Chapter 3: Changes

Konohamaru shifted in the bed realizing that the one he was curl up angst the night before wasn't there anymore. It took his mind a second to realize it, but when he did he instantly opened his eye and shot up. Looking around the room, sub-consciously making sure that he wasn't dreaming. His sudden moment caught up with him and Konohamaru lifted his hands to his head.

"OWWW!" He cried out, almost yelling as a sharp pain ran though is head, he forgot about his injury and though it had only been a day he was already getting annoyed at it. His skull had been pierced by the wooden stake, and he'd left before he could have the second operation to cover the hole. He almost regretted it….almost. He'd had a good day yesterday, and the pain seemed worth it.

Staying as still as he possibly could until the pain faded, Konohamaru finally climbed off the bed. Finding his pants neatly folded on a nearby dresser. The boy sleepy treaded out of the room, hearing the sound of rushing water from the bathroom, 'Sasuke must be taking a shower.'

With a shrug, Konohamaru thought about looking around, but didn't feel like it much. He was too tired to do so, it was only about 5 in the morning. from the window he could see the sun slowly starting to creep up over the horizon. Looking back toward the bed he found that he still had the same fear of sleeping that he had before, though he had no problem or fear last night.

Sasuke reached out, feeling around for a towel outside of shower. After a few empty handed attempts he finally felt one on the rack nearby, padding himself dry before wrapping it around himself and walking out of the bathroom.

He found Konohamaru missing from the bed room when he returned. 'Huh?', Sasuke got dressed, contemplating where the boy could have went. Hopefully not back to work on his house, if he wasn't there to limit what he tried to do. There was no doubt that it would be a repeat of yesterday.

"Hmm…" It made him think, Konohamaru really should go back to the hospital. He knew that they had to close the wound on his head, he wasn't sure if that type of injury would heal. At the most he knew it would take a long while.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a sound on the roof, 'Konohamaru.' He thought. He finished getting dressed and went outside, jumping on to the roof and not surprised to see Konohamaru.

He was laying with his hands behind his head watching the sunrise. Sasuke quietly walked over and sat down next to him, Konohamaru glanced at him then turned back to the view. Watching the sun turn the sky orange and the bottom of the clouds a light red. Behind them stars and the darkness of night still controlled half of the sky, the moon could still be seen setting over the opposite horizon.

Konohamaru opened his eyes again, not realizing that he'd fallen asleep again. With a small yawn he stretched his arms, noticing that his head was on Sasuke's chest and Sasuke was sleeping with his arm wrapped around him.

"Sasuke, wake up. We have to get to work before it rains again." Konohamaru shook his head to help wake him up. Sasuke opened his eyes, blinking as he looked down at Konohamaru who was smiling back at him.

Konohamaru sat up, lifting himself off of Sasuke who silently pulled himself to his feet. With a small agreeing grunt, Sasuke gave a small stretch, he looked down hearing his stomach growl loudly, Konohamaru looked at him a laughed. He wrapped his arm around Sasuke's waist and gently rubbed his stomach. "Let's go eat first."

He stopped when he herd his own stomach growling, a blush spread across his face and he rubbed his head. "What do you want to eat?" Sasuke asked.

"Why am I not surprised." Sasuke moaned, sitting at Ichiraku in the same seats they had lunch the day before.

"Don't tell me your going to order-"

"I wanna big bowl of Raman!" Konohamaru shouted, getting a sigh from Sasuke. Konohamaru was dressed in some of Sasuke's old clothing, at first it was just his blue shirt because Konohamaru didn't have one. But he thought he looked better if he took the white shorts that came along with it.

Sasuke didn't have an appetite nearly that big "Just rice."

"Huh? That's it?" Konohamaru asked, looking up at Sasuke then down at his stomach.

"I don't need that much." He replied stoically, Konohamaru looked down hungrily at his Bowl of Raman then up a Sasuke again. Who didn't notice him, or the smirk.

But he decided not to act on what he was thinking about, at lest not yet. Some how he found the thought of him feeding Sasuke more appealing then eating, Not to say Sasuke wasn't expecting Konohamaru to try and do just that, it had to be coming sooner or later. He knew Konohamaru couldn't resist doing it twice.

As soon as he was halfway finished his rice he felt the taste of surprisingly good Raman. Somehow he wasn't expecting it, instinctively he picked up some of the rice with his chopsticks and shoved it into Konohamaru's mouth.

Konohamaru laughed, picking up more of the noodles and aiming for Sasuke's mouth. He opened his own Mouth, awaiting the arrival of more rice before feeding more of the noodles to a passive Sasuke. He was enjoying this more then he intended to let on.

By the time they were finished, two more bowls of Raman were gone and both of them where completely full. Sasuke paid the bill and the two headed towards Konohamaru's house in a comfortable silence. They had some how grown attached to each other, Sasuke was trying to protect him and keep him out of situations too dangerous. And Konohamaru was about as loyal as anyone could get.

Sasuke used a rope thrown over the main support beam to pull the replacement beam up to the ceiling. From there it was Konohamaru's job to push it into place, holding one edge of the wood he eased it into the area where it needed to go. It wasn't easy though, the boy had to stretch his whole body outward to push it into place.

Sasuke tied the rope and head up to the roof wile Konohamaru held the hanging beam in place. Sasuke began to nail one side down while Konohamaru did the other side, and finally when it was secure Sasuke walked to the center of the beam. Adding more weight to his steeps until he reached the rope and untied it.

There was only one left when the two began to repeat the process for the final time. Sasuke tied the across the beam and threw the other half over the main support beam. Going about the increasingly hard process of pulling the beam up. "Sasuke did you hear that?" Konohamaru asked, still waiting for the unaligned beam to reach him.

"Hear what?" Sasuke asked.

"Hmmm….It must have been nothing." Konohamaru said dismissingly, watching as the beam finally got up to him. He reached out and just barely grabbed the beam with one hand. He almost fell when the same sound came again unexpectedly.

"That's it, that's the sound." Konohamaru said, it was the sound of metal and wood buckling. It was coming from all sides below them. They couldn't just drop what they were doing to see what it was. With a new sense of haste, Konohamaru pull the beam in to place while Sasuke tied the rope and came up to the roof. The sound came again, even louder then before.

Both of them moved faster, hurrying to nail down the beam and not really checking to see if was completely secure before they went to investigate the sound. The it was making Sasuke uneasy was because it was under them, and it kept getting louder…and louder…and louder. "It's coming from the basement…." Konohamaru said, treading carefully though the first floor.

"Wait….is that water?" Sasuke asked, hearing the familiar sound as they drew closer to the stairway into the basement. That same buckling sound came again, only deafeningly loud now, Konohamaru covered his ears. Just before the lights went out, leaving on the light from outside. Sasuke's eyes went wide as he realized what was happening, he grabbed Konohamaru's hand and starting running for the door.

Before he could take a step, the whole floor fell through at once. The falling slowed almost as fast as it started when the fallen floor landed in water from the basement, but it was quickly sinking. "Wha-Where did all this water come from!" Konohamaru shouted, by the time he said it, floor had fallen enough so that that water was up to his knees. Sasuke continued though the water at a slowed pace from the resistance.

In 5 steeps the water was up to Konohamaru's chest. Sasuke instinctively pick him, carrying him on his back before jumping out of the water and springing toward the door. "Sasuke!" Konohamaru shouted desperately, the grip of his arms around the other boy's neck tightened to make sure he listened.

"The ceiling's coming down!"

Sasuke looked up and saw the walls had major fractures that grew from under the water. He had a second to react, though he wasn't sure what his reaction would be. "Sasuke! Move back!" Konohamaru yelled in his ear being intentionally forceful. Sasuke landed in the water now up to his stomach, taking a steep back just as the ceiling finally came down on them.

Sasuke clinched his eyes tightly, expecting to be smashed or at lest. Instead it stop just above his head, this was one spot of the ceiling that was higher then the others. "Konohamaru, hold your breath." Sasuke said, commandingly. Konohamaru took a deep breath as Sasuke dived under the dark waters, swimming in the direction of the door.

He constantly dived deeper to stay below the ceiling but over the floor. It became apparent that he would have to blast his way though. He held his arm out, pressing his other hand against the extended one. "Chidori!" Sasuke shouted, or at lest tried to, it only came out as a muffled and distorted sound.

It was effective none the less, his hand began to glow with a energy that discharged like lighting as he charged it. The water became suddenly illuminated and Konohamaru could see what used be the second floor being broken apart and pulled seemingly in to the floor. There were two holes in the ground, one that was creating this water and another that was pulling some of it back, but it as taking in to much wood and debris to make much of a difference in the water level.

Sasuke just happened to be drifting toward the one that was pulling everything down. It was starting to pull him and he didn't even notice it. Konohamaru gave him a soft squeeze to get his attention, Sasuke looked back and Konohamaru pointed to the hole that was pulling them down. But it was too late by then, they were halfway down the narrow passage.

Sasuke scrambled ineffectively against the current, all he could do was used the Chidori to destroy the wood that surrounded them. It only made the current's pull stronger, the two were tossed and tumbled through the path, the only option to hold on.

Sasuke felt the wetness around him fade and his body involuntarily took a breath, thankful find that he was breathing air. Opening his eyes he was right outside of Konohamaru's house, which had sunk completely. In fact the ground under it had broke apart and fell through. Leaving only a short canyon filled with water.

The first thing he did was look back to see if Konohamaru was still there, not only was he there he had a near vice grip around Sasuke's waist. "Sasuke….Konoha…it's gone…" Konohamaru said in a terrified voice, letting go of Sasuke and standing to his feet.

The village was in fact gone, nothing more then very few patches of land that stood above the jagged cliffs and waters. Konoha had been completely destroyed by some unknown force, and they narrowly survived on a small patch of land, one of few.

Konohamaru stood in a daze, unable to believe what he was seeing. He looked down when he herd something surface from the water at his feet. It was a rock, a black stone with the same seal Naruto had on his stomach. It was stone used to concentrate Chakra, the Hokage who sealed the nine-tails used this stone to help him do it. It was concentration stone in the boy's hand still contained a strong amount of Chakra from the nine-tails, which had passed through the stone when being sealed, and from the Hokage who sealed the nine-tails. He had poured every last ounce of his Chakra in to it.

"This is all that's left." Konohamaru clinched the stone tightly, tears silently running down his face before the boy broke out into loud sobs, hugging Sasuke's waist tightly. Sasuke knelt down and wrapped his arms around him. He really couldn't say anything to him, Village had just been destroyed, and neither of them knew how.

Sasuke looked down into the sad brown eyes, suddenly feeling his Sharingan activating on it's own. "Sasuke….what's going on?" Konohamaru asked, as everything around them became a blinding white light and there vision of each other started to fade.

"I don't... know…." Sasuke couldn't explain the feeling, but it felt like everything was changing.

Konohamaru held on to him tightly, afraid to let go, afraid that if he did Sasuke would be gone. Sasuke held on to him firmly, some where in his mind he had the same fear, even if he didn't realize why he found himself holding the boy so tightly.

The light cleared away and the found themselves in the same place as the were before, only thing seemed to be back to normal. They were still in the center of town where the water had carried them and it seemed just as it always had been. " Was….was that real?" Konohamaru asked, still in Sasuke's arms.

It had to have been, there clothes were still wet and Konohamaru still had the stone in his hand. But their thoughts were broken up when they herd a loud and familiar voice in front of them.

"Are you alright Gaara" Naruto asked, They watched as Gaara fell to his knees, panting heavily.

"Just tired." He said, getting to his feet again, he looked more then tired.

Sasuke and Konohamaru watched as Naruto led him to Shikamaru's house nearby attempted to go unnoticed.

Now the focus was less on what had just happen, and more on what was happening now. And Sasuke wanted some answers. "Are you ok?" He asked, getting a nod from Konohamaru as the boy wiped the tears from his face as quickly as he could.

Sasuke and Konohamaru headed to Naruto's place before he got there. Konohamaru had to say the look on Naruto's face when he opened the door and found them standing there was priceless. "Sasuke! What are you doing here?" Naruto asked nervously.

Sasuke ignored the question "What is he doing here?"

Naruto walked in, Gaara following behind him. "I came looking for him. I didn't come to start anything." Gaara said plainly.

Sasuke leaned over the table, about to say something when Naruto came in-between the two. "Sasuke! He's telling the truth. Calm down already."

Sasuke looked at Naruto, then glared at Gaara, who looked away with out concern. "It was an order."

"What?"

"I it was an order for the Sand to attack this place. I just recently found out that Orochimaru killed the Kazekage my father and took his place. That's why we attacked Konoha, and that's why I did what I did."

Sasuke froze for a moment, finally he sat back down and folded his arms. Looking over at Konohamaru, who had fallen asleep in his chair. Shifted between the two, seeing that the tension was gone, but Sasuke still had one more question.

Konohamaru managed to pull himself out of the light sleep, he wanted to stay awake for this.

"Today…something strange happened. I wanted to know if you two saw it or not."

"Saw what?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke explained what happened to both of them, and could tell they knew something by the look they gave each other. They had the proof to show that it really happened, what ever it had been. "We may have had something to do with it." Gaara told him, still trying to piece together what happened to Sasuke and what they had just been through, there was an obvious connection.

"How?"

Naruto and Gaara explained about Gaara's time control, and the events that they had caused. The last one was the one of interest, Gaara, Shikamaru and Naruto had invertedly caused the destruction of Konoha. Sasuke and Konohamaru had witnessed it, and some how the power of his Sharingan allowed both of them to see and go through the changes.

By the end of all of it, Konohamaru couldn't keep his eyes open. He finally fell asleep, his head landing on Sasuke's lap.

With a sigh, Sasuke picked up the boy.