Chapter Two: Meeting Room
Sasuke Uchiha was scarred but not stronger. Perhaps a little wiser, at least.
A few years of rough-living had gotten him some appreciation for what he had once had. A bomb set off in his apartment by Tenten had given him an appreciation for those he had abandoned. Naruto had moved heaven and earth to get him pardoned, but no one liked him much and so.
If Sasuke felt like making excuses, he could note that no one had had this kind of reaction to Gaara. But Sasuke did not, and he could just as easily point out to himself that Gaara had been a wild animal. A traumatized, pained creature. One whose only semblance of sanity had been a desire to justify his existence by killing.
Gaara had not really been able to reason, so he could not be held responsible. The Kazekage of the Sand was simply not the same person that Gaara had been at time.
But Sasuke was the same person.
He'd chosen, of his own will, to betray his friends and nation and abandon two whole teams of comrades to die. He'd gotten Sakura and Naruto and a lot of others killed without a hint of doubt. And he'd gotten away with it all.
No heroic sacrifice was required. Neji Hyuga took care of that while Sasuke swooped in over his still cooling corpse and got it all back. It was as though he'd never left.
Sasuke got to live.
And he'd had to live with the fact.
For now, he made his way into an isolated Leaf Village facility where Naruto had called for him. Apparently, it was important. Coming to the door, he found Naruto waiting. The blonde kid he'd left behind had grown taller and had no scars or anything on him. He looked nice in his white kage outfit, and Sasuke seemed rough-looking. With the burns on his face, the mud-stained attire, and worn weapons.
"Naruto..." said Sasuke. "It's been a while."
Naruto shifted nervously. There had been a brief period where everything had been like before. Before the hits started coming in. "Hey, Sasuke, I uh...
"You know Sakura could probably heal that right."
"I deserve the scar," said Naruto.
"Ah, right," said Naruto.
Sasuke could not help but notice that Naruto didn't deny it this time. Sasuke had spent years making excuses for what he did. Then Naruto spent years making excuses for him, and then no one made any excuses at all. Because what he had done remained, the people he killed were still dead, and there were no excuses left to make.
"So what is going on? What is it you need to talk to me about?" asked Sasuke.
"Right, follow me," said Naruto. "We'll catch up later."
And they walked into the facility in silence. Sasuke was given new clothes, which was nice. His old ones had started to cling and wear, and he was able to shower. At last, he was taken to a room where Sakura, Shikamaru, and Naruto were waiting.
IE. Naruto and his real best friends.
Sasuke wondered when Naruto had realized that the boy he'd lifted heaven and earth for wasn't worth it. They'd known eachother for all of a few months, and Sasuke had not exactly been pleasant company. By all accounts, Naruto's social life had dramatically improved by Sasuke's departure. He'd gotten to be on teams with people who weren't revenge-obsessed sociopaths.
They had never been friends, really.
Naruto had been what Sasuke had wanted and vice versa. They were rivals and an impossible ideal to one another. But Naruto had chased his impossible ideal by helping people, and Sasuke had done it by hurting them. And the places they'd ended up in had been richly deserved.
"Sasuke..." Sakura halted.
"So what is this all about?" asked Sasuke, deciding to cut to the chase.
"How does the Izanagi technique work?" asked Shikamaru.
"Why? Do you need one?" asked Sasuke. This was almost a joke. Obito's store of Izanagi's had been seized by Anko and stockpiled. No one had asked Sasuke's opinion, and when he'd opened his mouth to object, everyone had just glared at him.
"No, well, maybe," said Sakura. "Shikamaru thinks that time and space have been warped beyond repair. All, so causality itself has become a casualty of war."
Sasuke blinked. That sounded like something that was actually in his paygrade. "What are you talking about?"
"Read this," said Shikamaru, offering him a book.
Sasuke drew it out and read through it rapidly. "...This is a history of the Leaf by you, Shikamaru? What does this have to do with reality-warping."
"Humor me," said Shikamaru.
Sasuke did read through it, and it was... weird. The book made repeated segways into impossible events. Impossible events which everyone knew had happened. "...This makes no sense whatsoever."
"The information is researched and has been checked by several people," said Sakura. "It is more or less an accurate history."
"Yes, but there are all these contradictions," said Sasuke. "Hell, more space is dedicated to the contradictions than the history." And then it sank in. "...You think this is our real history. And you think the Izanagi is responsible for it."
"Yep," said Naruto.
"Why the Izanagi?" asked Sasuke. "There are other time-space warping abilities. I do not deny it's possible, but not everything is the Uchiha Clan's fault. I think."
"We analyzed events and concluded there is no one divergence point," said Sakura. "There isn't a causal connection, so we believe it happened because of repeated uses of an ability. In addition, these inconsistencies don't seem to serve any purpose or overall plan.
"So it seems likely that they are happening as a kind of backlash to some other changes being made.
"The only ability we've been able to locate that has been used to alter time is the Izanagi. The Uchiha used to use them all the time, and certain events make a lot more sense if you assume Obito was using them."
"Like the Great Snake Escape," noted Sasuke. He reflected that Deidara ought to have killed him there. He had genuinely not understood how he'd survived there. In retrospect, Obito must have used an Izanagi. "Or all the times Naruto seemed to beat him, only to have it all reversed by some unseen event."
"Right," said Naruto. "At several points, we had things in the bag, and an Izanagi extended the war."
"Well, that makes sense," said Sasuke, sitting down at the table and thinking. "I did some studying on it a year ago. The Izanagi pull on possible events to make the event you want to come true happen. There are limits; no one has killed someone with and Izanagi. And it can't be used to force someone to do something, either.
"Free will is beyond its power. However, you can alter reality in a way to force people to obey you against their will. And the Izanami can make people become whatever you want, though I don't have any of those."
"Okay, so it was probably all the Izanagi's Obito, and other Uchiha used," mused Naruto. "So what?
"I mean, yeah, it'll cause hell for history teachers. But is this really such a big deal? Everything worked out fine."
"Right now, yes," noted Shikamaru. "But think Naruto. Think of time as a tapestry. You pull one thread, and it's no big deal. But if you pull a dozen, it damages things. The more you pull, the more unstable the tapestry gets.
"This might cause us some serious headaches if we're not careful."
"Or it might be completely harmless," noted Sakura.
"How can we know?" asked Naruto.
"Let me think for a moment," said Shikamaru. "Okay, the way I see it, there are two possibilities. One, the Izanagi's effect on the timeline is localized. It screws things up a bit, but there are no long-term effects. That's probably our best-case scenario.
"The other possibility I can think of is that the Izanagi does have long-term effects. If so, the more Izanagi are used, the more strain there would be on space-time."
"Is that a big deal?" asked Sasuke.
"As it is, no," noted Shikamaru. "You're the only Uchiha left right now, and even if you start a huge family. Most of them will probably never learn the technique. The problem is Kabuto and Orochimaru. They have mastered genetic engineering.
"In time, they or people like them could replicate the effects of the Izanagi."
"Whoever had that kind of power could never be beaten in battle," noted Sakura.
"Unless two sides got it," noted Shikamaru. "What then?"
"I see what you're saying," said Naruto. "So, the Izanagi is like an explosion in a grassy field. If one happens, it makes a crater, but the grass grows back. Now and then, an explosion can happen, and it's no big deal. But if hundreds of hundreds of people start making explosions, you get a lot more craters. And as the craters build-up, there is less and less grass.
"Eventually, it could get so bad that nothing will ever grow again."
"Which, in this case, means the whole universe could end," noted Shikamaru.
"Seriously?" asked Naruto.
"Granted, that's a worst-case scenario," said Shikamaru. "The effects could be much more localized, limited to our own galaxy."
Sasuke sighed. "You know, I was hoping that the Uchiha Clan's screwups were limited to world-shattering events."
"Now hang on, Sasuke, you're going on too fast," said Sakura. "We don't even know which one it is. And it might be neither. Shikamaru, is there any way we could test it?"
"Yes," said Shikamaru. "In fact, I have an experiment prepare right now, if you'll follow me."
Shikamaru led them down into a secluded, circular room. In that room, there was what looked to be an energy shield. Within the energy, shield were two boxes, both closed.
"So, what's the plan?" asked Naruto.
"Alright, the first thing we have to consider is that size is a factor," said Shikamaru. "The Izanagi pulls on reality. If the reality it is pulling on is large, it could probably take more pull. If the reality is small, it might not be able to do anything.
"So, this is what we're doing to do. First, we're going to create a dimensional shield to create a subspace. We'll cordon off part of this room into a small reality of its own surrounding these two boxes. One of these boxes has a kunai in it, and one of them does not. When the timer goes off, both will open, and a kunai will be inside.
"Sasuke, once it does, you will use an Izanagi to alter it, so the kunai was in the other box.
"We'll be reading inside this dimension his entire time."
"Okay, why do you have all this equipment around?" asked Naruto. "I brought this up, like, two days ago."
"I calculated what could threaten you two and then prepared to fight it," said Shikamaru. "See, I figured one of the few things that could give you trouble is some sort of interdimensional horror.
"So creating a shield where you could reside in another dimension could help."
Silence.
"You know," said Sakura. "That actually makes sense. I have the Izanagi, Sasuke if you'll let me perform the operation. I'll need your consent, of course, new rules."
The operation was remarkably short and painless. Sasuke walked back into the room with two Izanagi eyes. Shikamaru was at a lever, standing by to pull it, while Naruto watched.
"Are you set, Sasuke?" asked Shikamaru.
"Ready and set," said Sasuke.
Shikamaru pulled the lever. Both boxes opened, and in the left box was a kunai.
"Left box," said Shikamaru, scribbling on a sketchpad. "Activate the Izanagi now."
Sasuke focused on his will and felt the power drain out of his left eye. As he did, his sight faded, and things changed. The boxes went blurry for a moment, and then the kunai was in the right box.
"Now it's in the right," said Sakura.
A moment later, however, the inside of the dimension began to shift and alter rapidly. The boxes were shredded to nothingness within it. For a moment, there was a gaping blackness tearing through space. Then, suddenly, it returned.
Naruto stared. "It's gone."
Nothing was there. Everything within the bounds of the dimension had vanished.
"Everything that was inside that shield has never even existed," said Sakura. "No air either. I don't recommend turning off this shield until we are out of the room."
"So why do we remember it?" asked Sasuke, now blind in one eye.
"Because that shield was a different dimension," said Shikamaru. "It doesn't operate on the same time axis, just an identical one. We can't lose our memories of it because it is technically not real anyway. Just a fantasy we made up, at least until we drop the shield."
"So what now?" asked Sasuke.
"Now, I need you to use the next Izanagi," said Shikamaru. "I want you to try and undo the fact that you used an Izanagi."
"Is that really a good idea?" asked Naruto.
"Our universe is so vast that we don't have to worry, Naruto," said Shikamaru. "Probably. Remember, that dimension was only about ten feet square."
"Right," said Naruto. "I'll get to work on my last will and testament."
"Don't both; it won't have ever existed if this doesn't go off," said Sakura. "Well, I've had enough coffee."
"Go," said Shikamaru.
Sasuke activated the other Izanagi, focusing on undoing the work of the previous one. As he did, he felt a twisting, and then he was blind. He'd have to get his old eyes back soon. "Did it work?"
"The boxes are there," said Sakura. "Though the terran is a bit rougher."
"Which one has the kunai?" asked Sasuke.
"...Both," said Shikamaru. "Sasuke, you can't see this, right?"
"Obviously not," said Sasuke. "Using an Izanagi kills your eyesight."
"Now, hold on," said Sakura. "The first Izanagi never happened at all. So logically, neither of them should have been usable. And why are there two kunai now?"
"I don't know," admitted Shikamaru. "But it is good news for us."
"What does it mean?" asked Naruto.
"It means that it may be possible to undo the effects of the Izanagis," said Shikamaru. "And, if we do it, we may avert a grandfather paradox.
"My main concern here was that by unraveling the snare we've set, we could write ourselves out of existence."
"You mean like if by unraveling the Izanagi we saved Mom's village, and she never comes to the Leaf?" asked Naruto. "So Dad and her never fall in love, and I'm never born."
"Right," said Shikamaru. "If we hadn't had a second kunai in there, we'd be in big trouble. We might have to delete everyone we'd ever known and loved to fix this. And it might be necessary to do it if the potential damage was great enough.
"From the looks of things, though, someone's looking out for us."
"Hold on a minute, Shikamaru; what about the eyes," said Sakura. "Both of them are still blank, aren't they? So there has to be some kind of cost."
"That's standard, though, isn't it?" asked Naruto.
"Yes, but these two tests show something. Just because an Izanagi erases an event doesn't mean it never happened," said Shikamaru. "You just shift it out of your present reality in favor of another. That is why the Izanagi is still gone; it's a kind of fixed point in time that you used it.
"Sasuke, has anyone done an experiment like this?"
"No," said Sasuke. "Ninja with Izanagis usually only use them as a last resort. Obito was only able to spam them because he stole Orochimaru and Pain's tech. If they hadn't handed him everything, he would never have made it past Shino.
"Obito was an absolute tool."
"Well, no one is arguing with that," said Sakura.
"I am," said Naruto.
"Shush," said Sakura. "The point is, what is the significance of the eyes?"
"Well, it means we may have a price to pay," said Shikamaru. "If we pull this off and restore the timeline, things might be as they are supposed to without losing the world. But we might get hit hard for doing it.
"Something out there can influence how an Izanagi turns out.
"So just as we can get the best of both worlds, we might also get the worst."
"Talk is cheap," said Sasuke flatly. "We can't cancel out an Izanagi."
"You just did," said Naruto.
"Think," said Sasuke. "An Izanagi allows you to rewrite an event within a given period of time. The longer the period you go back to cancel, the more chakra you have to burn. I just burned a decent amount of chakra for that, and it was seconds ago.
"Even if we wanted to fix this, we might not be able to.
"Let's say I want to go back in time and prevent Obito from save-scumming against Konan. I cancel his power. That's years and years ago, I'd turn into a withered husk just trying to go back a few hours ago."
"Which means," said Naruto. "We have to go back in time."
Oh, this was going to be fun. Now he just had one problem.
"Can I have my eyes back now, Sakura?" asked Sasuke. "I'm still blind."
"Geeze, fine!" said Sakura. "I'll give you your eyesight back! Why does everything always have to be about you, Sasuke!"
Nice to know the Team 7 dynamic remained as functional and well-adjusted as ever. He missed Karin.