and exact the most excruciating and terrible punishment he could think of.
