Section: Naruto
Genre: Supernatural, Romance
Pairing: male OC X (Surprise) male
Summary: A normal person from the real world dies and ends up in the world of Naruto or better known as the nightmarish world full of death and destruction.
Or
When a person is cursed to be Naruto's twin only because it turned out that his lover was someone from the Naruto world.
Warning: Slash (Yaoi, Boy X Boy), Mentions of rape, Dark themes, OC with skewed morals and questionable sanity

Chapter Twenty-Four – Sasuke

Things just kept going from bad to worse, Sasuke found as the days went by after the Chuunin Exams. It was like an odd calm had settled over the village after the invasion. Sure, there was the funeral – for the Hokage and all those who had died during the invasion – and everyone participated in clean up duty while the higher ups got busy trying to decide who would become the new Hokage. And yet, Sasuke felt like there was an odd lull in everyday life. Everything seemed so… fake and superficial with how life simply picked up after the chaos.

Or maybe it was just because Uzumaki Minori was apparently missing.

Sasuke did not know what to think about that.

He remembered when they had at first been place on the same team, along with that idiot Naruto and Kakashi as their jounin sensei. Back then, he had had clear expectations about his team. He thought that his teammates would be holding him back; he was the Rookie of the Year; Naruto was the dead last; and Minori was average at best.

Except, he had been pleasantly surprised by Uzumaki Minori. The other boy was intelligent and resourceful, his skill with sealing was particularly impressive but above all, Sasuke was most pleased by the red-head's quiet nature. He spoke only when he needed to and nothing he said was wasted, unlike his brother who was apparently the complete opposite of his twin.

Naruto was everything he had expected, except worst since being on a team together meant that they had to work together. Having Naruto on the same team meant more work during missions and being more careful when out of the village since the blond had the tendency to run head first in danger without regard for his teammates. Thankfully, Minori had been there to reel the blond back in when he became too much, and the two of them had become able to work around Naruto's incompetence.

(His silencing seals that he slapped on the blond when he became too loud was a god-sent.)

Sasuke worked well with Minori and having him on the same team meant one less annoying person to deal with daily. He would even go so far as to say that he respected the red-head since he clearly was serious about being a shinobi and becoming stronger, unlike Naruto whom he saw training rarely or even trying to improve where he was clearly lacking, and yet whining about the low-level missions they got, bugging Kakashi to teach him 'cool' jutsus or even bragging about his non-existent strength.

Kakashi should not even be mentioned. The man might be a good jounin but he was always late and the only thing he had ever taught them was the tree climbing exercise. And then the chuunin exams came and the man taught him one-on-one. That was when he really came to know how strong of a man his sensei was and he could finally say that he held some degree of respect for him. The Chidori was impressive and he wondered how far he could push this jutsu. Having Minori on his team had taught him about never being content with what he already knew but instead improve upon them to bring them to their limits. That was what the red-head did with his seals and taking example on the boy was not unreasonable, not when he knew just what the boy could do with his seals.

Except… well, now the exams were done, the Hokage was dead, Kakashi was busy taking more and more high ranked missions because of the lack of shinobi – and the need for the village to show the other countries that they were still going strong – and so could not train him, and… Minori was gone. Evaporated. As if he had never been there and had only been a figment of his imagination.

Nothing was said about the subject expect that it was being investigated. Even as he prodded at Kakashi, the few times he could see them, nothing new came about his wayward teammate. Minori was just gone.

Sasuke could see that the sudden disappearance of the red-head made Naruto despondent but all he found himself caring about was the fact that as soon as the blond got back to his cheerful self, there would be no Minori to silence him. Sasuke was going to have to deal with Naruto alone. They might even have a new teammate to replace him and this time he might be unlucky enough to end up with a fangirl.

(A part of him silently mourned the times the red-head and him worked flawlessly together, most of the times without even talking to each other. They had gotten used to silent communications between them since neither of them were great talkers. He had gotten used to knowing Minori would have his back in a fight; he had gotten used to his silent presence; he had gotten used to having a reliable companion by his side, one that did not ask for anything but was simply there.

…He had gotten used to having an almost-friend.)

And then worse came to worst. One day Kakashi did not come to their meeting place even after he had sent word to Sasuke that he would be there. He found his sensei unconscious, but even worst, he found out that the person who had placed his in this state was him: his brother, the traitor, the betrayer, the kin slayer… Itachi.

And as he tended to do when the red of – not the sharingan – but of rage (pain) and his desire for vengeance (hurthurt/whywhywhy), he left behind his comatose superior officer, his village and ran across the Fire Country to find him.

And find him, he did. With Naruto of all people. Why Naruto, he had no idea, but the thought of that man coming back for his useless teammate made him even angrier (hurtpain), and before he knew it, he ran at Itachi with a Chidori.

Later, he would reflect, it was laughable how easy Itachi deflected his attack. Except he did not want to laugh. Not after being put through the Tsukuyomi, the same technique that man had used on him that night. Not after seeing his clan, his family, his parents being killed over and over and over again.

It was agony, the kind he had never forgotten but also the kind he had never wanted to experience again. He did not know for how long it lasted – it might as well have been an eternity for all he knew – but when he woke up, it was to a blonde woman leaning over him. He was in Konoha General Hospital, he found, and the blonde woman was the new Hokage of all people. The only other person present in his hospital room was Naruto. He had half expected Minori to enter the room behind his brother and give him his regular expression of mild irritation he tended to gift Sasuke with every time he did something the red-head had deemed absolutely stupid.

Except… except Minori never came. He was still gone and no one knew what had happened to him still even after all this time.

(He refused to acknowledge the slight disappointment in his gut and instead he threw away those nonsensical feelings and brought forward all his anger and rage and pain and –

– He refused to be weak. He was not going to be taken down so easily again. The next time he found that man, he was going down and not Sasuke.)

.

.

.

Sasuke would give anything – anything– to reach his goal. Anything.

Apparently, Sasuke found, 'anything' meant leaving behind the rest of the village and what remained of Team 7.

It was not like the village had done much for him anyway so it was not a great lost.

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(…And what the hell was Team 7 anyway? Could it even be called a team anymore? Kakashi was rarely there because of all the missions he took and Naruto was a pain to be around because of his ingrained obnoxiousness. The only missions they were given were D-Ranks or simple C-Ranks just outside the doors of the village.

How was he supposed to improve like that?

.

.

– Besides, Team 7 was not the same without Minori with them.)

From where he stood, leaving the village was the most logical decision Sasuke could take. And so, he did.

AN: This is a short chapter but you see Sasuke and his feelings about the whole thing. I wanted to show that while both Sasuke and Minori are damaged, they had found some kind of understanding between them. Even if Minori does not acknowledge it (yet), those two have built an amicable relationship between them that is not simply as allies but as not-quite friends. Sasuke - ironically - is more in touch with his feelings to understand their strange quiet relationship, unlike Minori who only thinks that there's simply mutual respect between them for their skills as shinobi, and mutual understanding (and exasperation) with having to deal with Naruto. There's nothing romantic between them and there will never be.

We've pretty much come to the end of this part of the story. Next is the time skip and things will pick up from there, venturing farther from canon as the story goes on.

Let me know what you think and leave behind a comment.

Leight