Sasuke had always been an intelligent child. He had definitely noticed the sense of déjà vu he always felt at the strangest of times. When he saw a clansman use a fire jutsu; when he sees his brother's Sharingan. He always felt as though he was forgetting something; like he was missing something important.
Sasuke had always ignored this strange feeling. He did ask about it briefly in the most inconspicuous way possible, only to find out that no one else had ever felt this way. No one was supposed to.
Sasuke grew attached to his older brother. He always had this unexplainable fear of losing Itachi. Hence, he always tried to spend as much time with him as possible. To make his brother more and more attached to himself in turn. He never despised his brother for being stronger. He never despised Itachi for being the prodigy he never was.
He did not bother to ponder upon this, just believing that he loved his brother too much to ever hate him.
Their father, however, was a different matter altogether. Fugaku always compared Sasuke with Itachi, telling Sasuke that Itachi had accomplished something at Sasuke's age when Sasuke always failed at it or was nowhere near able to do it. Although his father's behaviour infuriated him, he was just happy that his brother was not neglected. He felt as though as long as Itachi was treated well, his own treatment mattered not.
Then came the time that he was to enrol in the academy. His father did not wish to attend his entrance ceremony, his brother had an important ANBU mission. He was sure that no one would be there to support him. Although saddened, he kept in his tears. To his complete and utter surprise, Itachi ditched his ANBU mission, dragging their father along to attend the ceremony. He used the rule that at least one of the new academy student's guardians or parents must attend the ceremony as an excuse for this.
Sasuke arrived early, seating himself on the swing in the courtyard as he waited for his future classmates to arrive.
Naruto strolled toward the academy in the bright orange jumpsuit, arms propped at the back of his neck as he ignored the numerous stones tossed at him by the hateful villagers. It was not like the flying projectiles hit him anyway. He used seals as a method to give himself an almost-perfect defence, deflecting attacks with invisible but concentrated chakra once it is within one inch of the user's body. It makes it look like the attacks hit the person although they did not so much as scrape him. Naruto used nature chakra for this, to infuse nature chakra into any person who he decides to should they come too close. This would permanently turn the person into a stone statue. Moreover, using nature chakra to power the seal also saves him from having to constantly use his chakra to keep the seal active. It would also prevent him from being killed should he ever be passed out from chakra exhaustion, regardless of how unlikely it was to happen.
Naruto did, after all, now have chakra reserves that rivalled Matatabi, the two-tailed bijū's.
He arrived at the courtyard in the academy, ignoring the glares from the few civilians entering their children into the academy that had arrived early. He scanned the crowd, hoping to find Indra's transmigrant. He clicked his tongue at the hopeless excuses for shinobi before his eyes settled on a boy with dark hair that was tinged with blue, much like Madara's. His hair, however, was flat at the front with a straight fringe but spiked up behind, giving the appearance of the butt of a duck.
Uchiha Sasuke.
Naruto approached the boy, whose cheeks were flushed by his brother's teasing as he slapped his brother lightly on the hand when he pinched his cheek. Naruto stopped a few feet away from the boy, allowing a small smile to find its way onto his face.
He has found Indra.
Said boy was rubbing his cheek as he looked up to see a blond boy standing not all that far away from him. For some reason, he felt a connection to this boy. He felt as though he knew him before, as though they were brothers. Sasuke shook his head slightly. That was not possible. They shared no blood between them.
Sasuke was an Uchiha! The other boy was probably a commoner! They could not possibly be brothers. Their hair was too different!
Nonetheless, Sasuke got up from where he sat. He walked up to the boy, allowing a small smile to grace his lips. It was a kind smile, one that he had only allowed Itachi. He did not know why, but he just felt as though he knew this boy all his life. He felt like he could trust him with his life. Sasuke did not recall meeting this boy before, yet he felt like he knew him.
"Uchiha Sasuke. Nice to meet you," Sasuke said warmly, holding out his hand for the boy to shake as he ignored the looks of shock he received from the civilians.
"Uzumaki Naruto. It's a pleasure," the blond replied with an equally sincere smile, clasping Sasuke's hand with his own.
They shook on it.
Sasuke felt a light spark between their hands, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu. He turned to glare at the villagers around them, feeling an oddly disjointed sense of protectiveness wash over him. He shielded Naruto slightly from the pointed glares the civilians aimed at the blond who as far as he knew, did nothing to them.
"Uchiha-sama, get away from the demon! He will hurt you!" a woman with brown hair shouted.
Naruto scoffed at that, "Me? Hurting Sasuke? Like you are to talk. You hurt an innocent three-year-old. What's to say you will not harm him?"
Although Sasuke was slightly shocked by Naruto's immediate usage of first name terms without honorifics and the sudden revelation that the woman, who seemed like all bark but no bite, had harmed a child who was still three. Sasuke shook it off and glared at the offending civilian.
"Are you trying to order me around?!" Sasuke asked menacingly.
The villager shook her head vigorously, scuttling away, back to her son.
Itachi shook his head slightly, ruffling Sasuke's hair and smiling at Naruto.
"Hello, Naruto-kun," Itachi said kindly.
"It is nice to finally meet you face-to-face, Itachi-san," Naruto replied.
"I can say the same," Itachi replied with an incline of his head, his face not betraying his emotions as thoughts and theories of how Naruto had noticed his ANBU guard whirred through his head.
Fugaku only watched his sons interact with the infamous village pariah. Although he pitied the boy and wanted to help alleviate the suffering of the son of his best friend, he could never lift a finger due to the council breathing down his neck. It only got worse when the Hokage and his advisors seemed to have caught wind of the Uchiha coup.
Fugaku could only hope that his sons were not hurt by the foolish ideas of the village.
"Indra..." Sasuke heard Naruto mumble under his breath.
"What?" Sasuke questioned in confusion, wondering if he heard the other boy correctly.
"Nothing important," Naruto said dismissively.
Sasuke only shrugged, dropping the subject.
Soon, the other students filed into the courtyard and the academy sensei, a man named Umino Iruka began to speak.
"Greetings. I shall be your primary educator in the academy. My name is Umino Iruka and I would expect you to do as I say as long as you are in my class. Am I understood?"
There was a chorus of, "Yes, sir!"
The tanned brunet began to give a long speech about how the students must be determined and have ambitions and a whole lot more about what it means to be a shinobi as well as how they were not starting jutsu-training until later. He also spoke about how ninjutsu was not the most important part of being a ninja.
Naruto, or Asura, just tuned all of it out, having been the first one to first pass down all of this knowledge as the Shodaime Hokage. He did found the whole village, after all. He soon saw the other students leaving, following by leaving the academy as well. He strolled along the path to his home, beside the Uchiha also returning home from the ceremony. Their silence was slightly awkward.
"Oi, why are you following us? You should be going home!" Sasuke scolded.
Both Itachi and Naruto showed puzzlement at that remark.
"The place I live in is in this direction," Naruto said in a slightly annoyed tone while Itachi said at the same time, "He lives there."
"Wait. You live in the Uchiha compound?" Sasuke asked warily.
"No!" Naruto said, agitated.
"So you're stalking us?!" Sasuke exclaimed, his eyes bulging.
This made Naruto blink before finding a corner although they were in the middle of a large field, crouching down and getting a stick that the Uchiha group had no idea where came from. He started drawing in the dirt as a large depressing miniature raincloud appeared above his head and started to thunder.
"Sasuke thinks I am a stalker... What will he do to me? Will he kill me? Or worse!?" Naruto mumbled as he sulked in the corner he made for himself.
This made large sweat-drops appear above the heads of his onlookers. Sasuke however, jumped up to knock him in the head.
"Baka! I won't do anything to you, just get up!" Sasuke yelled.
"So I won't become your sex slave?" Naruto asked, teary-eyed and as innocently as possible.
"No! Of course not! Do I look gay to you?!" Sasuke shouted out in shock.
"You reject all the girls. You don't even talk to them. Then you walked up to me and smiled. Was I supposed to think otherwise?" Naruto replied drily with all the blunt facts, not bothering to sugarcoat his words.
This made Sasuke sputter as he flushed bright red while Itachi only chuckled at his otōtō's plight. Although Sasuke did feel a sense of déjà vu at the words that the other boy spoke, he was too busy trying to suppress the furious blush on his cheeks.
'His reaction is exactly the same!' Naruto snickered internally, recalling his first meeting with Madara when the very same events have played out.
Even Kurama burst into full-blown laughter at the poor transmigrant of Indra.
Fugaku, too, could not help but smirk slightly at that. The boy had rejected all the girls that had so much as approached him! Even Mikoto and Fugaku had been worried and preparing to approach the boy about the matter. Sasuke definitely had this coming.
"No! Of course not!" Sasuke finally managed to stutter out desperately, still unable to will away the red that stained his fair cheeks.
At that, Naruto just could not help but burst into a fit of giggles, tearing slightly at how funny he found the reaction. It was better than Madara!
Seeing Naruto laugh at him openly only embarrassed him further. He flushed a deeper shade of red, if possible, practically the same colour as that of his favourite tomatoes. Steam started to puff from his ears as he whacked the other boy on the shoulder with all the strength he could muster.
"Shut up!" Sasuke hissed.
"But.. But... Your reaction... It was priceless! You should've seen your face!" Naruto managed out, finally ceasing his laughter and wiping away his tears.
This made Sasuke even more upset, he kicked Naruto in the shin, purposefully throwing his whole body weight into it.
"Ow!" Naruto yelped, rubbing at where Sasuke had kicked him.
"Ha! You deserved it!" Sasuke retorted, sticking his tongue out as the redness finally receded.
'I'm glad I took a video of the whole thing! Seals are useful!' Naruto thought to himself.
"Same here, Asura. Smart move," Naruto heard Kurama say with a wide smirk.
'I know, right?!' Naruto crowed back.
"Anyway, Naruto-kun lives there," Itachi interrupted Naruto's conversation with Kurama unintentionally, thinking that Naruto and Sasuke had been staring blankly at one another, as he pointed at the mansion-like compound beside the Uchiha one.
"Oh," was all Sasuke could say, his ears burning red.
"Anyway," Naruto said, "I'll be going. See you soon, Itachi-san, Fugaku-san, Sasuke."
Naruto vanished from his spot.
That was the day Naruto, or Hashirama or Asura, met Uchiha Sasuke, the latest transmigrant of Indra.
Sasuke sighed as he dragged himself from the academy, barely nodding at Naruto as he left. Iruka had been giving a whole lot of boring speeches on various topics that he had already learned. He seemed to never pause, even for so much as an intake of breath. Naruto had waved back, though he was giving Sasuke an odd look. Something akin to pity?
Sasuke did not think much of it, continuing on his way back home. He passed a lamp post, swearing that he saw the silhouette of a masked person. However, it vanished when he rubbed his eyes to clear them. He assumed that it was only but a hallucination. And so he continued walking in the direction of his compound.
As he walked, he noticed that the compound was strangely dark and silent. It was normally bright and bustling with life at almost all hours of the day. This rung some warning bells in his head. Sasuke ignored his urge to run away, escape and save himself in favour of running toward the compound.
Sasuke headed straight for the main house owned by the clan head, his home. Sasuke carefully set down his shoes next to those of his parents and older brother, walking into the house. He went towards the living room where his parents usually were when he came home from school.
"Tadaima, tou-san, kaa-san," Sasuke said as he entered the room.
He looked around. The room was empty, with no sign of his parents.
"Tou-san? Kaa-san?" Sasuke called out desperately.
That was when Sasuke heard a muffled shrill scream. Sasuke instantly knew whose it was. It was his mother. The boy ran in the direction of the sound, swinging doors open and going as fast as he could.
Sasuke finally came to a set of doors. He threw them open after hesitating for only a second. He entered the room only to be greeted by a painful yet unbelievable sight. Itachi was clutching a katana that had been run through a body.
Upon closer inspection, Sasuke found out that it was his father, Uchiha Fugaku. Itachi pulled the katana out, splattering the blood from the blood-soaked blade onto the walls.
"Nii-san? What... What is this? What happened to tou-san and kaa-san? Who did this?" Sasuke asked as his voice turned angry toward the end.
Itachi opened his eyes to reveal his fully matured Sharingan, "Foolish otōto. I did it."
Sasuke could just barely see the faint trails of tears on his older brother's cheeks.
"Wrong question. Who made you do it?" Sasuke noticed his voice turn from angry and frustrated to a deadly calm, eerie and frightening.
Sasuke suddenly felt an influx of memories.
He was Indra, the elder son of Otsutsuki Hagoromo. He was the prodigy, the better if his father's sons, the stronger one. He was also the one that thought humans incapable of peace, believing that peace can only be achieved by force. He recalled the time when his father had chosen his useless younger brother, who had had a sudden improvement, to be his successor instead of himself. Although he felt saddened by the fact that he was not chosen, almost betrayed, he did not intend to do anything about it.
That was when darkness seemed to latch onto his heart.
Indra barely noticed, finding that he suddenly hated his precious little brother, who he had always loved despite his lack of talent. He found that he wanted to kill Asura to get the position of their father's successor. He was unable to stop himself. He had found himself threatening his younger brother, demanding a duel with the position of the successor as the only stake between them.
The brothers had fought for a full seven days and seven nights, Asura completely confused by Indra's behaviour and trying to snap him out of it to no avail. Asura finally had no choice but to knock his brother out, winning the fight. However, he probably lost his brother's trust. He had done it despite that, simply because they were close to destroying a civilian village.
Indra was outraged, even he failed to understand why. Unknowingly, his chakra and soul did not leave the world when he died. He passed on his hatred for his brother to his children, forming a rivalry between the Uchiha and Senju clans. Asura, also with his brother's strong chakra, did not leave the world either. However, his goal was to protect the world from his brother and possibly turn his brother around onto the right path. To do this, they both transmigrated into their descendants.
Indra had never let Asura persuade himself that his doings were wrong. He was always too blinded by the darkness, by the hatred.
They continued passing on and returning in the firm of their descendants. It went on, at least until Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama. They met as children during the clan wars, hiding their clans from one another only because of pure instinct that told them that doing so was for the best.
They met while Madara had been fruitlessly trying to skip a stone across the river. Hashirama had watched him continue to do this for a while until the black-haired boy finally gave up and threw a stone into the water. Hashirama had smiled at that as he decided to skip a pebble across the river to land in front of Madara.
Seeing that someone else had done something that he could not, he frowned in frustration.
"What did that poor rock ever do that on you?" Hashirama had asked the boy, his head cocked to the side.
Madara had spun around to glare at him. The voice was foreign, so was the owner. He had dark brown flat, straight hair styled in a bowl-cut and dark brown eyes that seemed to be almost black. He wore a green yukata and had a goofy smile on his face. Madara thought that the other boy was mocking him. He stood up slowly, dusting off his navy blue yukata and discreetly picking up a stone.
Madara proceeded to throw the stone with impeccable aim, hitting Hashirama in the forehead, exactly on point. He could not help but smirk as the other boy fell dramatically onto the floor clutching his forehead that bled slightly and had a large purple bruise already flowering on his clear, lightly tanned skin.
"Ow!" Hashirama yelped, curling up into a ball.
"You deserved it! Baka!" Madara yelled as he kicked Hashirama in the back of the head, ensuring that there was not enough force to knock the boy out.
"Please don't kill me! You can do whatever you want with me! I'll do as you say! Though I would rather not become your concubine..." Hashirama pleaded as he shrunk away from the other boy.
"What? Why would I want you as my concubine when I already have plenty of girls throwing themselves at my feet?" Madara asked in confusion.
Hashirama merely shrugged and jumped back up, his bruise magically vanishing along with any semblance of fear.
"Who knows? I guess you just seem the type," Hashirama said nonchalantly, flicking some dust off his sleeve.
This made Madara flush bright red, even up to the tips of his ears.
"What the hell?! You are really such a baka!" Madara yelled, trying to tilt his head in a way that the other boy did not see his reddened cheeks.
He did not notice that his cheeks were not the only ones heated up by his embarrassment. His ears were red too. Hashirama chose not to comment on the sudden colour in Madara's pale complexion.
"You don't just say that!" Madara screeched as he knocked Hashirama hard in the head.
"Hey! What was that for?!" Hashirama whined.
"For being an arse!" Madara retorted.
They both broke out into laughter.
"I'm Hashirama, just Hashirama," the Senju introduced, leaving out his clan name.
"And I'm Madara, just Madara," the Uchiha followed suit, not pressing for the clan name of his new friend in hope that the other would not ask for his own.
They shook hands.
That was their first meeting. They had many more after that, discussing various topics including methods to achieving peace.
It was fun and enjoyable, at least while it lasted.
One day, both were tailed by their younger brothers, who each reported their sighting of their older brother meeting up with the enemy clan heir to their respective fathers. When the boys found out that their fathers were going to be following them, they decided to meet up again at the river. Not to fool around, not to train. This time, they were going to warn the other.
Both boys wrote notes on the pebble they threw to their friend. The messages were similar. "Run!" and "It's a trap!".
Both boys bolted away immediately, not expecting their fathers and brothers to confront one another. They stopped and turned back, barely managing to intercept the shuriken that their fathers were aiming for the other's son with their own. They managed to deflect the blades and jumped in front of their respective brothers.
"I'm sorry, Hashirama. I would wish to continue being friends with you, but you are a Senju. My brother comes first, followed by my clan. However, you are still a close third. I would choose you if my brother would not have been involved. I only wish that our foolish delusions of peace could have lasted longer..." Madara said with grief evident in his voice.
"I'll have to say the same, Madara. I'm sorry. I do not think that our plans were stupid! We should still work toward it in our own ways!" Hashirama declared with conviction.
"If you say so," Madara replied, barely suppressing his small smile.
They went their opposite ways, having the occasional skirmish whenever they met. However, it was nothing personal. Their fights were practically spars, only done because of their commitments to their clans. They bore no ill-will toward one another and their respective brothers. However, their brothers did not feel the same about their counterparts and were rivals much like the rest of their clans. The two truly hated the opposing clan.
Then came a battle that Madara and Hashirama were unable to avoid. The two had risen through the ranks through the years of their commitment to their clans, never showing any love for the other despite seeming neutral about the opposing clan. They had become the commanders of their armies and were leading their final charge. The two were forced to battle for the honour of their clans, ending in the win of the Senju as Hashirama did his best to keep the death count to a minimum.
The two agreed on the creation of a village, solely for the protection of those who wished for peace. They returned to their clans, only to find out that they had been given the title of clan head. Both their fathers had died in the war.
As clan heads, Madara and Hashirama formed a shaky treaty between their clans. They eventually decided on what to name their village and began construction of it with Hashirama's Mokuton. The use of his bloodline sped up the rate of construction, raising a whole village in the middle of a large clearing made by Madara. Hashirama then made large walls around the village, leaving one side as the mountain where they had first found the place and named it. Madara was the one to set up the seals.
The village enjoyed a brief period of peace until the other villages that had popped up after the creation of Konoha declared war. During the war, Izuna fell ill from an incurable disease. None of the medics in the village had any knowledge of the disease, and they were unable to help him. Izuna gave Madara his eyes before he died, making his brother promise not to dwell over his death.
The death of Izuna broke Madara. He had clung to him as his only safety line for so long, ever since their other brothers had perished in the clan wars. Madara was swallowed by the darkness, the Uchiha curse of hatred that he had held off for so long. Madara found the Naka Shrine and read the tablet. He concluded that the only way for him to enact peace was to re-enact the Tsuki no Me, the very same way Ōtsutsuki Kaguya had placed the world within her control and ended the war the world was in. Although it sounded almost noble, all he wanted was to see Izuna again. The Tsuki no Me was an extremely strong and unbreakable genjutsu that also allows all victims to see what they wanted to see most, allowing them to "live" perfect lives.
Madara left the village under the guise of death, collecting a sample of his ex-best friends DNA before leaving to accomplish his goal.
Madara had found a young Uchiha half-dead near his base after he had managed to unlock the rinnegan using Hashirama's DNA. He moulded the young boy to his goals to make the boy carry out the parts of the plan that he was incapable of accomplishing. Madara died after leaving Obito to do his part, having been almost dead due to old age anyway.
Indra found the errors in his ways and had finally found the answer to the peace he had been searching for so desperately. Both Asura and Indra were right in their ways of achieving peace, however, both of their ideas were but parts of the bigger picture. Power is necessary to make humans fear war, however for the peace to last, the humans must understand one another and become close to their possible enemies such that none would wish to attack the other. This was possibly the only way to achieve long-term peace.
Sasuke felt as the memories rushing through his brain stopped flowing, locking his eyes with Itachi's. He noticed Itachi activate his Mangekyō Sharingan, placing him in Tsukuyomi to show him how his clan was killed. When it ended, Itachi began to talk.
"That's how I killed everyone," Itachi said, his tone neutral.
"No..." Sasuke whispered.
Itachi didn't react. He only shot a hand up to wipe the tears off his face before Sasuke could see.
"Why?" Sasuke asked, trying to find out why Itachi would kill off the clan.
"I merely wanted to test my power," Itachi replied smoothly, not realising what Sasuke had meant.
"So that you could test your power?" Sasuke echoed.
"You would be willing to kill everyone just for that? What was the point in killing the children?" Sasuke continued to ask when Itachi failed to react.
"It was necessary," Itachi replied calmly, his expression stoic.
"Bullshit."
"The only reason why I continued to act as the brother you desired was that I wanted to verify whether you were capable," Itachi continued, ignoring his brother's remark.
"You will become my opponent, the one who can truly measure up to my strength. That is your potential," Itachi told Sasuke.
'Nii-san is a horrible liar. Who is he trying to fool? Nii-san would never do anything of this sort without reason! Moreover, why does he seem to be encouraging me to grow stronger?' Sasuke thought to himself.
"Detest me for my sins. Hold a grudge against me! Continuously strive to surpass me! This is the reason why I let you live. All of it is for is me," Itachi said.
"Like me, you are capable of awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan. The only requirement is... that you must kill your closest friend!" Itachi told Sasuke.
"Just like how I killed Shisui," Itachi said emotionlessly.
"You killed Shisui-nii?" Sasuke asked in shock.
"Yes. That was how I managed to obtain these eyes," Itachi replied coldly as he activated his mangekyō.
Although his tone was neutral, Sasuke saw the pain in his eyes. Sasuke could tell that he never intended to kill Shisui, he was probably forced to. The guilt was obvious.
"In the main building of the Naka Temple, under the seventh tatami mat in the right corner of the room, lies the Uchiha clan's Commentary Tablet. It will explain the original purpose of the Uchiha clan's dōjutsu as well as its true secret," Itachi stated in a monotone.
'Its true secret?' Sasuke thought in confusion.
"If you awaken it, there will be three people, including me, who have ever attained the Mangekyō Sharingan. If that happens, then there is meaning to my having let you live," Itachi said, his eyes sad despite his voice not betraying his emotions.
"But as you are now, you are not even worth killing," Itachi claimed, closing his eyes briefly.
Sasuke's eyes widened at his brother's heartless words.
"Foolish otōtō. If you want to kill me, then blame me. Hate me all you want! Live on in shame, running away from your problems. Cling desperately to the life that I had spared on this very night," Itachi said in a mocking tone.
"Then when you bear the same eyes as me, come before me. Do not appear before me before then. Or I'll kill you," Itachi said coldly.
Sasuke only thought, 'Why?'
He was knocked out cold.
Sasuke woke up in the hospital, groaning at the pounding of his head. He briefly wondered how he got there and what happened to his family members, who would normally have been there for him. At least until all the events of the previous night came crashing back, leaving the boy heaving for breath. He sat up with a jolt, wincing at the slight soreness that probably came from hitting the floor when he had fallen unconscious.
Sasuke carefully removed the heart monitor, turning it off instead of letting it flat-line and informing the nurses of his early escape. He quickly dressed in a set of clothing in the drawer beside the table. He hopped out the window, using chakra to cushion his fall as he landed on a nearby building and started to jump from roof to roof.
Sasuke did not pay much attention to where he was going. All he knew was that he was leaving the horrid bland place that reeked of death and antiseptics. He was going where his instincts told him to. He just followed it, not looking in front of him to check where he was going. The next thing he knew, he had passed a familiar gate and into a large house that he had never been in before.
Sasuke ran straight into Naruto, who was seated on the sofa in the living room as they did not have school on this day. It was Sunday, after all.
Sasuke collapsed in Naruto's lap, murmuring, "Asura?" as he fell asleep there.
"Indra?" Naruto mumbled in confusion as he picked up the other boy who now seemed to remember, carrying him into the spare room.
Naruto placed Sasuke on the bed, removing his sandals and changing his clothes for him. He dressed Sasuke in a yukata similar to the one Madara had been wearing as a child. Although they were in different bodies now, he still thought of Indra as his precious older brother, regardless of how Indra seemed to feel about him. Indra may still hate him, however unlikely that was considering that he had approached him out of his own free will, but Asura still loved his brother.
Naruto used the Shōsen Jutsu to look over Sasuke's body to search for any wounds. He found none. Naruto decided to look through Sasuke's memories, already knowing about the Uchiha massacre that still had yet to be made public. He suspected that Itachi would be made to be a scapegoat and blamed for the extermination of his clan despite it having been a mission directly from the Hokage and his advisors.
Naruto, learning about what Itachi had told Sasuke in an attempt to make him grow stronger, could not hold in his snort of amusement. Itachi had no skill in lying. He was also a horrible actor. Naruto shook his head slightly and summoned a fox, courtesy of Kurama. He gave the fox a scroll to pass to Itachi as it vanished in a puff of smoke.
Naruto sat there idly with a book propped in one hand as the other tugged on and played with Sasuke's surprisingly soft and silky locks. Sasuke slept soundly, surprisingly not waking up from a nightmare. Naruto, on the other hand, was wide awake, thoughts about how it might all play out whirring through his head.
Naruto had fallen asleep, lying down beside Sasuke as the transmigrant of his brother almost automatically moved closer to Naruto to hug the blond. Naruto was merely laying flat on his back and not waking up even as Sasuke wrapped an arm around his waist subconsciously, thinking that Naruto was his bolster.
