Chapter Ten
Naruto took over for him.
"Obito had been meddling with powers he didn't understand, courtesy of the white Zetsu that Madara used to heal him. Everything he did led up to his final play. He released a goddess. One that had been locked away by the Rikudo Sennin. Kaguya. And in return, she destroyed the world, Konoha included. Sasuke and I, being the descendants of the sage's sons, and their current reincarnations, managed to defeat her. But everything was gone. Shikamaru and I had created a jutsu in our grief, but baa-chan had forbidden us from using it. We used the jutsu and arrived in this time the day of team assignments."
*/*
Silence followed Naruto's revelation, their two other teammates staring at the couple in shock, while the couple stared back at them, impassive.
After a moment, Kakashi spoke, voice soft, almost hesitant, in manner so unlike himself.
"And your younger selves?"
His youngest student pursed his lips.
"As we figured it, they're not dead but rather they've merged with us. So I'm both Naruto Uzumaki as he is in the future as well as how I was when I was actually thirteen. The difference is that we know what to expect, we have our full arsenals, and time to gather more power before the true threats arise."
Sasuke nodded in agreement, wrapping an arm around his husband's waist.
"As far as you know, we haven't changed. We are the same people we were when we joined this team, just now you know why we don't match our reports."
Sakura bit her lip, eyeing the arm around the blonde's waist with some trepidation.
She had long since wondered why Sasuke and Naruto seemed so much closer, especially when only days before graduation they'd seemingly hated each other. Still she remembered the day of team assignments, how Sasuke had glared at them all for daring to yell at the kitsune, and how with just a few words, Naruto had spared them from the Uchiha's wrath. She had suspected that maybe they were secretly friends, but this, as unlikely as it was, made a lot more sense.
It explained why prior to graduation, her crush hadn't been as protective, nor had he and Naruto had their secret glances and codes.
However, it also made her wary.
For so long, she'd built her life around her crush on Sasuke, yet hearing what he'd done to Naruto, how he'd used the love they shared against him, it made her stomach turn. Worse, she couldn't even say that she couldn't picture him doing that because she could. The Sasuke she remembered before graduation focused on gaining power, on being the very best, and that he would betray those closest to him hurt, but it didn't surprise her.
Damn, what did that say about her?
She shook her head, before giving a decisive nod.
She would become better, and work to help her teammates make a better future.
And, she glanced at the couple beside her, taking in the warmth and regret in their oldest teammate's eyes as he gazed at their youngest, if she had to kick his ass to make him stay, she would.
*.*
Loss.
As he stared at the two young men sitting across from him, all he could feel was a profound sense of loss.
After suffering through the horrors of the Third War, he had hoped to spare more children from suffering and after becoming a sensei, he had prayed that his students never see it.
Call him naive, but he'd hoped that his students would never see the true face of war, would never be forced to see the brutal reality of it.
He'd failed.
He could see it in the shadows lurking in Naruto's gaze, the half-healed betrayals and grief. In the shame and anger lurking in Sasuke's.
These weren't boys, nor were they genin.
They were men.
Soldiers in a way that their fellow genin had yet to experience.
He swallowed thickly, biting back the burn of bitter tears with years of expertise.
"What can we do?"
A truly demonic smile crossed Naruto's lips.
"We train."
The duo felt a trill of terror race down their spines, especially at the pitying look Sasuke sent their way.
Why did it feel like they were going to regret this?
*/*
Naruto...was a monster.
Sasuke shook his head in pity as his lover ran them through the ringer, the glow of his time-suspension seals lighting the clearing in front of them.
In the three days that had passed since they'd told Sakura and Kakashi about their past (future?), the former rokudaime had been training them using a mixture of the Makai styles and the combination style of the Shinobi Alliance.
He'd also been helping them process what they'd told them, having assured Kakashi that while the seals were active, time moved at a much slower pace within them than it did outside them. They'd spent nine hours every day of the past three days within the seals, the equivalent of eighteen months passing with in them.
It had helped.
Sakura was now at a low chunin level of capability, while Kakashi had surpassed what he'd been capable of as an ANBU captain. He, himself, having been working with Naruto every night since the Bell test had also surpassed his future self.
Then there was Naruto.
Naruto, who was training them, and himself. Whose nightmares had returned with a vengeance after they'd told their teammates.
Who was working himself into exhaustion in an effort to escape them.
Who, even now, as they sat at Tsunami's dinner table, was staring at his food in contemplative silence, oceanic gaze darkening with each passing moment.
It made him yearn to pull the other into his arms, reassure him that everything would be okay.
Just as he moved to do just that, Inari stood, slamming his hands on the table forcefully.
"Why are you even trying?! He's just going to kill you!" The child snapped, and the blonde looked up at him.
"Sit down...and eat your dinner."
"You're not my dad!" He responded, dark eyes flashing with an untold pain. "You're just some wannabe hero that's gonna get yourself and everyone around you killed! You don't know anything about our suffering!"
Sasuke felt his blood boil at the child's words, seeing the way they callously raked across the blonde kitsune's worst fears. The was those blue eyes dulled in remembered grief.
He wanted to yell, wanted to curse the boy, and yet all he could do was watch as his lover calmly set his chopsticks down and stood, walking from the room on silent feet.
"Sasuke," He turned to Kakashi, who was watching him with compassion and anger. "Go after him."
He nodded, sending another glance back at the child that had so unknowingly ripped open the wounds he'd spent the past few months trying to close.
Deep down, he couldn't help the tiny insidious voice that whispered perhaps Naruto shouldn't be trying to save them. Maybe then the blonde would suffer just the slightest bit less.
He doubted it.
*/*
"He's planning to kill you both."
Haku spun around wide-eyed, Zabuza's hand reaching for his blade as the voice sounded, finding themselve's face with the vicious blonde genin from Kakashi's squad.
The boy leaned casually against the wall, not a weapon in sight, watching them impassively as he'd merely been talking about the weather.
Zabuza snorted at his words, his grip on kubikiribocho tightening. "Kakashi? Heh, I doubt it. You K-"
"Gatou."
Haku's eyes narrowed. " Why should we believe you? Gatou is our employer and you are our enemy. You could be simply trying to dissuade us from completing our mission."
The blonde shrugged. " I could be. However," -He pulled out a sealing scroll and passed it over to them,- "this proves differently."
Cautiously, the ice nin ran his chakra over it, checking for traps. Upon finding none, he passed it to his master, who opened it to find it was a simple storage seal. Sending the brat another glance he, ran a bloody thumb over it, grunting as its contents landed on his stomach.
Upon regaining his breathe, he took a look at it and froze.
A young bandit sat atop him, bound and trembling, dark eyes wide with fear.
"Please don't put me back! Please! Please!"
"Tell him who sent you." The blonde crooned and the bandit stiffened, his trembling worsening at the sound of the boy's voice.
"Lord Gatou! It was Lord Gatou! Please!"
Zabuza glanced at Haku, who was glancing between the boy and the bandit with something dangerous in his gaze.
"What are you proposing we do, Kid?"
The blonde's eyes flashed the same deadly crimson as before, lips curling into a terrifying snarl.
"We can split the profits in three."
The demon barked out a laugh, his blood boiling even as he shoved the crying bandit off of him.
Something was telling him that he would end up really liking this kid.
TBC...
