Future and Present Clash
Thank you to moopad andyesshe-257378for reviewing the last chapter and everyone else who reviewed the others.
Emptiness filled him, his mind was wondering aimlessly in itself. What would he do now? For the first time in his life he felt at peace but somehow he felt blank, shouldn't he be filled with some sort of feeling of accomplishment? If so why did he feel he had no more goals in life? Wait, there was one. Madara still had to die, Danzo and the elders. A small part of his mind reminded him that Naruto was still alive too, and since the blonde dobe belonged to him it was his duty to protect him. He blanked that side of his consciousness. He opened his eyes, but had to squint instantly because a great fire was burning just ahead of him. He saw the remains of his brother being turned to ashes. Sasunara stood near him, bandaging his arm; he mentally felt around his body, his shoulder was bandaged as was his forehead.
"I'm fine you don't have to do that. I've had worse" he said. Sasunara ignored him, she noticed him staring intensively at the flames.
"I had to burn his body, someone might use it to find out the secrets of the sharingan" she explained healing his arm with chakra.
Sasuke remained silent.
"You feel empty right? What to do now? Itachi is dead. Your goal is accomplished. Yet somehow I know the great Uchiha Sasuke will not stop here. So what's your next course of action?"
"Madara, Danzo and the elders are next" he replied, but his voice was so silent she could hardly hear him. No wonder, even if you hate him killing your own brother was never easy.
"Okay let's go, we have some people to meet up with" she said with an understanding tone to her voice, she got up and dusted the dirt off her white cloak.
Sasuke got up and sheaved his katana, he looked up at the black dome over them, "What is that?" he asked.
"It's a time-displacement jutsu; it was the only thing that could stop Madara and anyone else from coming through. Zetsu tried in vain to pass it, Madara would have tried but I believe he is busy elsewhere" she ended the jutsu and the black tendrils of light began to disappear, the process took about a minute.
They began running, Sasunara was in the lead; they could already hear the very faint shouts of a battle far ahead. Sasuke inspected his injuries, he was a bit sore but he had no need for bandages, why did the blond idiot put bandages on him? He quickly removed them, he didn't notice Sasunara's faint smile. Whatever she had injected into him worked, for the intense battle he just had he was strangely healthy, his chakra levels weren't too bad either. He touched his eyes and activated his sharingan, it was normal. What did he expect? The mangekyo to suddenly appear because he had killed his brother? He had killed his brother. The loneliness crushed him, yes he had always been alone but now he knew very well that his brother was dead, Madara would soon be too, that meant only himself and Sasunara remained with the Uchiha blood, but he had no way of knowing if she would even stick around, if she even wanted children. He realised his next goal was to restore his clan. Again the disgust of sharing a bed with a woman just for the sake of it made his guts curl. Sakura would be the first to jump in line; she would probably kill for a front row ticket. An image of Naruto filled his mind and his heart jumped a beat.
He hadn't event realised that the voices ahead of them were getting closer. Sasunara allowed him to take the lead and they remained that way for a few minutes before they saw lights up ahead. The dark-haired shinobi ran faster. He stopped at the entrance to the clearing and what he saw could only be summarised as "What the hell?"
Faces turned towards the voice, Uchiha Sasuke was standing in all his pale glory with a second Sasunara next to him. The group didn't know if they should be looking at the long-lost Uchiha or the Sasunara twin next to him.
"What the hell is going on here?" Chouji asked.
"They are here for you Sasuke. You need your friends" Sasunara said answering Sasuke's shocked expression, his eyes weren't looking at his friends but instead were travelling between the Sasunara that was standing up and the one next to him.
"I don't need anything. What I do want is for you to explain what the fuck is going on here" he said anger in his voice.
Naruto let go of Kiba's arm and with renewed strength that amazed all ran towards Sasuke and embraced him.
"Sasuke. Sasuke" the blond shinobi chanted his name like a prayer as tears fell down his blue eyes, "I missed you so much teme" he said "I'll bring you back to Konoha for sure this time"
"Forget about that now" Sasuke replied trying to released himself from Naruto's arms but the blonde seemed to be latched onto him, "Am I the only one that is shocked that there are two of them" he said the word with disgust and pointed at both Sasunaras with his eyes "or is this part of your scheme to capture me"
"I assure you this is not a scheme" the Sasunara beside him said before anyone managed to say anything. She walked quickly to the blood-stained masked Sasunara being held by Sakura. She extended her hand and the other Sasunara happily accepted it, "You did well" she said, the clone smiled before her skin became darker and rougher, she lost her shape as she turned to wood and retreated into the real Sasunara's arm. Almost everyone gasped.
"I have had one of my clones with Sasuke because it is about time he returned home. Whether he wants to or not he will go back to Konoha. Our goal is the same, kill Akatsuki and get rid of Madara, Danzo and the Elders of Konoha" she explained. Somehow her injuries were almost all healed but no one seemed to take particular notice except Kakashi and Shikamaru.
"You want us to kill the elders of Konoha?" Neji said outraged "That's a crime"
"Not if it is for revenge and self-defence. Simply put Danzo, the ROOT division and the elders are guilty of treason against the Hokage and the Fire Lord, conspiracy, murder, blackmailing and a whole list of other crimes that would otherwise take years to name them all. It was them that instigated the Uchiha massacre ten years ago in an alliance with Uchiha Madara. They believe they are protecting the village" she rolled her eyes and nearly silently added "Bullshit"
"Do you have proof of that?" Naruto asked.
"Yes. But to go into a full blown trial would be too long, they would probably be dead before it finished and punishment would be in vain, besides they are paid to the right people. But anyway the elders and Danzo are shinobi born and raised in war time, if the village wants to prosper in peace old views have to be dusted away and the newest generations have to take control. It will be most of your parents that will take that role now"
"So what do we do?" Yamato asked.
"We can take a day's rest for now and tomorrow we can set off to find the remaining Akatsuki members. I suggest you use this time to brush up on all your jutsus and come up with strategies because fighting the six Pains will not be easy I tell you"
"What about Madara?" Kakashi asked.
"Madara for now will remain hidden for a while, I think I managed to shock him a bit" Sasunara said "Now that is all settled Sai, Sasuke and Naruto come with me" she didn't wait for them to begin moving and started walking into the forest. Sai immediately followed but Naruto only moved when Sasuke began moving, the blonde shinobi was obviously worried that his best friend would run off again. They came to a large tree, Sasunara was seating against it, exhaustion on her face and the blood was now completely dried on her mask, giving it a dark coppery colour.
That cannot be comfortable, Naruto thought.
"Sai I am aware that the seal on your tongue will automatically make you tell Danzo our plans so if you approach I will remove it and you will be free from his authority. After all it is not with him that you have forged bonds of friendship with" she said. Sai nodded and stepped forward he crouched near her and opened his mouth. Sasunara concentrated one of the five elemental chakras onto each finger tip and touched the seal.
"Ninja Technique: Heaven Seal Removal" she said, Sai cringed in pain but otherwise did not scream or even shout. He quickly got up without a word and walked away. Sasunara looked even paler than usual. Both shinobi knew that removing a seal was no small deal.
"Are you okay?" Naruto asked.
"I'm fine" she answered leaning back her head on the tree.
"Why did you lie to me? Again?" Sasuke asked
"It was necessary for the mission. You of all people should know about lying to achieve your goals. And besides I don't call it lying, I found you after Orochimaru's death, made you follow me for power, beat you, gained right to boss you and did not tell you exactly who it was we were meeting. So not lying just failure to tell the whole truth"
"Hn" he said.
"Stop being a hard-ass we are both Uchiha, we have to stick together" she said.
"If you didn't notice the last Uchiha I encountered didn't survive" he answered.
"Well I'll take my chances. What I called you here for is to make sure you too will not kill each other. So as leader of this mission I order you not to kill each other. This is me asking nicely" she said.
Naruto sweat-dropped "Hai hai, neh Uchiha-sensei" Sasuke's eyebrow went up at Naruto's name for Sasunara "Remember what you said about a certain person's mask" he said.
"Oh right. Yes. You deserve it. I'll take care of it right now. I'll let you catch up, I'm sure there's a lot you want to talk about" she gave them a knowing smile, the type of smile that would make goose bumps go down your spine because you knew there was a hidden meaning behind them. Or at least Sasuke knew since Naruto was obviously oblivious.
"Arigato Uchiha-sensei! Me and teme over here have a lot to talk about" he turned towards Sasuke. Sasunara was now gone, all that was left was the silence that had settled in between them.
"So don't you have anything to say?" Naruto asked.
"You're annoying?" Sasuke answered. An unexpected punch hit his face.
Since when did the dobe punch so fast? Sasuke thought.
Both shinobi were soon wrestling on the floor, Naruto had Sasuke pinned for five seconds, continuously landing punches on the pale face but then Sasuke took control and it was Naruto's turn to be pinned and having fists connect to his face.
"You left me teme!" Naruto said as he managed to land a kick to Sasuke's abdomen.
"I wanted power" Sasuke answered.
"You could have gotten it in Konoha, we could have grown stronger together" Naruto retorted.
"That wasn't enough"
"Are you saying that having me as a best friend wasn't enough?"
Silence was Sasuke's answer. They stared at each other, somewhere down the line Naruto lost his black flamed coat, his orange zip jacket and was now only in orange trousers and his usual body fitting black t-shirt. Sasuke had lost his katana and his shirt was slightly ripped in the middle giving Naruto a nice view of his muscled chest.
His heart beat jumped a step. What the hell? Naruto thought. Sasunara's words echoed in his mind 'You and Sasuke, the way you talked about him. I mean you kissed him. You took each other's first kiss' a sudden blush erupted on Naruto's cheeks.
'No this is teenage hormones. Yes hormones. Oh god that chest. No! Stop Uzumaki Naruto! Think of Sakura' he replayed it in his head but unfortunately all the images that came to his mind were play by plays of the moments he had spent with Sasuke.
As for Sasuke the situation was a bit different. Naruto's tight shirt gave Sasuke a pretty clear idea of Naruto's six pack and toned pectorals. The sight roused in him long-locked away feelings.
'Since when did the dobe have defined muscles?' Sasuke thought. His body was fairly close to Naruto's since he had the dobe pinned down under him, his legs restraining his waist. The blonde shinobi's hands were being held by Sasuke above the blonde's head. Sasuke gave Naruto the trademark Uchiha smirk.
"I'm an Uchiha, I'll do as I please" he said almost like an excuse to himself, before leaning down and capturing Naruto's silken lips in a heated kiss.