The cracking of a whip echoed through the large corridors of the so called tower as screams of pain followed in its wake. The rest of the prisoners simply grunted and moaned as they dragged their feet by the shackles and continued on with their work. For many, it felt like a never ending nightmare had come to life. It was a world that was so different from the one that they had once called home that they might as well be in hell itself.
From the harsh working condition to the brutality inflicted by the guards to the poor living environment of their cells, this place was a grim reminder that they were no longer home. The most painful thing that new arrivals had to endure was the fact that not too long ago, they were living quiet peaceful lives in their former homes, only to be immediately attacked and dragged against their will to become slaves.
In a desperate bid to hold onto their sanity and reason for living, most of the slaves from Rosemary village were quick to pin all of their misfortunes on a certain boy that they had seen for a while. By that point, they really didn't care if he was truly responsible for this travesty or not: they just needed someone to direct their grievances towards.
Sasuke for his part simply ignored the scornful looks and accusations levied his way as he continued on with his own work. . The fact that he had witnessed the worst that humanity could offer in his previous life meant that such a sight hardly came as a surprise to him. Of course, that didn't mean that he was apathetic towards everything that was going on, it just meant that he didn't express the same feelings as the other prisoners outwardly as they did. In truth, he was just as disgusted as any sane person would be by what was going on.
Shoveling some rocks onto a cart, the young Uchiha scanned the area for any signs of Erza. Although they were on the same ship the day they were taken away from the village, the two got separated once they had reached the shores of the island and were assigned to different sections of the tower
What made everything worse was the fact that as far as he could tell, the entire place was heavily monitored from top to bottom with no means of escape. Even if by some miracle, someone managed to get out of the tower, the islands' shores were still riddled with guards and massive beasts that patrolled the land and the sky with only a few blind spots here and there. And that's not even counting those strange bracelets that shackled them. One wrong move and it was all over for any poor fool.
Dragging the cart along with every ounce of his strength, Sasuke cursed himself for making such lofty promises to Erza. As far as he could tell, unless there was someone else who shared the same skills and powers in combat as he did, if not greater, then there was no chance of getting out of here. The only other option that he could think of was to take what his other half said into consideration and reclaim his former strength. If he did, there was the possibility of him having a higher chance of escaping. But at the same time, and against all logic, his instincts told him to keep his guard up and take everything that was told to him with a grain of salt.
Still, he wondered what the other Sasuke meant when he said that he really didn't have a choice on the matter. Was him reacquiring his powers going to be inevitable? Or was the Sage hiding more truths from him? Nearing his destination, Sasuke shook his head of such thoughts and dropped the rocks off at the designated area.
Returning back to the area before, he scanned the whole place once again, looking for signs of Erza. He figured that if he wanted to formulate a way to escape, he'd need to bid his time and work on completing smaller objectives first. That way, at least it felt like he would achieve something and gain ground, one step at a time.
Sadly, no matter how many times he looked at the world around him, there was no sign of her anywhere. The only things that Sasuke could see were scenes of pain, agony and misery; sights that brought about familiar memories.
"Get back to work!" a guard yelled out, snapping his whip onto the ground. Sasuke simply grunted and went about his business as he continued to push the cart along to another pile of rocks, knowing full well that display was just a warning to do as they were told or face the consequences.
As he shoveled more rocks onto the cart, something began to slowly slither towards his legs as it caught his attention. Looking both ways to make sure the guards weren't watching, Sasuke diverted his gaze down to look at the small serpent that was moving past him. Its violet scales brought about a wave of nostalgia for the young Uchiha, although his own feelings towards said nostalgia were mixed owing to his own complicated relationship with serpents and those related to them. These included the likes of Orochimaru, Kabuto and Aoda.
"What about you?" Sasuke knelt down and addressed the serpent, even if it was oblivious to his words "are you a snake like Orochimaru or are you more like Aoda?"
The serpent simply ignored his question and slithered past him uninterrupted. Of course, he never actually expected the snake to talk back to him in any capacity whatsoever. As he stood up and turned around, Sasuke watched curiously as the snake began making its way towards one of the boys as it crawled up to one of his arms. He narrowed his eyes as he observed the boy happily stroke the head of the snake as if it were his own pet, while the serpent itself seemed to reciprocate the sentiment and refrained from biting him.
Suddenly, the boy looked at him with a menacingly glare as he made his way over to Sasuke. The Uchiha stood still as the boy kept his steely gaze until they were both face to face. "I'm only going to say this once, so listen up: If you even think about laying a finger on my friend, I'm going to make you wish you were dead" he angrily warned.
Sasuke responded by remaining silent and refusing to enter into a war of words with the boy. To him, this was going to be nothing more than a meaningless scuffle, one that he couldn't even force himself to take seriously. "This is just ridiculous" he thought to himself as he moved away from the boy and began to resume his work.
The boy was surprised by how apathetic the raven haired kid seemed to be, almost as if he took his warning at face value. "Where do you think you're going!?" he angrily called out, "didn't you hear what I just said!?"
"I don't care" Sasuke calmly retorted, causing the boy to flinch a little. "I've got work to do" he continued, shoveling more rocks into the cart, "and if you care about that friend of yours, then you should get back to work too."
"Tch" the boy angrily clicked his tongue as he watched the other kid push the cart along. It infuriated him to no end that the kid took his warning so lightly, and the way he acted so cool and tough just pissed him off even more. As he watched the kid disappear from his sights, the snake slowly slithered towards his shoulders and looked at him. "Sorry about that Cubellios" he said with a smile, as if his mood was instantly alleviated the moment his friend was there for him. With nothing coming out of this confrontation, the boy walked away in the opposite direction to continue on with his own work.
The dark and decrepit hallways added to the dingy atmosphere of this incomplete tower as the cultists took their time pushing their weight around the prisoners. No amount of propaganda about how the pain and suffering they were inflicting on them for the greater good was ever going to fool any sane person here, especially Sasuke, who continued to observe the guards in action.
But despite all of this, nothing seemed to be able to take the smile off the face of kid that he had seen earlier as the boy seemed to prefer hanging around with his so called "friend" over doing any sort of work. As a matter of fact, he seemed to have lost all sense of where he was, oblivious to the world around him and its dangers as well. Something that was definitely going to get him in trouble once one of the guards begins to take notice.
Sure enough, as if on cue, the guards began to rotate their shifts as one of them began moving towards the kid. Thoughts began racing over Sasuke's head as he began to ponder on what choice he should make: should he just let it be and mind his own business? Or should he intervene and do something? As the young Uchiha compared the weight of his options, he thought deeply on their implications: If he did nothing, it was certain that the boy would be in trouble, probably even flogged and given how sadistic they were, that snake of his would certainly be killed, most likely in front of his eyes to break him.
In the end, nothing would happen to Sasuke himself, though he stood to gain nothing at all either.
Alternatively, if he did intervene, the previous scenario would most likely be averted and there was a chance that he might be in the good graces of that kid. Of course, that was also very unlikely to happen considering how hostile and aggressive he seemed towards everyone but the snake. That being said, whether he was a nuisance or not really didn't matter since he most certainly did not deserve to have any sort of harsh punishment be imposed upon just for idling around.
In the end, Sasuke decide to let his conscious get the better of him as he opted to help the boy out, whether he benefitted from it or not. As he quickly analyzed the situation, the young Uchiha realized that there only a few degrees of separation between the boy and guard, something that was going to change as the gap kept getting closer. He could just go over to him and warn him about it, but it was likely that the kid would just try to pick a fight with him and attract the guard's attention even more. Taking a deep breath, he formulated an alternative choice as he took a small pebble from the cart.
Small enough that it wouldn't hurt at all, but just the right size that it would be a nuisance, Sasuke aimed for kid and flicked it across the hallway as it struck his head.
The boy yelped in pain as he rubbed the back of his head. Getting up, he turned around to see who the perpetrator was. What stood from across the hallway was none other than the raven haired kid who brushed off his threats earlier. Furrowing his brows and gritting his teeth, the boy clenched his fists and began to angrily make his way over to him, intending to give him a good trashing for what he did. However, before he could even move an inch, the boy was suddenly stopped in his tracks by the head movements the raven haired kid was making, almost as if he was trying to tell him something.
With great hesitation he complied and looked at the direct that the kid was suggesting. Much to his shock, the boy saw a shadow of a large man, a clear indication that one of the guards was making their way over to him. His eyed widened as he felt his heart sink at the thought of getting into trouble for slacking off, having seen what had happened to others before his own eyes. "Was he trying to warn me?" he muttered to himself before quickly shaking off those thoughts and began to make his way towards his serpentine friend. "I'm sorry Cubellios but you'll have to hide for now. Let's play again later, okay?" he gently urged the snake to leave him be for the time being, to which the serpent complied and slithered into one of the small cracks in the wall.
Sasuke heaved a sigh of relief as the boy began resuming his work, just in the nick of time as well. Moving along with his own labors, the young Uchiha was glad that the kid was smart enough to pick on his cues and act on it. It was calculated risk but one he felt was needed, since he couldn't find any other option that was viable. If it were done to anyone dumber than a brick, it probably would've failed spectacularly. It seems his plans were becoming more and more risky on account of him being thrust into an unfamiliar world. He'd have to work on that.
As the day came to an end and nightfall emerged, the prisoners were ordered to move back to their cells to shut in for the night. It was probably the only act of kindness that they ever received from the cultists other than being given food; which by all accounts were basic rights that every person should have and yet, in this time and place, they felt like luxury.
Having done his part for the day, Sasuke etched out a corner in the cell he was put on and ate his meal in peace and quiet. Most of his cellmates were not from the village but were still wary of him and each other, keeping their distance, which perfectly suited the young Uchiha. Weeks of toiling and laboring didn't have as much effect on him as he expected, most likely due to the fact that his thoughts were occupied by the fruitless search for Erza. Taking a sip of his soup, he had to resign in the fact that she was nowhere to be found, at least in the section that he was working on.
Rummaging through his memories, Sasuke thought back on everything that happened to him so far. From his reincarnation to his current situation, it was a lot to take in but he was certain that this world still had a lot more surprises in store for him.
"I'm surprised you're not losing your mind over being a jailbird" a voice called out.
Sasuke was taken aback a little but remain composed enough to realize who was talking to him. To be honest, he was more surprised by the fact that not only was he listening to the sound of his own voice, but that it had decided to talk to him after such a long time. As a matter of fact, both the two voices in his head were silent throughout the weeks he had spent in arduous labor only for one of them to finally speak up now, much to his annoyance.
Closing his eyes, he entered his subconscious in order to better converse with the two of them, and get their opinions on everything that was happening, at least so they could shut up and leave him alone afterwards.
As he opened them once again, Sasuke was transported to a world that was completely different from the one he was just in. With its dark purplish hue emanating all around and ripples of water on the ground, Sasuke looked on as the Sage of Six Paths floated next to him while his darker counterpart stood from across the cage.
"How are you faring at this moment, Sasuke?" Hagoromo asked.
"I've seen worse" Sasuke told him, a statement which wasn't exactly false since he had seen things that were just as bad as the situation he was currently in.
A chuckle came in the direction of the cage that held the other Sasuke as the former two turned their attention towards him. "You say that, but you still haven't figured out a way to get out of here. Have you?" he stated tauntingly, "You know, if you had all of your powers right now, you'd be able to get out of here without a problem"
Sasuke for his part did not respond to his doppelgangers statement but simply remained quiet and eyed him with suspicion.
'Are you still trying to tempt him?" Hagoromo called out.
"Maybe" the other Sasuke answered, "but even you have to accept the fact that what I'm saying is true, Sage of Six Paths"
"No" Hagoromo shook his head, "I believe he will find a better path towards freedom, not just for himself but for everyone here. A path that will not require him to surrender his humanity for power."
"Are you sure about that?" the doppelganger questioned, raising a brow.
Sasuke frowned as he watched the conversation unfold, almost feeling locked out of loop on everything that was going on. This endless charade of secrets was starting to annoy him. "What are you talking about?" Sasuke interrupted his counterpart.
"Don't tell me you've forgotten. You may have a new body but you're still an Uchiha, through and through. So do the math and guess what happens when things go wrong for us" the counterpart explained.
The young Uchiha crossed his arms and thought deeply on the matter. His eyes widened a bit as he put two and two together, realizing what was being said. "So you're saying I can still regain my Sharingan the way I did before? Is this what you meant when you said that I might not have a choice?" Sasuke pressed.
"It's possible" the other Sasuke confirmed, almost seemingly pleased with this inevitability.
Sasuke grumbled as he turned around to face the Sage of Six Paths. "Didn't you tell me that you took away my visual prowess to contain most of my chakra? Or is this another one of your secrets?" he asked with irritation in his voice.
"I did. This new body was based off of the memories of your former life, so with the chakra you had at your disposal along with mine, there was a chance that you could've instantly activated the Sharingan. So I took the liberty of sealing the chakra within certain points in your body, such as your brain and optic nerves to act as seals to contain it" Hagoromo calmly explained, "nothing has changed yet."
"And what do you think about what he said?" Sasuke pointed at his other half from the cage.
"It is a variable that could happen" the Sage remarked, "but I hope you're not planning to stoop so low just to regain your power."
Sasuke gritted his teeth as he tightened his grip around his arms, almost feeling offended by what the Sage had just said. "Are you saying that I might consider killing Erza just to get my visual prowess back?" he angrily inquired.
"Not at all" Hagoromo shook his head, "but at the same time, I cannot deny the lengths Indra and your clan went through to obtain power. My own son murdered his two loyal students in cold blood just to feel the despair needed to receive power, Madara and his brother did the same, and you were planning to cast yourself into the darkness by killing Naruto. I never meant to think of you in this way but I feared the possibility."
The young Uchiha loosened the grip on his arms and let out a breath. Knowing about his own clan's history, he couldn't deny that his concerns weren't warranted and his own actions long ago were further proof of that. Still, even if it was true, Sasuke still felt that it was low of Hagoromo to think of him like that. "Hmph" he grunted in irritation, "I'm not some cold hearted monster that I'd do something like that. Not anymore."
"You know, you really don't have to go through all of that again" Sasuke's counterpart commented, "If you'd just accept who you really are, there'd be no need for anyone to die."
Sasuke frowned; somehow unnerved by the fact that he was basically tempting himself. The solution seemed to so easy, so simple and yet for some reason his instincts told him to be wary of this. The feeling of having someone offer him great power to solve all of his problems brought back some unpleasant memories he had, especially when it came to shady individuals like Orochimaru and Tobi, whose aid he accepted and received great power in return but at the cost of losing what little sanity he had left. And right now, seeing his other half offer the same thing to him, felt like another test in temptation.
On paper it felt so simple: all he had to do was simply remove the mental blocks that held off his chakra and he would back to his stronger self again. But there was always a catch; a price to pay for such gifts. He had paid dearly in the past for giving in to such temptations and right now, he knew better than to think that there was no strings attached. He didn't know what it would cost him this time but whatever it was, the gain would probably not be worth it.
"Sorry, but my body just won't listen" he answered back to the doppelganger.
"I figured as much" the other Sasuke stated with a disappointed tone. "If you want think you're above all of this, then fine. But don't blame me when things go wrong and you were too weak to stop it" he continued before disappearing into the darkness once again.
"I won't. If something terrible happens and my Sharingan comes back, then so be it. But until then, I'll make do with what I have" Sasuke answered back.
As he turned his gaze towards Hagoromo, Sasuke was taken aback by the uncharacteristic smile that was written across the Sage's face. In the time that they had been stuck together, Sasuke had never seen him crack a smile, or even joke around, so to see the stern and stoic Sage of Six Paths smiling was a little disturbing for him.
"Is something wrong" Sasuke inquired.
"Nothing at all" Hagoromo gentle shook his head as his smile disappeared. For a moment, Sasuke felt like he saw a glimmer of pride in that face of his.
"If that's the case, then I'll head back to the outside world then" Sasuke said as he sat with his legs folded on top of one another and closed his eyes.
"If course, I will keep watch over you in the meantime, Sasuke" Hagoromo nodded.
What felt like an eternity within the subconscious was mere seconds in the real world. It was this sense of time that Sasuke found the most jarring of the things he had learned to get accustomed to, despite the fact that he had conversed within many people and creatures in different planes of existence before.
After his somewhat lengthy conversation with the two voices in his head, Sasuke opened his eyes to a scene that hadn't changed a bit since the moment he closed them. People were still huddling in their own little corner of the cell, some conversing with one another while others keeping to themselves, just like him. The only difference this time was the arrival of a face that he once saw in the morning and in the afternoon as well. For some reason, Sasuke watched as the boy with the snake approached him, no doubt attempting to settle some sort of grudge he had no interest in or cared about and pick up where they left off.
The young Uchiha sighed as he sat still and watched the boy approach him, strangely without his snake in sight. He was certain that the kid was just coming over to pick a fight with him but even that was annoying at the moment since he just wanted some time to himself.
Much to his surprise, the kid simply stood in front of him and stared at him without ever raising his hand. His gaze wasn't the most welcoming but at the same time, he didn't make any attempts to strike Sasuke either, something which surprised the Uchiha.
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked with a blank stare.
The boy clenched his fist and gritted his teeth in response, his whole body shaking, not from terror but from some sort of pent of anger building inside of him. "See, this is what I hate about you the most!" he exploded as he pointed his finger at him, "the way you act like some sort of tough guy who doesn't owe the world a thing! It pisses me off!"
Sasuke watched him rant on; almost seemingly disappointed by it. Had he picked a fight with him, he would've at least been able to probe his skill and see if he had any sort of potential. Now, he was just listening to some punk rambling about how much he hated his guts, as if it made him any special from all the other people who hated him and gunned for his head.
"I couldn't care less about how you feel. If you're here just to tell me all that, then you're wasting my time" Sasuke argued back, getting up from his seated position as he began to leave.
"Where do you think you're going? I'm not done yet" a hand grabbed Sasuke's arm as the Uchiha paused and turned around. The kid's stubbornness was beginning to get on his nerves now.
"If you've got something important to tell me, then spit it out. Otherwise, stop wasting my time before I really start to get serious" the Uchiha warned as he returned the boy's anger with a cold, unflinching gaze.
It was enough to unnerve the boy as he let go of Sasuke's arm and back away a little as he stared into the strange left eye of his. It took a few seconds but the boy regained his composure and began to relax somewhat. "Fine" he begrudgingly said.
"So spit it out then" Sasuke egged on with his arms crossed.
The boy took a deep breath and rubbed his head before opening his mouth again, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I owe you for saving Cubellios. This doesn't mean we're friends now because I still don't like you."
"Cubellios? Is he talking about the snake?" Sasuke thought. Logically, it would make sense that the name mentioned would belong to that snake since it seemed to be the only thing the kid was fond of and he did save it earlier, albeit indirectly.
"So listen up!" the boy proclaimed while Sasuke watched quietly, "I'm only doing this so we're square and nothing more. So if…..you need….any sort of help…just ask."
Sasuke noticed that the boy seemed to struggle just to say those words. If he had to guess, it probably had to do with the fact that having to owe a favor to someone he disliked was a massive stab at his pride, not that it mattered too much to him.
"So it's a truce then" Sasuke suggested.
The look on the boy's face when he heard those words made it seem like he was almost appalled by such an offer. He quickly turned his face away from Sasuke, avoiding any sort of eye contact. "Yeah, sure….whatever" he grumbled.
"So what's your name?" Sasuke asked.
The boy looked at Sasuke through the corner of his eye before quickly turning around again. "It's Erik" he begrudgingly answered.
"Erik huh?" the Uchiha noted.
"I'm not going to say it again" Erik asserted as he turned his face around to look at Sasuke once again. "So what's yours?" he asked.
Sasuke's expression softened a bit, but not so much as to let his guard down as the two continued their tough guy act. "It's Sasuke" he replied.
…..
"So how long have you been here?"
Erik turned over to Sasuke with a surprised look, watching the boy lean against the wall with his gaze fixed straight ahead. "Nine months, give or take" he answered, his own back leaning against the wall as well.
"That long? Then he must have something useful to tell me" ideas began popping inside of his head as Sasuke began formulating the type of questions he would ask. Erik did say that he owed him a debt, so he'd have to be careful on when to cash it in. "Can you tell me anything about this place?" he inquired.
"Nothing you don't already know" Erik answered, "I've been assigned to this part of the tower the day I stepped foot on this place and I've been stuck here ever since."
"I see" Sasuke responded, slightly disappointed by the answer. He really didn't have any sort of high expectations to begin with, but he had at least hoped that he would get some sort of useful information.
"You sound disappointed" Erik smirked, "did you want me to tell you about some secret escape tunnel I magically dug?"
Sasuke wasn't sure whether he was annoyed by that or found it amusing. Perhaps it was a little bit of both. "That would've saved me a lot of trouble" he dryly remarked.
"Heh" Erik chuckled, "If you're thinking about getting out of this place, forget it. I've seen enough idiots try that, only to get caught and come back worse. It's not pretty."
"I'm aware of that" Sasuke answered back.
"Uh huh" Erik remarked as he bent over and picked up a small piece of rock. "Even if you got out of the tower, you'd never make it out of this island, the whole place is crawling with monsters outside. They'll never let us get out of this stupid place" the maroon haired boy said with anger in his voice as he threw the piece of rock through one of the few windows they had to the outside world.
Sasuke observed the actions of the boy but remained quiet on the matter. As he kept watching, he noticed that Erik's snake friend was still nowhere to be seen, something that probably attributed to his agitated state right now.
"I noticed that your friend isn't around. Where is it?" Sasuke asked.
"My friend has a name! It's Cubellios" Erik angrily growled, "And she's in hiding. I want it stay that way for now."
Remembering their previous encounters, the young Uchiha noticed that the boy's emotions seemed to flare up whenever the snake was mentioned. It was becoming obvious to him that this "Cubellios" meant a great deal to Erik, considering how protective he was of her and the lengths he went for her. It was his greatest strength but also, a weakness of his, because if anything were to happen to that snake, it would imbalance his heart and make him vulnerable.
"You're quite fond of her aren't you" Sasuke noted.
"It's none of your business" Erik rudely brushed him off, leaning against the walls once again with his arms crossed.
The Uchiha remained quiet in response as silence began to take over their little corner of the cell. Erik's behavior and attitude reminded him of a certain blond member of the Akatsuki, though his temperament wasn't as bombastic as Deidara's. Sasuke just hoped that he didn't develop some kind of weird obsession over beating him like Deidara did.
Erik let out sigh, a clear indication that he was breaking the ice as Sasuke looked on through the corner of his eyes with curiosity. ", I couldn't care less if I got out of here or not. It wasn't like I had any friends on the outside world to begin with." he began speaking, "But Cubellios? She's the one person that I can say is my greatest friend. Whenever I felt down and wanted to give up, she was always right there next to me, pushing me forward. I don't really care what happens to me or this stupid place, so long as I get to hear her voice someday."
Sasuke listened intently to what Erik was saying. That level of dedication towards one singular friend, even if that friend wasn't human was a rare sight to see. Sadly, that also put him in more danger losing himself to despair should anything ever happen to Cubellios, something that probably would've happened earlier today had he not intervened. Sasuke noted that this must be the reason why he was so intent of repaying his debt to him, despite his intense dislike for the Uchiha. He was probably swallowing his pride for the sake of doing it.
"So, what about you?"Erik asked, snapping Sasuke out of his thoughts. "Do you have a friend like that?" he asked again.
His words were like a reminder to him, a bump to the head to let him remember who he was fighting for. "I do" Sasuke answered, "She's a girl with red hair, about my age and as tall as I'am. Have you seen anyone like her?"
"A girl with red hair…" Erik pondered, placing a hand on his chin, "nope. Can't say that I have."
"Thought so" Sasuke shook his head, "guess she's in another part of the tower."
"If that's the case, then why don't you just transfer out of here" Erik suggested.
"Transfer?" Sasuke asked. That was something that he had never even heard of and he wished Erik would've told him about it earlier.
"Well, to be completely honest with you, it's not like you can just ask the guards to take you to another part of the tower" Erik explained, "but once in a while, these guys make the rounds and take some of us here to work in other parts of tower."
"I see" Sasuke said, rubbing his chin as the wheels began turning in his head. "Is there any way for me to get in?"
"I'm not sure" Erik shrugged his shoulders, "But you could try sticking with some of the guys who might be getting transferred."
"Do you know anyone who might be on the list for that?" the Uchiha pressed.
Erik paused for a while as he began scanning the cell for his intended target. He narrowed his eyes as he began looking all over that certain someone who might be getting transferred before his eyes finally set their sights on a particular person. "You see that scrawny kid next to the fatso over there?" the maroon haired boy pointed out, as Sasuke looked in his direction. On the other side of the cell, he could see two kids happily chatting with each other; one was about as thin as he and Erik were, while the other was quite stout. The young Uchiha nodded in acknowledgement.
"His name is Wally Buchanan, the little brother of the fat one next to him, Richard. I heard from one of the guards that he's next on the laundry list of transfers they've picked out" Erik explained, "so keep an eye on him and you might just get a chance to join him. Not like it's going to change anything."
"Duly noted" Sasuke nodded, "thanks for the advice."
"So this friend of yours" Erik started, almost awkwardly, "is she your girlfriend or something?"
Sasuke flinched a little hearing his question, but remained composed enough to answer him calmly. "Nothing like that" he answered back.
Erik's expression did not change from his reply, as he plainly took note of it, "I see."
"But I did make a promise to her" Sasuke continued as Erik looked to his direction, "that I would look out for her and she would do the same for me. So I intend to keep that promise."
"Hmph, fair enough" Erik smirked, turning his face away from Sasuke.
The two remained quiet for the remainder of the night, before going their separate ways for some shut eye. Yet even then, neither was really sure about how they felt about the other. For Sasuke, it felt like he the receiving end of some one-sided rivalry with the other kid constantly sizing him up. For Erik, there something about the other kid's stoic and cool persona that annoyed him to no end, yet he felt like the only other human he could tolerate.
AN: Apologies for taking so long to update things. There was just a lot that was going on and when I finally tried writing again, my laptop broke down, so I basically lost everything I had save and had to resort to a 12 year old potato to start from scratch again. Apologies if this chapter felt sub-par or short, but it's been a while since I wrote and I didn't feel like dragging it on.
Also, don't worry about the whole shipping thing. So long as everyone remains civilized and nice to each other, you guys can talk about who you want to ship Sasuke with all you want, I'm completely fine with it.
Finally, Happy New Year and I hope you all have a great 2021!
To Legendary Mob: Admitting, I kinda screwed that one up. The scene looked fine when I imagined it in my head but I guess it's different when translating things to written and from a different point of view. It was never my intention to turn Sasuke into some cold blooded murderer but then again, he is more ruthless than Naruto, being completely willing to hurt children if they stood in his way even when he was reformed. As for the other scene you mentioned, I thought it over on the use of a shadow clone to distract the enemies while freeing the captives and that actually seemed like a great idea. It was honestly, just something I never thought of. But then again, Sasuke does prefer to think on the fly and takes a risky approach, even when it nearly costs him his life like the time he fought B and the Raikage. The reason I went for the other path is because, he would be overwhelmed and using a clone that is inferior in his state would be pointless and he couldn't free the captives when they're shackle by magic that he's not familiar with. That's why I chose the fireball technique because it seemed like the perfect crowd control.
Em93: I think I have the perfect idea to make a Mirajane/Erza love rivalry work.
Dxhologram: Thanks for letting me know. I still have to work on the power scaling thing, but at this stage, I think I'll piss people off no matter what I do to Sasuke or anyone else, nerfing or wanking.
Doortolight47 : I like Gray a lot. The fact that he's so cool headed and less eccentric makes me think that Sasuke would like him the most out of the guys.
Shiroyasha Rises: I think there mages with abilities like Petrification, or curses or other special gimmicks that could seriously hurt Sasuke.
Pride of the Quincy : Well, even if he is weak, Sasuke is still racking up quite a bodycount isn't he. Imagine what he'll be like once he unlocks the basic Sharingan again.
GamerLooter : Naruto won't be making an appearance here, Sorry. BUT, there is a character from Naruto with special connections to Sasuke that I'm planning on bringing in a very unique way. But that's as far as I can tell you.
Sengoku: I'm well aware of his Seiyuus accomplishments as well as his English Dub Va as well. I enjoyed both their performances and their resumes. I'm surprised he can go from gritty anti hero to an idealistic one, but that's talent for you. I think he's also a good singer too if I recall correctly.
Nearsighted : I don't think I'm gonna be bringing any sort of sage mode for Sasuke but I'am very interested in bringing back Indra Susanoo, so there's that.