"How?" Sasuke turned to stare at… himself. That would get complicated. For the sake of ease of reference, he decided to refer to his clone, and his teammates' other selves, by their surnames. At the very least, mentally.

"How what?" Sasuke asked.

Uchiha grunted. "How did you become so strong?"

That question did not cause any surprise in the slightly bigger Sasuke. No, in fact, he'd actually been sort of expecting it. He hadn't sparred with his counterpart, heck, they'd barely had time to get acquainted so far, and all they'd managed to discern from their earlier chat with Kakashi was that somehow, they'd ended up in an alternate universe or in the single most elaborate and ridiculous genjutsu of all time.

As farfetched as it sounded, Sasuke was wishing it was a genjutsu, since he had absolutely no idea how the hell this would end otherwise. He wanted to go back to his own world. Not because he didn't want to worry his parent, but because the intent stare that his counterpart was throwing him was starting to become irritating.

"How do you think? I trained." Sasuke replied.

Uchiha's eyes narrowed, and he looked as if he were trying to set fire to Sasuke with his eyes. But of course, the thought of being able to set someone on fire with your eyes is just silly. "I train. Hard. Every day." Explained the broodier one, taking a few steps forward. They weren't particularly secluded, but they were away from the others (who were all around a campfire discussing the current mission). "Why are you much stronger than me?"

"I don't know." Sasuke said, shrugging. "You don't seem like the kind of guy to accept help, so that may be it. If you have a whole clan behind you and you don't use it, you're just dumb."

Uchiha's eyes widened for an instant before they narrowed into a glare once again. "What..?" He whispered. "Your clan… the Uchiha clan… Is…"

"What about my clan? It's the same here as it was back at my world, isn't it?" Asked Sasuke, rolling his eyes.

"Everyone is dead." Said Uchiha with an air of grimness and a very noticeable undercurrent of hate behind it.

"… The fuck did you just say?" Sasuke asked, shaken out of his reverie.

"Everyone is dead." Uchiha repeated. "Itachi snapped one night and just killed everyone. He forced me to relive their deaths." This actually shocked Sasuke into silence. After all, what do you answer to that? 'I'm sorry for your loss'? That… sounds condescending and pitying. And Sasuke hated being pitied for pretty much any reason, so he had no doubt about his counterpart hating it too. "He said he did it to test his capacity."

"Itachi… Did that?" Sasuke asked, taking a step back, his eyes wide with horror at the thought. Then, a flash of memory hit him like a truck. "That must have been what was breaking him down back then…" He whispered. Then he put both hands on his counterpart's shoulders.

"What are you blathering about?" Asked Uchiha, coldly, his tone snappish. It seemed that he did not like talking about his past and particularly that night, though Sasuke couldn't really blame him.

"In my world, Itachi is going to succeed the Hokage when he retires." Said Sasuke. "He told me that the Hokage announced it so early in his career because he wanted to ease tensions between the Uchiha clan and the village."

"Impossible. Itachi is insane and all he wants is to be the strongest! He doesn't care about anyone other than himself." Explained the rather incensed Last Uchiha, grabbing at his other self's shirt and failing to lift him from his collar only because Sasuke held his hands down.

"Itachi wouldn't do something like that." Sasuke said, noticing that his counterpart was actually physically stronger than he was. "Something must have happened that made him snap like that. The tensions between the village and the clan were very high at the time, and Itachi was pretty much the most significant link between us and the village…"

Uchiha didn't seem impressed, however, and just growled. "What does it matter why he did it!? He killed everyone! All of them! Even mother and father! And he forced me to watch it over and over again!" The Last Uchiha was shaking his counterpart with every word, his tone low but with a deep seated burning hatred that bordered on madness running behind it that made it seem all the more poignant because of it. "And I will find and kill him to have my revenge."

Sasuke said nothing as his other self let go of his shirt, merely smoothing the wrinkles he'd just created, as the other took a deep breath. "I don't know what could have happened that made Itachi go crazy like that. But that doesn't sound like Nii-san."

Uchiha's fist was intercepted before it could reach his other self's face and parried so that it veered off to the side of his cheek. "Don't you dare call him that."

"I understand." Sasuke said. "… But think about it. There must be something going on that you don't know. I can't imagine him doing something like this."

"I don't care why or what happened." Uchiha once again disregarded his other self words, growling at the thought. "What he did was unforgivable… and I will have my revenge."

"I can't say anything." Sasuke spoke, sighing.

"Then you got to be as strong as you are because you had our clan to train you." Stated Uchiha, eyes narrowed. "You're useless to me, then. The others are only trying to hold me back, to stop me from getting strong enough to face him alone."

Sasuke glared at his other self and, with a few swift movements, put him in submission hold with his chin against the ground and his right arm close to being pulled out of its socket. Uchiha had almost gotten his tongue cut off from the jarring and sudden impact. "I learned this from Kakashi-sensei." Explained Sasuke. "I learned how to break out of it from Naruto." He added. "And I taught Sakura how to do it, too."

Uchiha growled and tried to struggle, but it was useless, as the hold was preventing him from doing more than wiggling in place like a worm in a slippery surface. "Let me go!"

"You better learn this lesson, 'cause I won't have my counterpart being such an idiot." Sasuke said. "There are people out there that you won't ever be able to beat one on one. Itachi is one of them. We might be good, but we're not THAT good."

"I'm the best! If Konoha weren't holding me back…" Uchiha let out, growling as he tried to defend his honor from where his counterpart seemed hell bent on stomping all over it. "I would be so much stronger than you! You're weak, compared to me!"

"Oh, yeah? Who's on the floor, me or you? Us, but that's beside the point." Sasuke said, pulling a little more harshly on Sasuke's arm and stopping him from speaking. The fact that he bit on the grass and had to spit it afterwards amused the one on top. "And why would I be weaker than you?"

"Your connections with people will just weight you down, hold you back and slow you down!" Uchiha snarled, trying to throw Sasuke off his back. "Itachi got so strong because he had nobody holding him back!"

"You're wrong, idiot." Sasuke said, using the hand that he had forcing Uchiha's head down to lift him from his hair. "You think that Itachi magically got to be as strong as he is? He got strong because he accepted help. He grew more in the two years as an ANBU than he did in all his time as a sensei-less chunin! He got to be that good because he trained and learned with his comrades and friends. Just as I'm stronger than you because I have someone to train with!"

After letting him drop, Uchiha stopped struggling. Sasuke stood up and glared at the last loyal Uchiha of this other Konoha, cutting off the glare to turn around and had back, completely and utterly ignoring the deadly glare thrown his way. "When you get that… maybe you'll actually even be a challenge."

"Itachi told me himself." Uchiha began, stopping Sasuke cold. "He said that I had to throw all my friends away… that I had to live an unsightly life."

Sasuke looked at him over his shoulder. "And you went ahead and did exactly what a psychotic mass murderer who just finished slaughtering his own family and tortured you with those images told you to do? I know there are dumb people out there, but you take the cake, idiot."

Uchiha found himself incapable of providing an adequate answer.

"Well, I can't say that I disagree with his words. Or his methods, really." A rather calm and lazy drawl interrupted Uchiha's reverie. "But you'll be able to think that over better with your stomach full, so come over here and eat."

Uchiha blinked. All the time he'd spent just sitting on the grass had been a blur. Then he shook his head and ignored the hand that Kakashi offered him, walking to the circle set around a camp fire which had a cast iron pot over it, where the smaller Naruto was casually stirring the contents with what looked to be practiced ease.

"Wow, you know how to cook?" Asked the taller Uzumaki.

"You don't?" Asked Sakura, raising an eyebrow. Seeing his nod, she sighed. "If you're like him, then you're also an orphan. You mean to tell me that you live alone and never learned how to cook?"

"It's not like anyone would teach me…" Uzumaki replied, his tone nowhere near as exuberant as usual.

Sakura scowled, then turned to glare at Kakashi.

"I thought he already knew how. He hasn't died from starvation yet." Informed the silver haired jounin.

"Then, seriously, how do you survive on just ramen, Naruto?" asked Haruno, looking at her teammate as if he was an interesting experiment. "You should be wider than you're tall if all you eat is instant ramen…"

"Or at least super broke." Tazuna added.

"I don't know." Uzumaki said, shrugging. "I guess I'm just that cool!"

Naruto the younger looked at him intently. Even Sasuke seemed to be curious about that one, as he turned to address his own Naruto, who merely placed a hand against his stomach. Sasuke barely gave away his understanding and merely nodded in Naruto's direction.

"Anyway, you really should learn how to cook, and if your teammates won't do it, then I'll do it myself!" Sakura stated, standing up and crossing her arms and smirking at him.

"You will, Other Sakura-chan!?" Uzumaki yelled because of his surprise and elation at the mere thought of that. Sakura merely nodded, smiling at his enthusiasm. "That's awesome!" he said, pumping his fist.

Haruno looked perplexed. "You want to spend time with him?" She asked, looking her other self in the face and looking for the telltale signs of sarcasm in her face or tone. There were none. "But he's insufferable. He's nothing like Sasuke-kun!"

"He's your teammate." Sakura said, blinking. "I mean, I know I didn't pay that much attention to Naruto back at the academy, but he's really easy to ignore. No offense." She said, turning around to see that Naruto hadn't even registered her comment, too busy using one hand to stir whatever it was that smelled so good and the other to hold up the cookbook he was reading from. "But he's your teammate now, you should at least try to be friends."

"Well, your Naruto is nothing like mine." Haruno said, crossing her hands over her nonexistent chest. "He's always loud and moving and he can't stay still. He's got terrible grades and sucks as a ninja!" she had started to yell by the end

Tazuna the bridge builder raised one eyebrow. "Woah, that's super harsh."

Sakura snorted. "And I wouldn't be surprised if he can take you out with a few hits at the most." She said, smirking at her somewhat smaller self. "And he's not the one screaming right now, is he?"

Indeed, Uzumaki's mood had been thrown to the mud right then, as he was now kinda depressed from having been put down so harshly by his crush. Sasuke actually felt sort of bad watching it. It was funny, as they were both extremes. One was too stoic for his own good and the other was too expressive for his own good. It kinda made him smile and chuckle internally.

Haruno had the decency to blush in embarrassment, at the very least. "He's usually more annoying than this, and he's totally useless!"

"He wasn't the one that fainted before the fight even began." Sakura pointed out with a sly smile.

"But he froze when the Demon Brothers attacked." Haruno countered.

"Pinkie here did jump in front of me." Tazuna said, his voice having the slightest trace of respect in it.

"All he did was get hurt because he was scared." The angered pinkette finished.

"And you let him get hurt?" Sasuke said, his tone surprisingly even and calm. Sakura gulped. Leaving Naruto to fend off multiple opponents alone was a sore spot for Sasuke. The last time it'd happened, they had almost lost him. "You're worse than trash."

"Now, now, she reacted as best she could." Kakashi said, stepping into the circle and sitting against the mountain of backpacks, his hands resting behind the back of his head. "She couldn't have known he would freeze."

"And where were you?" Sasuke asked, his tone dangerously low. Kakashi, the one in his own world, had made a terrible mistake because he'd been trying to get an idea of their capabilities. The silver haired man had confessed and apologized for leaving them to fend for themselves against clearly superior opponents, but that didn't make Sasuke forgive him for it.

"Geez, chill, all they did was scratch me." Uzumaki said, rolling his eyes. "What are you so defensive about?"

Sasuke sighed. "Something like that happened to us, too." He began, looking at the fire for a few seconds, trying to get focused. "We weren't properly prepared and we were thrown off our game when we thought Kakashi was killed by a fire jutsu. " Then he looked at Naruto, who merely shook his head without removing his eyes from his book. "It didn't end well."

Sakura had seen Naruto shake his head and decided not to further elaborate on how exactly the mission had ended, despite the Alternate Team 7 and Tazuna probing them for the information.

After the silence had settled, the pot was taken off the fire and then they served it. There was a problem, however, when it turned out that Uzumaki had nothing to put his food on, as he hadn't thought about the possibility of eating anything other than the cup ramen he'd packed (which he'd been barred from eating that night, Kakashi had said that a good meal is good for team bonding).

Sasuke rolled his eyes and sighed. "You're more similar than I thought." He said. He then proceeded to turn to where Kakashi was sitting against their backpacks. "In mine there's a second bowl." He said. Seeing how everyone except his own team looked at him oddly he cleared his throat. "Naruto tends to forget his, so I usually carry two."

"That's convenient." Haruno noted. "To be expected from Sasuke-kun!" She muttered, blushing slightly. It made Sasuke want to punch a kitten from sheer disgust.

After everyone had a bowl where the soup could be served, they turned to seat around the campfire. They were in the land of fire, so even the nights were pleasant, usually, but there was still no reason to deviate from common practice. It was unlikely they'd get attacked twice in the same day. After all, Gato wouldn't know that the Demon Brothers had failed until a reasonable time had passed.

Kakashi was certain, however, that this lull wouldn't last too much, so he was intending to make the best of it.

Uzumaki raised one eyebrow and looked none too pleased at the seat arrangement, as he'd wanted to sit next to Sakura, either of them, but he still sat down and began to eat, occasionally stealing glances at where both kunoichi were sitting. Then his gaze actually went to where Kakashi and Uchiha were seated, and how his Sasuke seemed to be completely lost in thought.

Kakashi seemed to be reading a book while he ate, the book he used to conceal his face so that nobody would see him lower his mask. That one was actually clever, though it made him want to see what Kakashi wanted to hide so much.

Finally, Uzumaki's eyes trailed to where his counterpart and Sasuke were sitting. He found himself questioning his other self. After all, he was sitting with Sasuke! Of his own free will! And he even seemed to like it! Granted, this Sasuke didn't seem to have the stick shoved so far up his ass he tasted it, but he was still Sasuke!

Then it hit him. Maybe his other self… Maybe he liked Sasuke more than a friend should! Suddenly, Naruto slapped himself. That would be just silly. Maybe he was just getting drunk off the old geezer's smell. Or maybe the old man had changed his water with Sake. 'Cause he'd just thought something impossible.

No way could his counterpart like Sasuke. No. Flippin'. Way.

Just at that moment, Naruto seemed to notice that his counterpart was staring at him, and as such, he lifted his gaze from where it had intently been on the spoon heading to his mouth. However, due not in small part to the distraction provided by the moment, Naruto seemed to actually burn his tongue by forgetting to blow on the ridiculously hot soup cooked over an open fire.

He didn't flinch, didn't make a noise and didn't seem all that affected. Heck, the wince he made had been so easy to miss that Naruto was certain he'd imagined it, for a moment.

"Pay attention to what you're doing." Grumbled the nicer Sasuke, moving his right hand until it was in front of the other Naruto and using his pointer finger to poke his forehead. The little Naruto seemed the slightest bit flustered at that moment.

Kakashi's one visible eye widened imperceptibly and the other Sasuke flinched.

"We've got to draw up a schedule for tonight. And I'm not staying up." Kakashi suddenly informed, breaking Uzumaki out of his train of thought and making him completely forget what he was thinking.

"I'll go first." Sasuke volunteered. "Sakura will go second and Naruto will go last." He added. "We'll be doing two hour shifts. We need someone for third guard. Usually, sensei fills that spot."

Kakashi raised one eyebrow. His other self had to go crazy. He was more fond of the first shift. Then again, maybe he'd just allowed Sasuke to have it. "I can't force you guys, but I still think that you should let my team handle this."

Sasuke looked like he wanted to laugh.

Sakura raised one eyebrow. "Technically, we ARE your team." She pointed out. However, she shook her head and then turned to look at her counterpart. "Have you actually trained them on this?"

Kakashi sheepishly offered her an eye-smile. "I thought it'd be better to show rather than tell."

Sakura sighed and shook her head.

"Hey! I can stay awake if I need to!" Haruno said, though her conviction was less than perfect about it.

"You could, yeah, but then you'd be feeling pretty horrible. I know it was a pain in the ass to get used to this schedule." Sakura replied. "Trust me on this one, it takes a while until you don't feel like murdering your teacher the next day."

Haruno sighed. She couldn't argue that, since she hadn't ever tried something similar before and Kakashi hadn't trained them on this at all. The lessons in the academy only covered how to stay awake, not how to deal with being tired afterwards.

"Okay then… Let's do one hour shifts." Kakashi said, smiling at his team and the team of his counterpart. "It shouldn't have too adverse an effect, and it's good training." He said, shrugging at Sasuke and Sakura's incredulous gazes.

"Yeah, Kakashi is the exact same in both worlds." Sasuke said, sighing. Then he got a contemplative expression on his face. "Did you take your team to a strip club yet? Sensei promised he'd take us to one…" He said.

"He did?" Kakashi asked, his eyebrow shooting into his hairline.

"Seriously?" Tazuna asked, looking at the silver haired teacher like he'd grown a second head.

"Are you kidding me?" Haruno and an Uchiha who had been taken out of his funk for an instant asked.

"It's no joke." Sakura said, groaning. "He said that we had to get used to seeing those sorts of things or it could work against us, down the line. If we could get easily flustered by nudity, we'd be easily defeated." She reasoned. "It's solid reasoning, but I think he just wants to go to a strip club and make us pay."

"Sounds like something I would do." Kakashi admitted, shamelessly. "Though I'd probably wait until I have a reason to celebrate."

"He said he would take us when we were promoted in the coming chunin exams." Sakura said.

Kakashi nodded. "If you did, I'd probably throw you guys a party. You'd be the first rookie team to graduate all their members in their first chunin exam. But that's a pretty big if."

"We're pretty much confirmed." Sasuke said, shrugging. "Sensei is training us as ringers, not participants."

"That good, huh?" Kakashi said, rubbing his masked chin.

"Uh, Sensei, what's a ringer?" Asked Haruno, turning to Kakashi.

"It's a team that's well above the usual skill level in the chunin exams. Some teams are held back so that they can make a more impressive show. The International Chunin Exams are more for show than they are to actually promote the genin, so when the villages host the exams in their own soil, where they can get away with this sort of thing, they put unusually strong teams in the running to make an impression." Explained the silver haired jounin.

"What? The chunin exams are for show?" Asked Haruno, blinking.

"Most chunin are promoted for field work, not for their display in the chunin exams. Elite Jounin, like myself, can promote people on the spot, though any promotions I make are temporary unless a member of the Elder Council, the Sannin or the Hokage make it permanent."

The genin, all of them except Naruto, let out an odd Oh of understanding.

"Man, being a jounin is really cool, if you can promote whoever you want…" Uzumaki remarked.

"Normal jounin can't promote anyone, Naruto. There are roughly a dozen or so Elite Jounin in Konoha, Naruto, and most of those are ANBU. One of the requirements is having a Threat Ranking of A or superior, and they only get more complicated from there."

"Threat Ranking?" Sasuke asked.

"This is actually super enlightening." Tazuna remarked.

"I'm glad I'm at least proving entertaining." Kakashi remarked, offering the bridge builder an eye-smile. "Yes. Ninja are ranked based on their strength outside of their hierarchical rank." He explained. "From E, the lowest rank, all the way to the highest, S. There's technically an SS rank, too, but only one Shinobi was ever given that rank."

"Really? Who?" Asked Uzumaki, excitedly.

"The Yondaime Hokage." Kakashi said, smiling under his mask. "After he single-handedly slaughtered an entire army without a scratch, he was given an SS rank and an order to flee on sight."

"Woah! That's really cool!" Remarked the taller blond boy. "Then I will prove I'm the best Hokage by attaining an even higher rank than the Yondaime! I will be the first SSS shinobi, then!"

"Good luck with that." Kakashi might have been somewhat sarcastic with that statement, but Sasuke doubted he didn't think Naruto could at least manage an S rank. Heck, he was pretty much cursed to be absurdly strong by default, due to the Bijuu he held within himself.

That made Sasuke think. Naruto seemed pretty certain that his counterpart had the Kyuubi, too, but he seemed to be nothing like what Sasuke would expect from someone raised to be a weapon. Perhaps he'd avoided that fate entirely. But it still made Sasuke curious to know how exactly this Naruto had been raised.

His own was feared in his own village and avoided like the plague. Heck, people were afraid to go into the same training ground he used. He doubted that this one inspired the same feeling that Sasuke's own Naruto did. After all, while Naruto could be irritating at times, he was easy to ignore.

This one seemed far louder and… weaker. It seemed as if you could actually get to him, unlike the other one, who seemed to be outright inhuman at times, more like a doll than anything else. This one was actually human.

Then again, even Naruto had moments of vulnerability. Regardless of appearances, neither of them seemed to be particularly afflicted by the opinions of those around them. He frowned.

"Anyway, let's draw up a schedule. I'm fine with any position you guys pick, but I'm still going to sleep for the night." Sasuke didn't feel like arguing. The jounin was for obvious reasons Team 7's biggest asset in combat, and given that they would likely be going into combat, keeping him perfectly well rested was only common sense. If only he wouldn't be a dick about it, it'd be perfect.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You" he said, pointing at the taller Naruto. "Will go first. Then me. Then the other me. Then you," he said, pointing at the thinner Sakura, "Then my Sakura, then my Naruto for the last two hours. Sound about right?"

"Why does he have to go through two hours?" Haruno asked. Apparently, seeing the smaller, frailer Naruto being put into those sorts of situations didn't sit right with her. Both Sakura and Sasuke allowed themselves a smile. "Sensei should pull his weight!" She added, glaring at Kakashi.

"Maa, maa, I'm supposed to be teaching you, Sakura. What would I teach you if I did everything for you?"

Haruno glared at Kakashi. "You're just saying that because you're a lazy-ass!"

"… No." Uchiha interrupted. "He's the strongest of us. If Gato sends out stronger shinobi, we'd need him at his full strength."

"Ah, Sasuke-kun, you talked!" Haruno said, completely forgetting about the entire argument. "I was getting worried that something had happened to you!"

Uchiha rolled his eyes, sighing in clear exasperation at the display from the pinkette.

"It works for me." Naruto said, shrugging. "Anyway! I'll protect you all, no worries!"

"This isn't very reassuring." Tazuna stated, his face showing clear apprehension. "I was more in line with the plan where the stronger brats were the ones keeping watch."

"Don't worry, Tazuna-san." Sasuke said, shrugging. "All the guard needs to do is wake up everyone else if something happens." He explained, looking at the others. "And occasionally killing animals coming for our food, too."

"Can't you just, I don't know, scare it away or something?" Haruno asked, looking at him as if he'd just murdered a cuddly rabbit.

"You kidding?" Sakura asked, raising one eyebrow. "Food always attracts animals, which when dead turn into, you guessed it, more food. It's just a way of having more varied food to eat rather than whatever rations we brought with us."

"Sounds like a sound idea." Kakashi said.

It didn't take long for everyone to bring out their beddings from their backpacks, spread them out and went to sleep. The night was awfully quiet, and the only light source around was the few remaining embers of the fire, which were already dying out. Finally, there was only the light streaming from the moon. Back when they'd been in the forest, before they'd stopped for the night, there would've been no light whatsoever due to the thick canopy, but the plains that dominated the vast expanse of land between Konoha, which was at the center of the Land Of Fire, and the Land Of Waves, which was a few hundred kilometers to the east of that, offered no such cover.

Uzumaki was already getting bored two minutes after everyone else had gone to sleep, and had started drawing on the floor with a Kunai, an activity impeded by the lack of light, but he was not one to be defeated by such pathetic adversity.

"Hey, Uzumaki-san." A low voice cut through the air of the night. Uzumaki yelped, before turning around and seeing that it was Sasuke, who raised his arms to indicate he came in peace.

"Ah, it's you. You surprised me." The blond said, shaking his head. "Anyway, shouldn't you go to sleep? I can do this, no problem!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It didn't look like you were paying a lot of attention, just now." The Uchiha spoke, but then he sighed. "Actually, I put you in first and right behind me because I wanted to be able to talk to you in private."

"Talk to me?" Uzumaki asked, raising an eyebrow. Sasuke nodded. "Okay, I guess, it's not like there's much else to do here." He said, his drawing on the ground of him and Sakura already forgotten and stepped on as they moved a bit away so as to not accidentally wake up everyone else. "What did you want to talk about?"

"A lot of things, actually." Sasuke stated, opening the conversation without any restraints or holds barred.

"Actually, now that I think about it, I want to know a few things, too." Uzumaki said, nodding at those words. "What's up with the mini-me? He seems so quiet and, well, weird…"

"He's lived a hard life." Explained Sasuke.

"I guessed. He's very strong, though. Well, it doesn't seem like it, but he did beat all my shadow clones with only two of his own. And those swords he wields are kinda cool, too. I should get some like those." He mused, absent mindedly.

"He's usually not that aggressive." Sasuke said, lost in thought himself. "In fact, it's weird that he actually went on the offensive, he's usually more prone to just waiting for his opponents to attack and countering their moves."

Uzumaki furrowed his brow and looked not unlike he'd just been told the sky is green. "Why would he just sit there and wait for his opponent to attack him? That sounds suicidal!"

"He's very good at it." Sasuke said, shrugging. "The entire Uchiha clan uses a similar idea, though the basic principle of the style differs in that while the Interceptor Fist uses a lot of counters too, we don't leave ourselves deliberately open to attack. The Sharingan has the ability to read attacks even before the opponent executes them from a series of non-verbal," Sasuke stopped seeing the face of confusion that his listener had. He almost facepalmed right then and there. "and that means that they're not spoken, cues. Whatever style Naruto uses has him leave deliberate holes in his defenses. The way I see it, it's all about goading the opponent into making a mistake."

The elder Naruto nodded at the properly sound logic behind both styles. "Teme was beating you when you were both fighting the same, though."

"He's better at it than me." Said Sasuke, absolutely no shame in admitting said fact. "But of course, that's to be expected. Most of my teachers always put an emphasis on having a solid and varied skills set, like with my elemental affinities."

"Affi-nee-tees?"

Sasuke sighed. "To put it the simplest way I can, it's basically what jutsu element you're better with, like for example, I'm better at lightning and fire than anything else. If I'm not mistaken, yours should be wind."

"Wind? I could shoot fireballs or lightning bolts and all I get is wind?" Uzumaki said, almost petulantly. "This sucks. What can I do? Blow people?" He didn't exactly know why that provoked a giggle out of Sasuke, and there was no way that he would get an explanation, either. After all, Sasuke drew some measure of comfort in knowing that at least there was a world where Naruto had some of his childhood innocence intact.

"Anyway, is there anything else you wanted to know about?" Sasuke asked, crossing his arms. "We've got some time until your hour is up… it's only been a few minutes."

Looking at the campsite to make sure everyone was still perfectly okay and asleep, Uzumaki let out a loud sigh. "How do you guys get along so well?" he asked, sitting down on a mostly flat rock.

"What do you mean?" Asked Sasuke, mildly confused.

"Come on, you had to have seen that we're not friends. The other you is a total prick and Sakura-chan is always thinking about him…"

Sasuke felt an overwhelming urge to pet Naruto, but decided not to act on it and repressed it as much as he could. After all, this wasn't his Naruto. Even so, he still felt a certain degree of responsibility. This one might be taller and older, but he was still ridiculously adorable when he was vulnerable like that. "Yeah, I saw." He said.

"Then, how did you fix it? Your Sakura-chan is just as smart and pretty as mine, but she's so strong and cool and nice..." he seemed like he would go on and on about the virtues of Sakura, particularly after having met one who seemed to be everything he saw in her without the bad parts. "She even promised to help me learn how to cook! My Sakura-chan would have just punched me if I said I couldn't cook!"

Sasuke raised one eyebrow. "That's a bit excessive." Spoke the Uchiha, rubbing his chin. "Anyway, there's no real secret to it. It's not some switch that you can flip to make the team click."

"But still…" It didn't seem as if Uzumaki was willing to give up so easily.

"Well, all I can tell you is that you could try to tone yourself down when around Sakura. And kick the other me's ass. He really is a prick and a moron. Then again, he has his reasons for being a prick." Well, Sasuke assumed that they were legitimate reasons. After having had time to cool down, Sasuke had been more willing to entertain theories about why his other self was the way he was. "I think he's just scared of getting attached to people because he either fears he may disappoint them or that they will be taken away. Then again, he could really think that relationships would just hold him down, but I'm more willing to bet that it's a front so people don't question him."

"Why would he lie like that?" Asked Uzumaki, which caused Sasuke to smile.

"If he's anything like me, and I guess he should be seeing as we're the same person under different circumstances, he hates being pitied and he hates his own weaknesses. Don't tell anyone that last one, Sakura would never let me live it down if I ever admit I'm aware I'm not perfect." He said, his tone low and hushed, as if sharing secret information about a conspiracy only he was privy to.

It seemed to fully satisfy Naruto's curiosity for the moment, at the very least regarding that topic.

"But how did you get Sakura-chan to stop focusing on you so much?" He asked. "She said that she used to be like mine, so…"

"Well, you wouldn't be able to do that by yourself. The only reason I was able to break her out of the whole fangirl phase was because I'm, well, me." Sasuke said, the Uzumaki's mind making the connection that it wouldn't have made under a more thorough explanation. "Your best bet is convincing the other me to explain to her what she's doing wrong. She wouldn't really listen to Kakashi, much less to you. Then again, I'm speaking only from the short analysis I could give of your team dynamics."

After all, for all he knew Haruno could have been relying on Uzumaki as an emotional crutch because Uchiha himself ignored her. This Sakura seemed far more confident and secure than what his own had been, so there had to be at least some support. Maybe she'd remained friends with Ino instead of breaking off their friendship to pursue him.

There were a lot of factors that could have gone into shaping her slightly differently than Sakura in his world was, up to the point where he had taken matters into his own hands.

"If you're worried about her self esteem, which you seem to be, then just be there to cheer her up. Don't lie to her, though, don't paint her as something she really isn't. You don't need to lie about her potential, though, she has plenty of it. All she needs is to know that she can do better."

Once again, Sasuke found himself thinking of setting up a shinobi psychiatric clinic. He found himself providing counsel once again. Far as he knew, the psychology course was still too long to take as an aside while he went about his Shinobi career. He was still a pretty decent Shinobi shrink, though.

Maybe he could charge for his services?

"You're really different from the other you." Uzumaki noted, absent mindedly. "The other you would've just told me off if I'd asked for his help. Thank you. Really."

"It's no problem. Even if you're an alternate dimension counterpart, you're still my best friend." Sasuke noted, clapping him in the shoulder as he sat down next to where Naruto had lied down before. "And really, someone has to be there for you guys."

"He's alone too, isn't he?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Neither of you is alone. You've got me, right?"

"Yeah…"

There was a long, comfortable silence that was only broken by the sound of the wind brushing past their ears.

"What… what did you want to talk about, anyway?" Uzumaki asked, looking at the distance trying to find any movement. Sasuke seemed to take a full thirty seconds to full think about what he was about to say, so Naruto opened his mouth to ask again when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder that sent a chill running down his spine.

"Someone has to be there to help you. You've already got too much in your shoulders. Nobody should have to suffer for something they had no control over." Began the Uchiha.

"What… what are you talking about?" There was a hint of panic in Uzumaki's voice.

Sasuke's expression was fully serious and solemn.

"Naruto. I know."

To all those wondering about how long this took...

... I have to say, getting inspiration to write it was a total bitch since Kishimoto seems hell bent on making me hate the series.