Chakra prickled at the edge of Sasuke's consciousness. Someone was touching his face lightly, probing for something. Karin? he wondered for a second, then don't her fingers have callouses?
"Ah, see, he's already waking up."
Sasuke's eyes snapped open at the unfamiliar voice.
A man in a white coat stood at his bedside. Not just a white coat – Sasuke took it in, blinking – white hair, white eyes, white everything. He smiled directly down at him, expression blankly pleasant. "Good morning, Uchiha Sasuke."
Inexplicably, relief washed through Sasuke at the sound (finally) of his name. He kept his features impassive as he tried to prop himself up on one elbow. His head had stopped hurting, though the light seemed a tad too bright in his smarting eyes. "Where am I? What happened?"
"Well." The man's pleasant smile didn't falter. "I've just finished a proper medical exam of you. I have a few things to discuss with you as well, ah, Sasuke-kun. May I call you that?"
Sasuke sculpted his features into a glare. The man was older than him, but not by that much.
"My apologies," continued the man, looking actually apologetic, "but I think that will be necessary to – um – keep things straight for right now. If you'll bear with me for the moment--"
A snort from behind him perfectly paralleled Sasuke's own.
"There's no need to be that polite."
Sasuke had thought it was a nightmare.
The man who had been standing behind the head of the bed stepped out, around, coming to loom over Sasuke and the nightmare had become reality once more.
"Uchiha-san," said the white man disapprovingly. "Sasuke-kun has been through a lot today."
The older man, still dressed in full Anbu gear sans mask, let out another snort.
"He can deal with it. This is how he deals with it." He leaned over then, something like a smile but more ghastly on his lips. "Right?"
Sasuke's blank mind snapped into gear at the challenge, which was good, because otherwise he might have started screaming or – worse. He glared back at the man, forcing himself to take every detail in.
His earlier impression hadn't been wrong. The face was his own.
Undoubtedly, completely, utterly, it was his, the face that had looked back at him from every mirror he'd ever looked into. The cowlick that had dogged him since birth stuck up in the back, the mouth settling down into what looked like the customary scowl, now with a few wrinkle lines, the jet-black hair showing only a few hints of gray--
The eyes. The left eye looked down at him, black as ever, while the right eye remained closed.
Sasuke assumed at first that it was closed from tiredness, then for effect. As the seconds wore on it occurred to him that it might not be able to open.
"What the fuck happened to your eye?" Not the most polite or insightful thing to say, perhaps, but hostility towards this – this – whatever he was was keeping Sasuke from going into an embarrassing fit of hysterics. He grimly figured that avoiding that might as well be his goal of the moment.
The smile that spread across the other man's face, grim but pleased, was hard to take his eyes off of. "You know what Izanagi is as well as I do."
Izanagi? Oh yes – the monument stone in the Uchiha shrine – but that brought up a whole host of other questions. They must have reflected in his eyes before he could bring them to words, because the other man answered immediately.
"No, it isn't worth it. Wasn't worth it." His face twisted suddenly with indescribable bitterness. "Especially not for you. You only have one functioning Sharingan."
"I--"
"Mikiru will explain to you." The older man waved a hand in the direction of the man in white, who Sasuke had briefly forgotten about. "Don't—make a scene. No one here has time to deal with it. Try not to embarrass yourself by fainting again, either. You will listen and take in the information calmly. After his report, you will come with me on a tour of the city. There are several things you need to see. Understood?"
"Yes," said Sasuke automatically, still responding to that voice as if it was—well. No wonder he had thought it was his father's. His stomach gave a lurch sideways and he put a hand to it. How could he possibly want to vomit when there was nothing in his stomach to vomit up?
"Well, then. Sasuke-kun." The white-colored man cleared his throat, drawing attention to himself. "I will give the report, then. Feel free to stop me and clarify anything you need to." He smiled kindly.
Sasuke wished he wouldn't do that. Kindness was somehow not helpful to his current exercise of self-control.
Thankfully, the man continued immediately. "As you are probably already aware, you are in slightly... different circumstances than usual. You are a user of lightning chakra, yes?" Sasuke nodded. "The current... form you find yourself in seems to generate earth chakra. Though you seem to have already learned to use it in limited ways." The man sounded impressed. Sasuke nodded again, trying to ignore the roaring in his ears. "Your right eye has the Sharingan, but your left eye... seems to be incomplete. At the moment there is probably no way you can use it. But that-- well, I can't make any promises. But I will examine you again in the near future, once your overall health has improved."
A long pause followed. Sasuke turned to see the man looking at him with an indecipherable expression on his already inscrutable face.
"Mikiru." Both Sasuke and Mikiru, apparently, turned to look at the older man. "Relay all the information to him directly. Don't hold anything back." His face, too, was stony.
Another pause. "Understood," said Mikiru at last. "Very well then."
To Sasuke's surprise, he then sat down on Sasuke's bedside, leaning forward to look directly into Sasuke's face. "Sasuke-kun," he said in a quiet voice. "Do you understand where you are? Do you understand what year it is?"
Sasuke nodded his head. Then he shook it, slowly.
"The date is March 27th, Common Era 534." Mikiru's eyes did not waver from Sasuke's, catching him in their indeterminate depths. "You were discovered on a search-and-destroy and data reconnaissance mission in Sector 46 of the Mist Country, headed by Jounin Akimichi Chounosuke, assisted by Special Jounin Nara Shikajiro. The mission orders were to survey the reported Hidden Facility #3 of Mist, and destroy any... experiments found there. As you undoubtedly know, they did not entirely fulfill that mission. Jounin Akimichi made a personal decision to bring back one specimen alive – a specimen that seemed to bear some ties to the Uchiha clan. Are you following me so far?"
Sasuke had, at some point, ripped his gaze away to focus on the feathery white eyebrows just above the hypnotic Hyuuga eyes. He was listening but not thinking. Thinking would only cause unnecessary reactions right now. He nodded.
"I have looked over the data retrieved. It is incomplete and fragmentary. Whoever operated on you didn't keep comprehensive records. My current hypothesis is based on a combination of the testimonies of Jounin Akimichi and Special Jounin Nara, what little the data tells us, the Anbu's impressions from their general exam, my own medical examination of you, your own words and Uchiha-san's reflections." He took a deep breath. "This may not be easy to hear."
"Give it to him straight." The older man's words cut in like a slap.
Sasuke watched as the two eyebrows bunched together, looking like two caterpillars trying to climb towards one another.
"You are two people, Sasuke-kun. Neither of them is... yourself."
Sasuke idly wondered if the eyebrows could climb on top of one another, like real caterpillars.
"The person who – operated on you used one body as a base, and... portions of the other to add certain attributes. Basically, they added the Sharingan to what seems to have been an Earth Country ninja. This isn't – it's not as easy a process as you might suspect. I know you know of people who have had Sharingan implanted into them. Usually, they would not have the ability to turn the Sharingan on and off. However, since – your head is mostly Uchiha, you do seem to have the potential to control the Sharingan like a native. It's remarkable how well the two... parts of you are working together. Though according to the data and the condition of the Sharingan, I'm quite certain this wasn't the first body this surgery was attempted with."
The eyebrows kept twitching upwards and Sasuke wondered if they would jump right off the man's forehead, and come crawling across his sheets towards him.
"The real question we all have, Sasuke-kun, is why... why your memories seem to be of... of Uchiha Sasuke at 16 years of age. Though they are accurate, as verified by Uchiha-san. I gave you as complete a medical exam as I could, but all I could ascertain is that the original memories of the brain were completely wiped – amazing thoroughness, really – and that new ones have been programmed in. The process doesn't seem to be much different from Leaf Anbu techniques I've researched, but of course the question is where they got the replacement memories in the first place. You don't seem to have had a tracer placed into you, either, or any sort of a trigger. You don't... well, Sasuke-kun, you don't make a lot of sense."
The caterpillars rose high on the forehead as the man took in a deep breath. At this point Sasuke almost wanted to reach out and touch them.
"It seems that at this point you are quite convinced you are under some sort of genjutsu. I think this is a very healthy and normal assumption on your part. It's fine to remain under it a little longer, if you would like." A snort came from his left, but Sasuke was too busy counting the individual hairs on each caterpillar. "This is a lot to take in and you are being very mature about it. Though... I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. In any case, Uchiha-san wants to take you around the village and show you – well. Give you a tour. I just have one last thing to let you know about then. Have a look at your chest for me, if you please?"
Belatedly Sasuke realized he was being requested to do something. He tore his eyes away from the caterpillars and fixed them on his chest, bare where the hospital robes were starting to come undone. He blinked in surprise to see a distinctive black mark there.
"I'm sure you understand the situation, Sasuke-kun. Though as of now you don't seem to be any sort of a threat... the circumstances are just... in any case, it isn't a chakra seal, just a tracking device. It shouldn't interfere with any of your daily activities. We simply don't have the manpower to track you around the village, I'm afraid. Officially, of course, you will be under Uchiha-san's direct supervision."
Sasuke idly traced each petal of the chrysanthemum-like design with his finger. Well, at least it's attractive, he thought to himself, and was pleased with how calm the thought was.
"You'll see me again in a month or so. I'll give you another check-up to see how your health is coming along-- I have a regimen of pills here that should have you able to eat solid food in no time. Also, Uchiha-san has requested that I take another look at your left eye Sharingan. Again, I won't make any promises, but it's possible it can be made to function at some time in the future--"
"You became the head of this hospital three months ago, didn't you?" The older man's voice was cold and firm. "It should be well within your purview."
"I'm hardly the most talented to hold this title, Uchiha-san."
The pause was brief but oppressive. "You're the son of the Hokage. It's long past time you acted like it. Mikiru." A hand clapped down on Sasuke's shoulder, sending a shock wave crashing through his body-- he managed to bite down on the undignified sound trying to escape from his throat-- "Tell him the pill regimen quickly. Your other patients need you."
Instead, the man took Sasuke's hand in his, squeezing once. "Everything will be okay, Sasuke-kun," he said, giving that same kind smile.
Sasuke wished he wouldn't be kind. He really, really wished he wouldn't be kind.
His older self reached down, knocked the hand away, to Sasuke's immense relief. "Stop wasting time and get to it. It's not a cancer diagnosis."
Mikiru turned away then, but not before giving Sasuke a sympathetic look that was strangely, eerily familiar. It was fortunate, really, Sasuke thought, that the Hyuuga eyes were designed to be inscrutable and distant, because at this point if Naruto's blue eyes or anything like them had been there, looking at him like that, at that moment he would probably have broken down and screamed and screamed and screamed like his entire world was going to pieces in front of his--
As the other man retrieved the pre-counted pills from the rolling cart behind him, Sasuke decided he wasn't going to think along those lines anymore for a while. In fact, he didn't really want to think at all for a while. The roaring whiteness expanding through every dark corner of his mind was, for once, his good and welcome friend.
A/N: FINALLY. 0_0 Sorry for the wait, everyone! I'm so grateful for all the reviews and alerts and favorites... I can't even tell you. I hope this chapter fills in some of the blanks - of course, there are many more mysteries to uncover! ^^
I guess the only thought I have for this chapter is that Sasuke is taking it quite well, really. I personally would be crying and vomiting in a corner. I'd like to believe ninjas are made of sterner stuff, though...
Feel free to speculate freely in the comment section, if you so desire ^_~