16

You Can't Kill Me – I'm Sasuke!

"You, young man, are one strange human," I heard.

Wait... Did I hear that... Or was that only in my head?

No, more importantly, where the hell was I?

I... I couldn't see. But rather than being 'blind', it was more like nothing existed. Like... like... Ugh, I have no idea how to explain it. It was as if I was just floating in an unending space.

WAIT A SEC! I was dead! I see.

So this is what death feels like, eh?

Interesting. It really ain't that bad... But I guess I won't be saying that in a few hours. Boredom was my worst nightmare, so it'd be fitting that the purpose of my hell would be to bore the fuck out of me.

Oh well. I tried to shrug but I couldn't. Right. Death. That means no physical body. Great.

This shit sucked ass already.

Hmm...

Maybe I should try reciting the Fibonacci sequence?

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, uhh fifty-five plus eighty-nine was... Right! 144!

"That's enough," I heard that voice again.

'Who is it?' I tried to speak, but no words came out.

"You may call me... Mother," the voice said. Now that I thought about it, it did sound like a woman.

'Mommy?' I thought. The voice paused, not speaking for a while.

"Maybe I should just let you rot in hell," it said.

'No, wait! I'm sorry, Mother!' I think-yelled. Is that even a thing? Think-yelling. Because no matter how hard you try, the volume of the voice in your head never really changes.

The voice sighed. "This is exactly why I said you're a strange human," it said and I chuckled mentally. Yeah, I've heard that a few times.

'Ight, Mother. Who are you really? A god or something?' I asked.

"I reckon you can call me that," she said. Yo, not gon lie, this woman really be sounding hot af. The voice sighed again. "I heard that," she said.

'Perfect. Now I know you can read my thoughts even if I don't want to convey them to you directly.'

"Haha, you're quite shrewd as well," she laughed.

'Issa cruel world. You gotta be smart to survive,' I replied.

"Fair," she said.

'So? You gonna tell me who you really are or nah?'

"As I have told you, I am Mother."

'Oui oui, but why Mother? Are you a goddess or some shit that controls the entire universe and is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent?'

The voice chuckled, and honestly, it was a beautiful sound. Her voice was even nicer than the voice of that one voice actress in that one anime I watched a long time ago.

"Thank you for the compliment. And no, I'm not all that powerful. The people of this world call me the mother of chakra, so I thought it would have been appropriate to have you call me that."

Riiiiiiiight.

'Kaguya Otsutsuki?'

"Ah, you know about me?" she asked.

'Of course. If I remember correctly, you ate the fruit of that one big-ass tree and became the first chakra user before becoming the ten-tails by merging with the tree, right?'

"You are very knowledgeable. Suspiciously so. And yes, you are correct," she said.

'Great okay, so what do you need from me?' I asked.

"It's a simple request," she said. "When the time comes that I'm revived – when you lay your eyes on me – I need you to utter the phrase 'It's time to be brave, little angel," she requested.

'That's... Oddly specific,' I said. 'What if I don't?' I asked. I needed to know what my options were.

Kaguya sighed a long sigh before she said, "I shall explain everything to you."

'Ight, I'm listening.'

"I'm sure you know about me being sealed by my children, correct?" she asked.

'Oui, for harvesting chakra from humans or some shit, right?'

"I do not have time to explain my reasons for that at the moment, but before I was sealed, I created a manifestation of my will," she said.

'Black Zetsu, I know.'

"Yes. At that time, my will was to 'stay alive' but because of my hatred and anger, Zetsu was tainted with my dark emotions. While I have been in the seal, I have grown weaker, and when I revive, Black Zetsu will be able to take over me very easily, which means that because of those emotions, I will probably destroy the world. That is why you need to say the phrase."

'What's so special about the phrase?'

"I... I cannot tell you that," she said, sounding shy.

'Hm? Does it have to do something with your lover?' I teased.

"Q-Quiet, mortal!" she said, sounding actually flustered now.

I laughed. 'Alright, alright,' I said. 'I guess when you eventually get unsealed, I'll say those words.'

'Thank you. I will provide you with some of my chakra that I have saved up over the years and that will hopefully enhance your healing powers, and augment your strength. And I see that you are a direct descendant of one of my grandchildren, which means you are a direct descendant of me, meaning that I will also be strengthening your ocular prowess,' she said and instantly, I could feel a fiery warmth spreading through me. And since I didn't have a body, the 'me' was basically my soul. 'Go and save the world, young one.' And that was the last thing I heard.

...

A small beeping sound filled my ears and pain shot through my body. Though I didn't really mind it all that much. Pain meant I was still alive. This was good.

With intense effort, I cracked open my eyes and a white hospital ceiling came into view. "Ugh," my voice leaked out as excruciating pain invaded my body when I tried to move my neck. "Goddamn," I whispered as I relaxed again.

The pain was too much for me to bear right now... But I couldn't give up. Just as I was about to try looking around once more, I heard the door open and a small gasp escaped the person. "D-Doctor! The patient is awake!" I heard a woman say, followed by some rapid footsteps.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see multiple men and women in Konoha field medic uniforms and among them, a woman in a doctor's uniform.

The doctor approached me, looking at me with worried eyes. "Can you hear me?" she asked.

"Yep," I tried to reply chipperly but it just sounded painful.

"And you can see me?" she continued the questions.

"I believe so, yes," I said.

"On a scale of one to ten with one being no pain, describe how you're feeling," she said.

"Forget that! Where's Naruto and Sakura?" I asked urgently.

Please tell me they were fine. Please tell me my actions weren't in vain.

"Sasuke-san, I need to make sure of your cond—," the doctor tried to say, but screw that! I needed answers!

"Listen! I need to know how my teammates are. Are they okay?" I asked again, conveying with my eyes that she wasn't getting anything out of me until I knew exactly how they were.

The doctor looked back at one of the medics and then sighed. "Yes. Both of your teammates are unharmed. If I deem your condition to be stable, they may be allowed to visit you," she said, and my shoulders relaxed a little.

"Good. Kakashi and Lynx. How are they?" I asked next.

"They are both very heavily injured but in stable condition for now," she answered and I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank heavens. I really wouldn't have been able to live with myself if anything had happened to any one of them.

"Now will you please answer my question? Describe the intensity of the pain you're feeling on a scale of one to ten," she repeated her question.

"Ten. That's definitely a ten," I said. "This is the most pain I've ever felt in my life."

"I see. So the morphine isn't working? Interesting..."

What the hell? Did she just say 'interesting'? Were we in Orochimaru's lab or something?

"Sasuke-san? What is the last thing you remember before this?" the doctor asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked. Wasn't it obvious? They probably found me near death in the Forest of Death and brought me in.

"Do you remember how you got here?" she asked.

"Uh... Nah," I said, squinting my eyes, trying to remember something more but nothing came. "The last thing I remember is Orochimaru's angry face after I told him I fucked his mom," I said and I heard multiple gasps and murmurs come from the medic behind the doctors.

"Hah..." the doctor sighed.

"Doc? Is everything okay? What's going on?" I asked, but before she could answer, I heard the door open and multiple footsteps walking in.

"Hokage-sama," the doctor said as she turned away from me to face the door.

"Tch. That guy's here?" I asked with an annoyed tone.

"Doctor, can I please have some privacy with Sasuke-kun here?" I heard the Hokage say.

"Of course, Hokage-sama," the doctor said immediately and filed out of the room with all the medics.

As the door shut again, I saw the figures of Hiruzen and multiple ANBU come into view. "Sasuke-kun?" I heard him say.

"What?" I asked simply.

The Hokage sighed. "Can you at least show some respect?" he asked.

Did he just fucking... Oh, he wants some respect, does he, this sumbitch?

"Do you think it's a person's strength or a person's deeds that should be the reason that people respect them?" I asked him.

Hiruzen went quiet for a moment before shaking his head. "Fair enough," he said, giving in to my argument. "Let's talk about what happened during the second test, shall we?" he said.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever," I said, attempting to shrug but giving up on it due to the pain.

"Can you explain what happened?" he asked.

I looked at him, annoyed that I had to explain much of the stuff that he already knew, but I reckon it was only standard operating protocol so I continued.

"Naruto, Sakura, and I were going through the forest. We heard a loud crash and got attacked. When I saw what the hell attacked us, it was a huge snake with a person standing on top and I remembered that the only person that was able to summon snakes was Orochimaru so I identified him. I recognized that I wasn't going to make it out alive from there, so I gave up on fighting back and just tried to talk to him. I said he could do whatever he wants with me, but to let my teammates go unharmed. He didn't agree, so I told him his breath stank. Then he hit me and I got angry so I told him I fucked his mama's ass the night he was born and that's the last thing I remember," I finished my explanation.

By the time I was done, the Hokage was facepalming and the ANBU beside him were shaking their heads in exasperation.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked.

"You're an idiot. That's what's wrong," Hiruzen replied.

"Huh!?" This was the first time I've heard him speak so freely.

"I've got good news, and bad news," he said. "Which one do you want first?"

"Bad," I replied.

"Your team technically failed the second test and as such, you have been disqualified," he said. That was the least of my worries. In fact, that would actually be good news for me. "Furthermore," he continued. "Your sensei and ANBU captain Lynx have been heavily injured from their fight against Orochimaru." Yeah, that was very bad news. "And lastly..." he paused. "Something weird has happened with your body, though I'll let the doctor explain that."

Right. That last part was probably because of Kaguya's powers.

"What's the good news?" I asked.

"Your teammates are relatively unharmed, and Kakashi and Lynx will both make a full recovery," he said. I couldn't stop the smile that floated onto my face. "Also," he added with a smile. "We have Orochimaru in custody."

"EH!?" I nearly screamed. "That's great! How did you manage that!?" This was awesome. It would be amazing if I no longer had to deal with him in the future.

"Even though you are an idiot," Hiruzen said. "I cannot deny that it was only because of you that we were able to manage this."

"Me? How so?" I asked curiously.

"Most likely because of your insults, Orochimaru used some high-level jutsus on you and later Kakashi who came to rescue you, which instantly attracted the attention of nearly all of the ANBU in that part of the village and they all descended on him and held him off long enough for me to arrive. Eventually, we managed to subdue him," he said solemnly.

"Then why the sad face?" I said.

Hiruzen looked at me, and I could really see the toll that his position had taken on him. "We lost a lot of good men and women in the process of capturing him, Sasuke. It was pure luck that we succeeded, honestly. Orochimaru had already expended a large amount of chakra from when he had summoned his snakes, and then some because he used some chakra heavy jutsus on you and Kakashi," he said. "The only reason that we were able to subdue him is because of you and your sensei, and the fact that he didn't have anyone else helping him, while we had myself, multiple jonin, and almost two whole squadrons of ANBU."

Goddamn, that must've been one hell of a fight. But I realized something else as I heard the Hokage speak. This was my chance!

"Wait you sure there wasn't anyone else helping him?" I asked, acting suspicious of his words. "Because I distinctly remember him giving out some orders to one of the Konoha genin," I told them.

Instantly, the Hokage and ANBU were on high alert. "What? Who!?" one of the ANBU behind the Hokage spoke up.

"I think... His name was Kabuto Yakushi? He had glasses and long silver hair tied up in a ponytail," I said.

"Ryu, mobilize five squads right now! Scour every inch of the village and if you don't find anything within three hours, mobilize two more squadrons and expand the search radius to encompass the nearest fifty towns!" the Hokage commanded instantly.

I watched on in surprise at how they all took my words at face value and believed me without a shred of doubt. I guess I must've really earned their trust with my little stunt, huh?

"And look amongst yourselves as well," I added. All eyes fell on me while the room went silent with a chill.

"What does that mean?" one of the other ANBU asked with a threatening tone, but I didn't give a shit if he felt insulted.

"It means that that guy wasn't just a low-level genin. His strength was at least on par with Kakashi. I could tell," I said, sounding grave. "Check amongst yourselves. Check-in on anyone who has been on holiday or leave or anything. Check the quiet ones. The ones who usually don't talk to many people."

After a short pause, the Hokage nodded. "Do as Sasuke says," Hiruzen said instantly before any of them could refute my words.

As the Hokage finished giving his orders and all but one ANBU disappeared, I spoke up again. "How did I make it out alive?" I asked.

Truthfully, I knew it was because Kaguya enhanced my healing, but I feel like Orochimaru should've just killed me right away. It was surprising that he didn't... Unless he actually wanted to take me back with him and experiment on me.

"We still do not know that," Hiruzen said. "When we found you, we thought you were dead. You didn't have a pulse, your limbs were broken and bent in weird ways, all of your internal organs had stopped working, but for some reason, your heart still just barely kept pumping... No, that's not the right word for it. It was like your blood was only flowing without any external forces acting on it. And your brain activity was still normal." He shook his head in confusion. "The rate that your body was healing at was nearly on par with Naruto."

A long moment of silence passed as I didn't know what to say.

Finally, the Hokage stood up and put his hand on my forehead. "Thank you, Sasuke. You have done a great service to the leaf village," he said with a smile.

Even though I don't like this damn old man, I can't lie, it did feel good to be shown some appreciation for my actions.

With that, the Hokage and ANBU left as the doctor and the medics entered again to question me.

...

It had been about three days since I had woken up and goddamn, the Hokage wasn't lying when he said I had a fast healing speed now. I was already able to move all my limbs except for my left arm – that one was particularly screwed up right now.

But the news of Orochimaru being in Konoha custody gave me some food for thought. Would the invasion of Konoha not happen now? If it didn't happen, would Hiruzen stay alive? Would Tsunade not return to the village? And let's say it did still happen. Would Hiruzen still die? If he did die, would Kakashi become the fifth Hokage instead of Tsunade? Or would they still try to bring Tsunade back to the village?

As I thought about that, my thoughts wandered off to the results of the second test. Only six teams had made it out of the forest of death and as such, there were eighteen participants so they had decided to have a preliminary round. From that, nine genin had come out, but surprisingly one had forfeited (maybe this was the universe's way fo fixing itself), and just like canon, the eight remaining ones had one month to prepare until the final round.

The match-ups were:

Gaara vs. Shikamaru
Temari vs. Kiba
Hinata vs. Ino
Shino vs. Kankuro

From this, I could sort of accurately predict how the matches would go.

I knew Shikamaru would give up instantly.

Temari would probably win her round since she could just keep attacking from afar and not let Kiba get close to her.

As long as Hinata kept moving and got close to Ino, she'd destroy her.

And Shino definitely won his battle with Kankuro in canon so I think that's probably what would happen this time as well.

So, I could say with about ninety percent confidence that the semi-final rounds would be Gaara vs. Temari – where Temari would forfeit, and Shino vs. Hinata which I honestly had no idea how it would go.

This told me one thing: Gaara would be in the finals for sure which meant that there was a very high chance that the invasion would still happen.

FUCK! I needed to figure something out and quickly!

...

"Ugh," I groaned as my knees gave out once more. Thankfully, someone was there to catch me.

"I've got you!" Sakura said as she caught me and let me sit on the floor gently.

"Thanks, Sakura," I said, incredibly grateful that I had such amazing friends.

I'll never understand why the original Sasuke was so grumpy and didn't want friends. Like, yeah, your family got killed, but shit happens in life that you cannot control. Get over it and get stronger so that when it happens again – and it WILL happen again – you can face it.

Sakura, seeing my legs couldn't hold me up anymore, went behind me and sat down, leaning me against herself and wrapping her hands around my waist. "Let me know when you're ready again," she said.

Naruto and Sakura had both come in this morning, looking deeply worried. After making sure I hadn't sustained any permanent damage, they began berating me for 'taking on everything myself'.

When I tried to explain that I was worried about them and just wanted to make sure they got out alive at the very least, Sakura started crying while Naruto's face went red with anger as made a vow to 'get stronger than ever' and to 'never let anyone he loved get hurt ever again'.

That had definitely brought a smile to my face. As shitty as this situation was, in the end, at the very least, I was able to encourage my teammates to work harder. That's surely something good that came out of this whole endeavour.

Now, turn by turn, Sakura and Naruto were helping me start walking and moving properly again and at the rate that I was progressing at, I didn't think it'd take too long for that to happen.

I already know so many people are about to start bitching about me bringing Kaguya into this LMAOO

Also, if you got the "It's time to be brave, little angel" reference, you are awesome!