Chapter 1: Memories or Madness?
Sasuke Uchiha, was he Sasuke Uchiha? He couldn't tell anymore. He couldn't tell where he was; was this a dream? He couldn't tell. All that he felt was an empty void where his heart would beat and an odd sense of longing.
He couldn't remember how he got into this state, he couldn't even remember what was the last thing he saw. All he knew was he went to the academy, had a normal day and went back home.
And now he was in a dark void, reliving memories in vivid detail that he didn't know were his or not. He saw an odd world, the houses were different, the people were different, they spoke a different language, wore different clothes and ate differently, among a myriad of other things.
But despite all the strangeness, he somehow understood what they said and did on an instinctive level. He grew up as a child, he had two tough yet loving parents, he was the eldest and had half a dozen younger siblings. He went to the academy/school. He grew older, he made friends, he made enemies and rivals.
He kept growing older in these memories and yet it felt natural. He became a teenager; he had his first crush. His face felt hot in indignation as he was quite embarrassingly rejected but he moved on. He went to college; he got his first job. He felt the mind-numbing disappointment of a low-level corporate slave.
He felt the fear and elation as he struck it out on his own, he struggled yet the challenge excited him and he finally succeeded, quite well at that. He blushed as he started dating, he married his first girlfriend.
He was growing older, he now had kids, his own children. They were the light of his life.
He had more children. He now had a dozen children.
That was quite hard to absorb in his mind.
His parents passed away. The pain felt like his heart stopped beating and he couldn't breathe for a moment, a moment that felt like eternity. His very essence felt dimmer for a second.
The pain almost cracked him but he preserved. He had to, he has a responsibility to tend do.
It wouldn't be forever, he can meet them in the afterlife. It will be all right.
He grew even older, he felt the aches of age. The slowness that started taking his body, it depressed him a little, his own mortality was making itself known. But he preserved in grace.
His children grew older, the youngest was graduating soon while the eldest would drop off the grandkids with him and the wife.
His wife passed away; he wasn't as upset as he thought he should have been. Instead he was more resigned. It was coming, death was waiting for us both. At least he didn't burden her by dying first himself.
And it finally came, he knows it despite not remembering it clearly. He fell down the stairs, his feet must have slipped. It must have been a quick death; he couldn't remember too much pain.
And now here he was…
He didn't know who he was, he was Sasuke wasn't he?
And yet he could remember so much. Those memories were his weren't they? He felt the warmth of joy when he thought of his family and the pangs of pain of the death of his wife and parents.
And yet when he thought of his parents, Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha it was the same warmth that he felt for his other parents. The difference being the warmth was slightly duller for the previous parents. Was it because his alive parents were newer? They were alive and he just saw them yesterday?
He didn't know.
He didn't know anymore.
He now knew things that were a mystery to him previously. Things an adult would know.
He was never religious, nobody in his clan were but his previous family was and so was he.
He felt a dulled sense of despair and fear as he realized that there was no judgement and heaven or hell waiting him, perhaps for now.
His entire belief system was not making sense.
Where would the souls of his parents and his wife go? Are they also pseudo reincarnated?
It didn't make sense.
It didn't make sense till he started remembering, from a long bygone era. Shows and books for children and teenagers. The mystical elements in them made more sense than any made up scientific hypothesis he could make to make sense of this.
Souls merging, souls remembering, souls possessing and many more. It could be any though he highly doubted it was a case of possession.
Regardless now the most important question at hand was where was he and how did this occur?
He can confidently say that despite his time in the world that wasn't earth that there were no tales of anyone remembering their past lives sans liars seeking petty money. But that didn't matter at the moment. What mattered was getting out of here.
He had to wake up.
Open his eyes…
And open them he did.
As he felt his heavy eyelids open slowly, so did the fog on his memories.
Itachi.
It was Itachi.
It couldn't have been.
Oh Lord, if you can hear me then please let that memory be a delusion.
It has to be, after all he can clearly remember what he had for breakfast yesterday and yet the events of last night are all foggy, like a bad dream.
His eyes fully opened, and he scanned his surroundings. The smell and colors that were unique to hospitals and the beeping of machines said it all. He was in a hospital.
He rose like the dead. Slowly and sluggishly.
He observed his hands and body, he was Sasuke Uchiha after all. Eight-year-old son of the Uchiha clan and a student of the ninja academy in the village hidden in the leaves.
He rubbed his face in order to shake off sleep. The sound of a nurse entering, and gasping got his attention.
She started speaking, he could understand her perfectly and yet the sounds felt foreign now to his ears.
It didn't matter, they can communicate, and he had questions.
"Where am I?"
The nurse hesitated for a second before answering "You're in Konoha hospital. You were admitted here last night."
"How did I get here?" at this her face scrunched up in worry.
He had to repeat himself politely again before she answered. "You were found unconscious with some minor cuts. The worrying part was the genjutsu that was detected on you. How are you feeling? Can you see and hear clearly?"
"I'm fine" he hesitated before asking "Where is Itachi and how is my clan?"
The nurse's hesitation said it all. She avoided the question and made sure I was fine before running to get a doctor.
He didn't care. He had something important to get to.
He scanned his clothes and body. He was perfectly fine.
He went to his room's window and opened it. He observed the village, it was similar and foreign at the same time.
He looked down and saw he was on the third floor, he hesitated. He was eight, how could he jump from here and survive?
But he had to, he knew it. Deep down he knew that he can jump a distance no civilian child or adult could hope to and be absolutely fine.
He moved out and jumped.
It was for moment and in it he felt like a demigod. His body had such power and speed in it that he couldn't comprehend it for a second.
As his feet landed on the closest rooftop, he felt the muscles shrug off the landing. He felt the mystical presence of chakra. The soft warm power, it felt like a warm ocean resided inside his body. Simply waiting to be called upon.
He felt like he could drown in it.
He took deep breaths, calm down. Focus, focus. Do what you usually do. Let the muscle memory guide you.
He had to see it, he had to confirm it.
He tensed his bare feet, the muscles within tightened. His calf muscles flexed, he bent only a little and his feet pushed the ground.
He soared through the air for but a moment. His feet made contact with the roof he wanted.
In that moment familiarity and surrealness blended together in perfect cohesion. It was like he was in the most realistic dream ever possible.
But he didn't stop. He moved again, this time crossing the distance of the roof. It was perhaps 20 to 30 meters and yet he crossed it in the blink of an eye.
Before he jumped again, he saw behind himself. He saw the hospital, the roof he just crossed and for a fraction of a moment thought 'Maybe I should just sleep'.
"No" he shook his head, he had to do something, that which he set out to do. Where was he, when was he? He needed answers.
And so, he moved and his body became a blur.
He didn't notice it, he would from now on never notice it.
Anyone who knew him, had seen him move a day ago could easily tell his speed had increased. Not a little, not by a margin but by leaps. It was like his body had forgotten its mortal limits. No 8-year-old child, even a clan and academy trained child had any right being that fast.
Anyone with keen chakra sensing abilities or ocular jutsu could see the truth behind the matter however. Sasuke was subconsciously pumping chakra beneath his skin. It was a crude and old form of body enhancement. One that was discovered centuries ago by individuals without teachers. It was the first step to accessing supernatural feats that all shinobi used daily.
However, it wasn't Sasuke using the crude technique that was out of the norm. No, it was the fact he was using enhancement on a subconscious level. Channeling the crude technique with expert efficiency where barely any chakra was wasted or leaked, that was the unreal part.
Sasuke reached his destination.
It wasn't the sight so much as the smell that greeted him first. Human bodies that had begun to decay. The smell of blood permeating the air.
As a blur he jumped several stories in the air, a feat that would have been impossible for him yesterday. He landed near the house of one of his uncles. The sight that greeted him was one of a house stained with blood. Yet there were no bodies.
He moved again and saw houses empty yet stained with blood and damaged.
He finally saw some of his clansmen when he got closer to his home. The sight of a civilian aunt and young cousin lying in a pool of their drying blood.
His body had already vomited before he had processed the type of attack that had taken their lives.
The sounds of footsteps approaching caught his attention as he retched whatever was left in his system.
A masked Shinobi came followed by what looked like an Inazuka clan member.
"Hey, isn't that kid the one that was found a few hours ago?" the Inazuka asked the ANBU.
"You shouldn't be here" stated the ANBU in a calm voice.
Sasuke glared at the duo as he wiped his mouth with his forearm "Who did this?" his own voice sounded calm yet the growl of anger beneath it was heard loud and clear.
The inazuka tried to provide a non-answer but was beat to it by the ANBU "Hasn't been confirmed but witness reports claim it was Itachi Uchiha"
Sasuke stilled. He remembers it after all, those red eyes. The sight of his parent's dead bodies. Everything. It may have been muffled but it was all there.
So it was all true.
And nothing made sense anymore.
His body began to feel numb and he didn't protest as the Inazuka came to bring him to back to anyone higher on the command chain.
And so Sasuke quietly passed through the questioning from the jonin investigating the scene, from the Hokage, from the doctors. He provided short answers and they didn't press for more.
It all became a blur. He was taken back to the hospital; he spent a day there before being discharged.
Then came the funeral for his clan. All of them burned to a crisp. The shinobi world would not allow a kekei genkai holder to be buried in peace. All of his clansmen were given unnamed and empty tombstones.
Deep down his most inner self would cry that they deserved better. They were his family, his kin.
But that voice would never be heard.
A week passed and he was given a spacious apartment outside the clan district by the hokage.
He allowed the lands and houses to be leased or rented when appropriate. The money from that and his clan's assets would all be stored and given to him whenever he is deemed an adult by the village laws.
He simply stayed in his apartment whenever he wasn't needed.
Simply staring into nothing, still trying to understand what had truly happened.
Every time he closed his eyes and went to sleep, he would hope that it was all just a dream. That he would wake up and everything would be fine.
But it never did.
He was like this until the fully stocked kitchen was empty.
He was like until his stomach grumbled in hunger.
He stayed the same even when Iruka-sensei came and dropped off his academy work and some words of encouragement.
As his body began to pain due to a lack of nutrients and he couldn't handle his grumbling stomach anymore, he rose up from his bed.
He went to his bathroom and simply stared at his reflection.
He looked worse than the time he hadn't slept for 28 hours when doing a gaming marathon during his summer break.
'oh wait' an involuntary chuckle escaped him. That was from his dream/memory/hallucination.
He needed to order his thoughts. He had to. A compulsion took him.
And so, he made himself presentable and moved out of the house.
As he walked out, he took in his new surroundings slowly.
There were people here, too many people, there was too many sounds, too many smells and it was too bright. It annoyed him and so he increased his pace.
He found a general store and went inside. He ignored the curious look the shopkeeper and the 2 women gave him.
He bought himself groceries. He bought a lot of groceries.
As he came home arms filled, he got to work. He began cooking himself a feast.
A feat that would have been impossible before because he hadn't even touched a kitchen knife before.
He tried to keep his mind empty as he went through the process. And yet he couldn't stop his surprise as he cooked dishes that he hadn't even seen or heard of before.
When he finally started eating, he couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him again. It was tinged with perhaps a hint of madness.
The food that should have been foreign to him felt like an old favorite that he hadn't eaten in ages. Like eating rice balls with tomatoes in them after a year. He finished his food and washed dishes with muscles memory that his eight-year-old self shouldn't have had.
He sat down on a sofa in the living room. He held his head in his hands and simply let go.
And the madness slowly began.
His thoughts that he didn't think could organize were done so in minutes.
Itachi, Itachi had massacred the clan.
Itachi had spared him and yet he could not fathom why.
His excuse made no sense.
None of it made sense.
And he could do nothing as he was a powerless child.
But he needed answers and he would get them.
However he needed power in order to make that happen.
But at what cost? The price to be a slave to a horrible system?
Where no task was too evil so long as the price was right? Where he would be forced to allow children to become child soldiers? Where his own children will be targeted within and outside the village walls because of their blood?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…
This world was rotten, so was his previous world.
He knew of the atrocities of his previous world and yet he ignored them for he was powerless. His family wasn't affected by it so why should it matter to him.
Those were his previous resigned thoughts.
Now, this time was different. For within him he had infinite potential.
Nukes, weapons of mass destruction, tailed beasts, kage, shinobi. They were all powerful.
But so was he. He could become powerful. And unlike his previous world, here that power would come from within, not from hired thugs or metal toys.
But was it worth it? He would have to kill countless people who adhered to and lived by this system. Those close to them would then oppose him out of spite.
He may have to spill rivers of blood in order to create a world without war. One where children were not driven to kill, driven to madness. Children like Itachi.
As he stared himself in the mirror, he saw his unique black eyes, a mark of his clan. A clan slaughtered by a possibly mad child.
"…yeah" his reflection agreed with him. If it meant he could create a world where children could live on to become adults without blood on their hands. A world where shinobi were not wanted then he would spill as much blood as needed.
It's been centuries now and this vicious cycle doesn't look like it will be resolved through words or a realization. The world was led by fools and monsters.
And he will be the one to free it.
A grin formed on his face, he stared into the mirror and as he channeled chakra into his eyes on a whim,
Crimson eyes, crimson white slit eyes stared back at him.
He felt for his chakra, it felt like a never-ending ocean. It frightened him a little, for he felt he might drown within himself.
A plan was beginning to form within his mind.
There will be no going back.
This world will have a revolution and he will be the one to give it to them.
-END-
Yes that sharingan is a Mangekyou.