"Why are you here."

"The love of my life dragged me along."

His interrogator grits his teeth and Sasuke doesn't event try to hide the upturn of his lips, relaxing back into his bonds as best he can. They've been at this for the past thirty or so minutes (that's if Naruto hasn't blown his internal clock like the war has a good portion of his bones) and it's actually been relatively easy for him. Because every question he gives a truthful answer for sounds like the most outlandish lie to this interrogator who believes him Izuna.

Where's your family? They were all killed by my elder brother.

Why did you target Hashirama? I didn't, I just fell.

Who do you work with? No one, really. I just get dragged along by the idiot.

Each answer is driving the other (a Senju? Given he'd apparently landed on Hashirama, then it's probably the safest bet) to a new point of fury. Sasuke wonders when he'll snap, when he'll lose all restraint and begin beating him. He's never actually been captured and held behind enemy lines, though some of his time spent with Orochimaru could probably count as such.

The mark on his palm pulsates, the Sage's chakra hammering away and still very much present. Because they sealed his chakra, but they sure as fuck didn't seal the Sage's. He's just waiting for the opportune moment to use it. It'd be just his luck for the chakra to have one setting and that setting be 'explosive'. Or, something along those lines. No, that can't be right; the mark is a link to Naruto and she's the luckiest son of a bitch he knows. Surely some of that good luck must rub off on him eventually, right?

Then again, if that's suppose to happen by proximity, he's failing uselessly. Hell, he's probably in the negatives.

He'll just have to spend as much time as possible with her to make up for it.

"-not like you to play purposefully stupid," the voice is further away; Sasuke can hear the creak of the door when he listens carefully. Looks like they're finally taking a break.

Whetting his cracked lips, he tilts his head to a side, straining to hear any further noise. No footsteps leading away but then his captor is obviously a ninja.

Sasuke wonders how much damage he did while blacking out from the 'tree-roots-it's-Zetsu-fucking-fight-or-flee-don't-get-caught' thing. Not his finest hour, but he's damn sure others will have freaked out just as much. And he's Uchiha Sasuke. His trauma card is full, he's more than entitled to a few mental breakdowns. Only, there's no Naruto here to patch things up (to patch Sasuke up) which means he needs to be gone now. Before they do lose their patience and resort to the war other clans deal with Uchiha prisoners back in the Clan War Era. Scooping out his eyeballs, for example.

Yes, his bedtime threats weren't entirely normal but, then again, when the age of those threats was long past, they didn't hold the weight they once did.

Well, Sasuke's fucking feeling that weight now. He likes his eyeballs right where they are, thank you very much.

He counts nine breaths, each one steady and slow, before he decides it's safe to start working towards an escape plan. While the Sage chakra is accessible to him, he doesn't want to use it, not yet. Not unless he has no other choice. And, at this moment in time, he does have one other option.

His years with Orochimaru hadn't been a complete waste of time. Dislocating some of his joints and then putting them back in isn't beyond his range of abilities and doing that with his hands had been the first thing he'd learnt.

It hurts like hell, it reminds him too much of the snake Sannin, who isn't even born yet; what the actual fuck, that thought is awful and he can only hope he and Naruto produce a kid capable of kicking the bastard's ass six way to Sunday seeing as he'll probably be too old to able to do it himself… no, they will produce a kid capable of kicking the bastard's ass; any kid they have will have all of Naruto's awesome and enough of Sasuke to balance out the idiot. Their kid will rule the world, that much is obvious. He just needs woo her into accepting him as a husband and then they're good.

She's it for him, if that wasn't already obvious.

Hands now worked free, Sasuke wiggles his fingers about, checking all is in working order, if a bit achy, before he sets himself to work with the rest of his bindings. Blindfold first, of course.

Luckily, the chakra repression seal is blatantly obvious, drawing across his chest, top unzipped to the navel to allow for it. At least the fuckers didn't break any of the teeth; he's had enough of others leering at his chest now. That's for Naruto's eye only.

Biting into his forefinger, Sasuke goes about disrupting the sealing matrix. He can't get it fully off of him without preparation time, but a quick patch-job that'll adjust the seal to only seal half his chakra will work. He'll only need half anyway. It's not like he's planning to fight the entire Senju Clan. Just the ones that try to prevent his escape.

And maybe whichever bastard had been interrogating him. He'll recognise him by voice, of that, Sasuke's sure. A half second later, he feels the familiar weight of his chakra flowing sluggishly through his veins. Right, he's not at full capacity, is he? With it all being locked up out of his metaphorical reach, he hadn't been too sure, but it's obvious now that his reserves aren't fully recovered.

.

Not even a second passes from his chakra surging through his body before the door is flung open and a significantly younger Second Hokage fills the frame.

Sasuke stares. Well fuck. Definitely Senju then, as if there were any doubt before.

He doesn't have his sword (bastards must have taken it), so Sasuke settles for body flickering away from the other, aiming a kick for his white hair. Lovely and light, it makes a good target in this darkness.

The speedy bastard ducks it; of course, he does. If Sasuke were still a genin (aka still a stupid idiot who cannot keep his eyes on the prize) then he'd be swinging back around for another go. As he's a former-missing-nin (no, Naruto, I'm not a genin, just because I never got a promotion doesn't mean you get to call me that and aren't you still one too), Sasuke stays on target.

He's out the door in the space of the two seconds that Tobirama had taken to step in, zipping down the corridor as his opponent appears just behind him. Sasuke doesn't take the corner, instead leaping at the wall and sticking a vertical landing with chakra aid. One hand points towards Tobirama, borrowing Itachi's favourite genjutsu trap when facing a Sharingan user. The misconception is they can only cast an illusion with their eyes. Itachi favourited a finger, but Sasuke much prefers the whole hand.

While Tobirama sees the illusionary Sasuke take off down the corridor again, Sasuke backtracks, running past the cell he'd been held in, ignoring the three others (no recognisable features, not Uchihas so not his problem) to continue powering up and out of the place.

.

Sasuke erupts from the building with all the force and determination of a pyroclastic flow. Not lava, because lava's slow as fuck unless it's a hot Kage spitting it towards you. Hey, he'd been in a revenge spiral and half-blind, not fully blind. Even he can recognise the Mizukage was very pretty. A shame he's all but taken. He just needs to make things official.

Senju all around his began shouting in alarm but Sasuke doesn't have time for all that. There's miles and miles between them, but he can sense Naruto's chakra signature. It's calm, she's probably sleeping. Clearly she landed somewhere better than he did. Then again, in this time period, there's nowhere that could have been worse for a Uchiha to land then right in the middle of the Senju encampment. He'll lucky he wasn't skewered on sight. Probably because of the multitude of injures he's already got. Ribs still broken but he can power through that for now. Wouldn't be the first time.

He ducks the first three kunai, swings around the tanto of one that comes at him and kicks the idiot in the face, repurposing the sword as his own weapon. He puts the next one down with the Lion Combo, something they've obviously never been exposed to before. Of course, all the ones coming at him expecting to see Izuna are in for a shock; Sasuke has seventy odd years on all of them with his jutsus. Speaking of which-

Chidori chirps to life in his hand, filling the compound with the sound of a thousand chirping birds. A quick application of shape transformation and the lightning needles are firing out, none with the intention to kill (Naruto'll pout at him) but to drive them off and back.

A man bursts out of the large house at the end of the street, likely the clan head (what with Tobirama looking younger than him and Sasuke's pretty sure there isn't a massive age gap between the two brothers so Hashirama probably isn't the Clan Head yet) which means it's time for him to scram.

Only, Garuda doesn't appear when he tries to summon him.

Swearing violently under his breath, Sasuke twists the stolen tanto in his hand to fend off the clan head, back-stepping as quick as he can, all the while his eyes scan the crowd for Hashirama. He's the main threat out of the lot and it's probably too much to hope the to-be Hokage is busy helping his brother. Speaking of, that genjutsu'll probably be wearing off soon and fuck, his ribs are hurting.

He rolls to avoid the boot that would otherwise slam into said cracked ribs (can't find Naruto if he dies of internal bleeding) and dips into the well of chakra in his stomach. There's not a lot, even less that he can actually use. Which, yeah, irritating. But, it's enough to give himself some breathing room.

Back tracking a few feet from the Clan Head, Sasuke thrusts a hand forwards, left eye spinning until it settles into the throbbing pattern he associates with the Rinnegan. He can see the other's eyes go wide with horror, probably at the sight of a 'new' Dōjutsu and, in the next second, they're all being flung away under the influence of Shinra Tensei. He's not got much chakra to hand, but enough to launch everyone around him away by fifty or so feet. Enough to give him the time to flee.

Twisting on heel, Sasuke makes for the clan wall, scaling it with ease, even as his limbs screech and scream and his ribs call for mercy. He doesn't have time for mercy though, he's out of the compound but not clear of it. There's still plenty of Senju about, all alive (damn Naruto, this'd be so much easier if she didn't have morals and puppy eyes and that cute little pout that says she's disappointed in you) and all beginning to clamber up to their feet. And to top things off, Senju Tobirama has just come vaulting out of Sasuke's previous escape hole, murder in his eyes and a flush to his cheeks that indicate he's managed to free himself from the genjutsu. Sasuke has zero intentions of sticking around to see just how well the Senju can fight as a team, not when he's running off fucking fumes and Naruto is still nowhere to be found, even as her chakra lingers at the edge of his senses.

But he's at the wall, he's home dry as long as he can outpace them.

Naruto's calling.

.

Sasuke turns around and sprints.

Right into Senju fucking Hashirama.

God fucking damn it.

.

"Madara told me all his brothers were dead, why would he lie to me?"

As good as Sasuke is, not even he can wiggle out of Mokuton bindings when the user is attached to the other end. Hashirama had been returning from a quick scouting mission when Sasuke'd slammed into him during his daring escape, and he'd reacted quickly enough to retain custody of the Uchiha. Now, he's got another chakra restraining seal slapped on him (this time across his shoulder blades in those awkward to reach places; probably shouldn't have proved himself a dab hand at Fūinjutsu) and Hashirama is still connected to the wood that's caging him in while they try to figure out if they've got him contained now.

They haven't, of course. He's still got the Sage's power lying in wait but a second escape attempt so soon may just prompt them to actual decapitate him and be done with it.

Then the Leaf Village will never form because Naruto'll break the Senju compound. Oh, she may not kill any of them, but the physical representation of humanity's rage collected over several millennia will most certainly push her towards doing some damage.

The Fox has a special place in his poisonous black heart for Hashirama and Madara, doesn't he? The two that'd either used him in battle or restrained him to be put in a human prison. Regardless, no Leaf Village, no future Naruto or future Itachi. The two people Sasuke actually gives a fuck about. Doesn't matter that one's MIA and the other decades away from being born. He's still got to take them into account when planning. Fuck, everything had been so much simpler when he didn't care. Why does he care again?

(Naruto's smile, her laughter, her sparkling eyes and 'I'll do whatever it takes to save you 'ttebayo' hits him like a haymaker)

Oh yeah, that's why he cares.

"I thought we bonded over shared trauma." And holy fuck is teenaged Hashirama a train-wreck to witness. He'd thought the grown man was bad with his black moods and spiralling depression during a single upset but this? Now this is a sight to behold.

He thanks every god (barring Kaguya because fuck her) that Naruto is a smiley idiot instead of a weepy one like this.

"I'm not Madara's brother." Just the thought is sickening. Yes, Sasuke is a little brother. Yes, he has an older brother who is also a Uchiha. But Itachi trumps Madara in every way possible. Full stop. Sasuke'll take no more questions.

In front of him, Hashirama sniffles, finally looking up with a pout on his lips.

"You're not?"

"No. Just like I've been trying to tell your stellar interrogator, I am not Izuna. I am not Madara's brother, I've never met this 'Tajima' guy; hell, I've never spoken to any of the Uchiha at this point!" Technically true. Obviously, he's spoken to (shouted at) Madara in the future, might have spoken to some of the younger generation when they're old bags after he's born but before the massacre. In his current present though? Sasuke's never spoken to any of them. Complete truth.

And, from the look on Hashirama's face, Sasuke gets the feeling the other can sense it too.

God, it's fucking weird to see him at the same age. He's not full grown yet, though already taller than Sasuke. The hair isn't the right length either, just brushing his shoulders. He's not the face on the mountain, not the portrait in the Hokage's office and-

The door bags open and the big guy comes striding in with Tobirama at his heels.

Hashirama's also not the Clan Head yet.

He doesn't know the head's name, never cared to learn the Senju tree as he did his own. Instead of greeting him by name as he'd like to, Sasuke makes eye contact, unable to use his Dōjutsu with his chakra sealed but the threat remains regardless.

"Uchiha." The man offers in return, face set in a hard line as he inspects Sasuke from the top of his dark hair to the tips of his toes (two of which are broken but like fuck is he gonna let on to that).

"Father, he's got three broken ribs." Motherfucker.

"And still managed to almost escape," the Head grunts, lips in a hard line and Sasuke offers his best Suigetsu grin back. He hopes it pisses them off as much as it used to piss him off.

"Not that you were the deciding factor in that," Sasuke taunts and gets a slap round the face for it. His jaw creaks with the effort of remaining in place and not shattering. Yeah, that wasn't friendly.

"Well fuck you too," Sasuke snarls, spitting the blood that pools in his mouth onto the floor, mindful of Hashirama's shoes. The only one who's been half decent so far.

He'll be the one he doesn't concuss on his way out.

"Not one of Tajima's boys, even with that face. They don't run their mouths like this."

Sasuke smirks, well aware of the blood still dribbling at the corner of his lips.

"Where's your family, Uchiha."

"They're dead," Sasuke repeats the same answer he gave his interrogator, who he's now relatively sure was Tobirama. "My elder brother was a prodigy, he killed them all in one night. I got home in time to see him murder my mother. He then tortured me for hours in a genjutsu, reliving his every move that night."

Hashirama fucking shudders, draws in a shaky breath and that's when Sasuke goes for the killing blow.

"I was eight."

"He's telling the truth," the future First wheezes, something so blatantly close to pity and sorrow and grief in his eyes. Were there ever any doubts that it's be this man who'd stop the fighting, who'd do it for the future and for children and for peace, they'd have died a swift death witnessing his expression today.

Ruthlessly, Sasuke continues onwards, eager to get to the point. "They were planning on picking a fight that would have destroyed us and there was no one my brother loved more than me. He killed them all so I'd live and made himself the enemy so as to not ruin my memory of them."

"I fail to see how your, admittedly tragic backstory has any impact on current events, barring your clear lack of association with the Uchiha Clan itself," Tobirama states, voice clear and emotionless. Sasuke's almost impressed- no, wait, he is impressed. Usually the backstory is either a tearjerker or a suckerpunch. It's been a while since someone's brushed it off like Tobirama has done. What a cold-hearted bastard. Everything Sasuke'd be aspiring to be if, you know, he wasn't in love. Utterly and completely in love. Undead Itachi was right, nothing's better than this.

On the other hand, he can certainly understand why Obito took a swan dive right into crazy town; if he loses Naruto, it won't just be the end of him, it'll be the end of the world through him.

Hell, he rather thinks the Kyūbi might even help him do it. Just shows how special she is.

"My point is," Sasuke states, head tilting to a side, one bang covering half his features, allowing that same crazed smile from the Kage Summit to slip across his face, "that Uchihas stop and nothing to keep the ones they love safe. And right now, the only fucking person who matters isn't beside me." Where I can keep her safe. It goes unsaid, but Sasuke reckons they hear him loud and clear anyway. And then, drawing on Kakashi's influence, he masks it all back up, relaxing into the restraints as much as he can.

"Tch, I hope you've not sent out a scroll telling the Uchihas you have Izuna or anything." From the grumpy look on Tobirama and Papa Senju's face, that's exactly what they did.

Sasuke laughs, delighted by the turn of events. Ha. They'll definitely know it isn't him, but maybe they'll be intrigued enough to make a play for him anyway. And in the chaos, he can go find his Naruto.

.

The Senju Head leaves after Hashirama reinforces his tree restraints and grounds them into the floor. Sasuke can feel him feeding the roots chakra from across the semi-permanent compound. Most of it had been tents, but there'd been a few buildings. Then again, if you've got Mokuton, Sasuke supposed you can set up shop wherever you care to do so. He wouldn't know; not like Tobi/Obito/That Fucker had been one for ensuring his minions' comfort.

Tobirama's the last to leave, eyes burning red in a way that remarkably unfamiliar to Sasuke, what with it not being the Sharingan that's flashing in the barely there light. Just red irises, that's all there is to it.

He wonders how many of Tobirama's clan have almost skewered him by mistake. It's probably why he keeps that shock of white hair uncovered.

Rolling his shoulders, Sasuke does his best to relax into the restraints, freezing as he feels warm warm warm chakra begin sleeping into his torso.

Tch, what a softie. He certainly won't turn down a distant healing session from the First Hokage though. He wonders if it were the backstory that got to him, or the guilt of his father's treatment of a prisoner. Either way, semi-healed ribs are better than broken ones, so Sasuke sits back and prepares himself for an uncomfortable wait.

"Izuna!"

Jolting, Izuna swears under his breath (near silent because he sure as hell doesn't want Father descending on him with his 'swearing is for commoners' and 'are you a descendant of our noble bloodline' speeches) and hastily begins to mop up the ink blot on the page. It's too late though; the sheet is ruined, ink bleeding through too quick to even make a real attempt at saving it. The only comfort he can take in Madara's thunderous bellow is that his dear brother is in charge at the moment and that, whatever he's messed up, his brother won't rip into him as much as their father would do.

The door slides open behind him with a bang, rattling the frame and the paper screen quivers but magically stands the abuse his brother heaps upon it. There's a wild look in Madara's eyes as he stares at him and Izuna stares back in equal measure. Completely forgetting about the brush he's holding and god damn it, now there's an inkblot on his pants.

And Madara's hands on his face.

Izuna keeps her face carefully blank as Madara turns his head this way and that, one thumb brushing over the scar at his temples, the one he'd given himself by accident trying to copy one of Madara's kunai moves. After an uncomfortable few seconds, Madara lets go of his face, his own twisting into a furious glower.

"The lying bastards."

Izuna gapes. Because where has that language come from?!

Despite his expectations, Uchiha Tajima does not descend from the heavens to wash Madara's mouth out with soap, leaving Izuna free to scramble after his brother without fear of blowing bubbles by association lacing his bones. Not that Father could catch either of them if they were really trying, but the point stands.

"Madara? What was that about?"

"The Senju sent a hawk, saying they had you and if we even wanted a chance to see you, we had to prepare for repercussions." Oh. Oh. His brother is steaming with anger.

But why the hell would they claim they had Izuna when they oh so clearly not? He thinks it over for a moment but, nope, still confused. Voicing the question in hopes his brother will have the answer doesn't clear things up.

It does, however, reveal there's a key flaw in their security.

"The Senju have Sasuke?!"

Izuna screeching in shock. But holy hell, that voice was loud, too loud and slightly raspy and right by his ear?

Flinching back and away (you know, like any good ninja would do, like Madara has done), Izuna pulls a kunai free (where's his sword? Because he needs to be carrying it around the compound, it would seem) and angles it towards the intruder.

It's the girl from yesterday. The time-travel one. The one that's supposed to be locked up with the other temporary prisoners.

The Uchiha very rarely take prisoners. They've got captives, people they're holding because of some mission or another, but they very, very rarely take ninja as prisoners. Izuna's never seen a female shinobi prisoner in his lifetime. Blonde girl here's the first.

"How did you get out!" Madara bellows, Sharingan spinning and look of stunned fury on his face. "You have suppression seals on!"

"Eh? These things? They burnt out about half an hour ago."

Burnt out? The only way to burn out a suppression seal is to so thoroughly overload it with chakra that it can't cope. Which, you know, seeing as your chakra is suppressed, you're not supposed to be able to do. You need a different kind of chakra to pop a seal like that and no Uchiha would be mad enough to go against Madara and help the girl out. Even if she is remarkably pretty.

"Burnt out- they were the strongest suppressors we had!" Madara hisses and Izuna can't decided if he's furious over the fact the girl could have easily escaped, or that they've lost two of their low supply of suppressor seals. Both. Both is the correct answer.

The girl unapologetically shrugs her shoulders, scratching lazily at the back of her neck before holding out a hand.

"Gimme the scroll thing they sent. I'll go get Sasuke."

"I'll go-"

"You can't just go get someone from the Senju camp!" Izuna cries, overrunning his brother's dazed parroting of the girl's words. That's- that's just not how it's done. Prisoner exchange doesn't happen like that. It goes through letters and seventy percent of the time; negotiations break down and prisoners get executed. Twenty percent of the time, they decided an ambush would be more beneficial. And the other ten percent usually gets fucked up by something else. It's just how things work around here.

He's getting the feeling the girl isn't from around these parts.

"Eh? Why not?"

"Because this 'Sasuke' is clearly a Uchiha, given they've threatened to scoop his Sharingan out."

"Then I'll just ask nicely! I think I can sense him anyway." And then she's making for the window.

Izuna shares a glance with his brother, an unspoken 'do we stop her' met by a 'I think we should let her try, worst comes to worst and she fails, we lose no one'.

Yet… Izuna just can't sit by, not when a girl just a little older than him is about to put herself in a whole lot of danger. Plus, it'll really upset the Senju if she does manage it. The chances are very small indeed, but it'd be kinda cool to see. He just needs to get Madara on board in the next five or so minutes before the girl is out of his sensory range.

Man, he doesn't even know her name yet!