All of the ninja present were staring at Karin, shocked.
"To be more specific, it's a pre- or mid-chunin-exam Uchiha Sasuke," she elaborated. "There's no seal on the neck, and the chakra feels…normal I suppose is the only way I can put it."
"That…little brat is Jii-chan?" Hasuka asked, shocked. "But he's so annoying and full of himself!" Naruto burst out laughing and Sasuke glared at him. Minoru walked over and squatted down in front of the still-unconscious boy who was supposedly his grandfather and poked his face.
"He's kind of mean," Minoru stated, standing up again.
"That's not the point," Older Sasuke practically growled. "How did I – me – he – get here?" They all turned to look at Minoru, who immediately hid behind his father.
"I didn't do anything!" he whined, "I was practicing my tree-walking 'cause my chakra control sucks and next thing I know there's some strange kid sitting on top of me and I'm on the ground! It's like he just fell out of nowhere!"
"No-one is blaming you Minoru," Rinji assured his son. "We just wish to know what happened."
"I don't know!"
"I suppose there's only one thing to do then," Naruto sighed. "We'll have to wait until he wakes up to get some answers, but when he does, we have to be sure not to tell him anything that may change the past."
"We can't risk any changes to the present," Karin agreed. "So how do you suppose we do that?"
"If he's chunin-exams, he won't have met you yet Karin," Naruto pointed out. "And I suppose we could have Tsubaki help, seeing as how she looks nothing like any of us. Given what Minoru told me, I'd keep Hasuka, Minoru, Sasuke, myself and Rinji away from him, if at all possible." Sasuke glanced at his son; he looked troubled by something.
"Where do you suggest we hold this interrogation?" Sasuke asked.
"We need to tell Kimagazaki what's going on, so I would suggest one of the unused rooms in the Hokage tower."
"There are unused rooms in Hokage tower?" Minoru asked.
"There's always at least one." Naruto informed him. "Hasuka, Minoru, why don't you two get back to your teams. Your father, grandparents, and I will be fine." Rinji nodded as his youngest children ran off and cut the ninja wire tying young Sasuke to the tree, retying them around the boy's arms before following his parents and father-in-law in the direction of the tower.
Sasuke and Rinji were sitting outside of the room where younger Sasuke was being kept, waiting for Tsubaki to arrive.
"What is it?" he asked his son.
"You – he – called me 'Itachi'," Rinji informed him, "Before he tried to attack me with a Chidori." Rinji turned to look at his father. "Did you hate your brother that much?" Sasuke sighed.
"When I was that age, I truly thought I did," Sasuke admitted. "It was not until after Itachi was dead that I learned the truth and began to understand and forgive him." Rinji nodded his understanding and the two sat there in silence until Karin walked down the hall, Tsubaki next to her, still in full ANBU gear, her mask pushed up on top of her head.
"Grandmother has explained the situation to me," she stated.
"He's awake," Karin announced, right before they heard a shout from inside of the room.
"Karin," she turned to look at her husband. "Be careful. You didn't know me then, but I wasn't one to listen to reason."
"Were you ever?" she teased before opening the door and leading Tsubaki inside.
Tsubaki pulled down her mask to cover her face before taking a seat across from the young man who was supposedly a younger version of her Grandfather and was surprised at exactly how much he looked like her younger brother.
"State your name." she ordered simply; he glared at her.
"We know who you are," her grandmother stated from behind her. "We just need you to say it for the record."
"Where am I?" he asked.
"Konohagakure," Tsubaki informed him. "State your name."
"Uchiha Sasuke," he bit out. "This can't be Konoha. Everything looks different."
"And it would be. It is not the Konoha from your time or place," grandmother stated.
"What?"
"How did you come to be here?" Tsubaki asked.
"I don't know! We were fighting a group of rogue-ninja and next thing I know I'm here in this place!" And then his features changed, as if he had come to a sudden realization. "This is a Genjutsu isn't it? You're working with the rogue-ninja!"
"That is false," Tsubaki denied. "You know how to dispel genjutsu, and if you are truly who you claim to be, genjutsu would not be effective against your Sharingan." The boy, Sasuke, glared at her, his eyes flashing red, three tomoe spinning around the pupils, before disappearing.
"Who are you?"
"Who I am is none of your concern. What I wish to know is how you got here."
"I already told you I don't know!"
"But you suspect," her grandmother interjected. The young Sasuke remained silent a moment.
"What are my suspicions to you old woman?"
"We wish to help you go back to wherever it is you came from," Tsubaki explained, "to do that, we must be able to understand how it is that you got here."
"If I don't understand, how do you expect to be able to?" he scoffed.
"I am ANBU. I have near unlimited resources. You, however, are a mere genin. An ankle-biter in the world of ninja," Tsubaki scolded; he was starting to get on her nerves the way he was bringing the conversation around in circles.
"Kitsune…" she heard her grandmother caution quietly, using her ANBU code; but it was too late. The young Sasuke had his Sharingan activated and the next thing she knew, her grandmother was caught in a genjutsu and the boy was free from the ninja wire that had been holding him and was rapidly going through the seals for a Katon jutsu. Tsubaki followed his seals with her own Sharingan and using a Shunshin to appear behind him, grabbing his hands before he could complete the final seal.
"Are you really so stupid as to attempt a jutsu of such a destructive level in such close quarters?" The boy stiffened as his head whipped around to face her, his eyes locking onto her own Sharingan red eyes.
'Sharingan? But…how?'
A/N: I'm ba~aack!
Seems short, I know.
Been a while, I know; I blame my craptastic DELL for somehow corrupting my external hard drive and forcing me to send it out to genius tech people to get ALL of my documents, photos, music, etc. recovered. Yea. Sucks.
BUT HERE YOU GO!
Yesh, I'm evil. Cliff-hanger.
Hopefully I got Tsubaki's character right; she isn't written much so I don't know what she's really like besides being scary Itachi-genius. But I figured she's being all detached-scary-ANBU-person. So yeah.
Uzumaki Minoru (c) ~TwinEnigma
Naruto (c) Masashi Kishimoto
