Somehow I woke up and really felt like writing the next chapter for this. And I'd like to say, that while I care about canon, I also really don't care about canon. But I hope you all saw that post of new design older Naruto with his right hand bandaged (because of his mark?) because I will be shamelessly using that to suit the plot in this story from now on. I feel like I should have thought about it before. Well, I won't reveal my plans just yet, hehe.

Speaking of plans, my original plan for the plot of this is so ridiculous that I'm almost ashamed. I mean, I would be if I didn't think my own jokes are so damn funny all the time. But don't worry, I have seen my errors and this has a serious plot, though there will still be funny parts. Just not, uh, Menma turning into a fluffy baby fox whenever someone says the name Kurama, or child!Kaguya showing up as the final villain because she so very much wants to have a tea party with her grandsons, kind of funny.

Just writing it out makes me wonder what the hell is wrong with me sometimes. I don't write crack.

Or do I? I blame a certain someone. You know who you are.

Chapter 6: Closer

xxx

Blinking slowly, Naruto's eyes tried to focus in the dim morning light sifting in through the curtains. He turned his head to the left, his body following after so that he faced Sasuke. Running his eyes over his relaxed features, he scooted just a tiny bit closer, though there was still a decent amount of space between them. He liked waking up next to Sasuke. The few times it happened made him feel like he was a morning person.

Because Sasuke was the most fun to tease in the morning, not to mention a sleeping Sasuke was a nice change from the usual, tense one. Sasuke was always on guard, somehow, always thinking what if. He felt a little guilty for forcing him to attend the party, but shrugged it off.

He was selfish enough to want Sasuke there on his birthday, besides, he was the only one there from their own world, and Naruto needed a distraction so he wouldn't think of all the people that must be worried about them. If Sasuke was there, things were normal.

Sighing lightly through his nose, he lifted his hand to brush a few of Sasuke's dark bangs from his face, the other ninja also sleeping on his side. He tucked them behind his ear, lips quirking when dark eyebrows slanted in an unconscious frown. Letting his fingertips trace down the side of his cheek, neck, over his shoulder, he felt something squeeze inside his chest at the thought of Sasuke trusting him enough to not wake up as he did. He paused with his palm flat against his chest, Sasuke's heartbeat a steady thump, thump, thump against the circular mark in the middle of it. There was a slight tingle spreading across his skin as Sasuke's body heat seeped through his shirt and into Naruto's hand.

Then Sasuke stirred, and he retracted his hand, rolling onto his back again and pretending to sleep.

xxx

Gazing up at the impressive sand-colored stone building, Sasuke was reminded of the time he was little and asked Itachi why the shape resembled a cat. While Itachi had only smiled and said nothing, he had to admit that looking at it again, the resemblance was striking. The upper part was shaped in a half-moon, two round windows on each side for eyes, and there were two actual ears adorning the roof. In the middle was a tall protuberance of lighter color, a window split in many small glass panes covering most of the front, the Konoha police force symbol proudly hung at the top. Stairs as wide as the front of the building led up to the entrance, supportive pillars along the sides.

It was a building he'd seen many times as a child, but entered few.

Other buildings were scattered around it, creating a rather large compound, and somewhere among them was the prison for the less dangerous criminals. In his dimension, the whole thing had been rebuilt with a different design after Pein's invasion, though the symbol with the four-pointed grey star and the Uchiha crest in the middle hadn't been used in a long time.

He followed Fugaku inside, through a waiting room that was empty at the moment save for one ninja by an information desk who nodded at them with a polite smile. Fugaku might be the leader of the police force here as well, but he was nothing like the stern father he'd grown up with.

"In here is where most of the work is done," he informed in a low voice, pushing open a large door to reveal a spacious room filled with desks in neat rows, almost all of them occupied despite the early hour.

Though, Sasuke had been allowed to sleep in a bit, due to Naruto's birthday.

It took his brain a while to process the view that met him, because seeing all these Uchiha clan members in one place was like a strange dream. Some of them he recognized, others he didn't. There were also a few non-Uchiha, but it seemed as if tradition held true.

"Fugaku-taichou, here are the reports you requested."

Sasuke eyed the man that had approached them, recognizing him as one of the people that had confronted Itachi once about his loyalty towards the clan.

"Thank you, Inabi," Fugaku said, accepting the papers and leafing through them distractedly.

"Oh, Sasuke! It's been a while, how are you?"

Inabi was smiling at him, and Sasuke had to force down the urge to question him about the things he'd said to Itachi. His brain knew that this was an alternate dimension, and that here, people that should be dead weren't and hadn't done the things he could remember them doing. It didn't help his subconscious reactions, however, and he clenched his teeth to force down the uncomfortable feeling.

"Fine, thank you," he forced out, probably not sounding very convincing because the other man frowned slightly.

To his luck, Fugaku ushered him further inside towards his office, no one else bothering them along the way. He had to swallow several times, trying to push down the memories of some of these ninja being ten years younger, lying dead all over the Uchiha compound.

"You look a little pale, is everything alright?" Fugaku asked once they were safely inside the office.

Sasuke didn't know what to say. Sure, I'm just having trouble separating memories from reality. If this could be called reality.

"Hn," his supposed father answered when he nodded, not pressing the issue. "At first I'd thought to ask that you help out with some reports, but Naori requested an assistant while doing her rounds so you will be helping her, if you don't mind."

"That's fine," Sasuke said, eager to get out of there again.

He didn't think he could survive sitting in that room for hours, surrounded by living ghosts.

"I'll call her, then."

Fugaku got up, exchanging a few words with someone outside the door, then returned to sit behind his desk.

"I haven't had the time yet to explain the situation to everyone, it seems Tsunade-sama isn't sure whether we can spread the information or not. However, considering the difference in personality, I don't think anyone would believe that the two of you are the same person."

Sasuke almost snorted at that.

"I figured we would tell anyone who demands to know, and not make an issue of it for the time being. I will explain things to Naori."

Nodding again, Sasuke wondered if she was named after the woman Itachi had described to him, the ancestor that used the Izanami. He couldn't remember someone with that name, but it was highly possible that there were members of the Uchiha clan that existed simply because this world hadn't been affected by wars and causing many to die prematurely.

He sat down in one of the chairs, listening with half an ear to Fugaku explaining about current issues and actions being taken to solve them. There didn't seem to be much going on, though it appeared that a few criminals had escaped during Menma's attack on the village and they were still tracking them down. Other than that, Konoha had received an unexpected amount of missions lately, and several members of the police force had been asked by the Hokage to help.

He almost wished he'd declined helping out, though he couldn't think of a reason for doing so. All he knew was that, while this world seemed to offer the life he had expected for himself as a child, it also left a bitter aftertaste inside his mouth.

xxx

"I'm very impressed" Minato said, and Naruto felt his face heat up as he received the praise. "I haven't tried teaching Menma yet."

"Well, I just really wanted to learn it" Naruto answered, grinning as he sat down on the grass in the middle of a training ground. "I can take a person with me, too."

Minato nodded, sitting down as well. They'd spent the past hour comparing their use of the technique, and Naruto was very happy to get tips directly from Minato. There weren't really anyone else in Konoha who knew how to use it.

"You're a skilled ninja, Naruto. Maybe when Menma meets you, he'll put a little more effort into his training."

"Well, I worked hard for it! I can use sage techniques too, and-" he chuckled, embarrassed. "I didn't mean to brag."

"Oh, no, that's fine. So, you're a jounin, then?"

Naruto grimaced.

"Uh, well, I'm supposed to take the test in a year or so. There were a lot of things happening, and, I was off training and stuff too."

Admitting that he passed the chuunin exam just a few months ago didn't really sound so good, in his opinion. He didn't want to brag, but it would be annoying if people thought that his chuunin status reflected his skills in any way.

"So you got delayed?"

He nodded, sighing inwardly. It was so difficult to explain things without getting into the whole story of Sasuke and the war.

"It would be very interesting to see you spar with Menma when he comes back, I'm sure there are many differences between your fighting styles."

Thinking back to their previous fight, Naruto realized there was something that had been bugging him for a while. Namely, the fact that it had been a full blown Kurama vs Kurama fight.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"But of course!"

"If Menma has Kurama, how is it possible that Kushina is alive?"

Minato looked at him in contemplative silence, crossing his legs to sit more comfortably.

"Well, by Kurama I assume you mean the Kyuubi?" When Naruto nodded, he continued. "When Menma was born, the seal was weakened and it tried to escape. We managed to stop it, by first sealing the part still remaining within Kushina inside of her, and then sealing the escaped part inside of Menma."

"So they both have one part each?"

Naruto was gaping. Sure, his dad had sealed the Yin part within himself and the Yang part within Naruto, though he now possessed both halves. To think that here, almost the same thing had happened without any help from Obito…

"Yes, but Kushina can't use her part. It's only for safe-keeping. And Menma can only use a small part of its chakra."

"But when I fought him, he could… no, that was probably because of Obito…"

"Obito?"

Naruto winced. Well, shit.

"The masked man, I mean."

"The masked man was Obito?!"

Minato looked positively upset, and Naruto wasn't surprised.

"Not your Obito. I didn't mean to tell you. A lot of things happened, but everything is fine now back home, so you don't need to worry about it."

The crease between Minato's brows was still deep, and Naruto lowered his eyes. He supposed it would be impossible to keep everything secret, especially if they had to stay for a while.

"It seems," Minato started slowly, "that a lot of things are different between our worlds. You mentioned that I was the fourth Hokage, too."

Naruto bit his lip, flexing his right hand. The bandage covering it served as a painful reminder of all the things he'd gone through to get where he was now, and he wasn't looking forward to an eventual explanation being forced out of him. Minato hadn't questioned him when he'd asked to swing by a shop for some new bandage, having discarded the old last night. It was only a question of time, though, before someone asked about it.

And it didn't help that Sasuke had a matching left hand.

xxx

Once Fugaku had explained things to Naori, who seemed to be in her early twenties, she took him to a changing room past a long corridor. She dug through a few cartons, glancing at him now and then in order to measure his size. She settled for two sizes in the end, handing them both to him and declaring she would wait for him outside.

Two folded standard ninja shirts in hand, he wondered why he needed to switch from the one he already wore. Though, he supposed, it would look better if he wore the correct symbol on the sides of his arms. He slipped out of his vest and shirt, holding up the two new ones to check which would fit. Picking one, he turned it and stuck his arms inside, pausing before pulling it on.

By wearing this, he'd be fulfilling one of his childhood dreams, in a sense. He could remember the feeling of pride, knowing his father was the leader of the police force, certain that one day, he'd be the same.

Inhaling deeply, he wound his arms all the way through the sleeves, pulling it on in a swift move. It fit, and he ran a finger over the symbol on one arm, feeling the unfamiliar shape of it. Thinning his lips he grabbed his vest and wasted no time putting it on again, leaving the other shirt on top of a box and bringing his own outside with him.

"Oh, you can put it in an empty locker, if you want," Naori said, all business, and Sasuke did as told.

It was nice to be paired with someone who didn't seem overly friendly with him, though perhaps she was just professional. He'd almost believed that no one here was.

"We'll be taking a tour over the east side of the wall, check in with a store owner that recently experienced a burglary on the way there, and a few other minor things," she explained as they left the building at a slow walk, making no move to speed up the process of getting there.

"Are we walking there?" he asked, not thrilled about the prospect of parading through half the village on their way.

"Of course!" She seemed surprised by his question. "In order for the villagers to feel safe, we need to be seen, as opposed to the other ninjas on duty."

She was smiling at him, expression curious, and Sasuke felt he shouldn't have asked. The less people guessed about him the better.

As they walked, quite a few people turned to stare after them. Not just girls, but others as well, and it made Sasuke wonder if they were surprised by the sight of 'him' all serious while on duty, dressed in police attire.

"Hmm, Sasu-chan sure has a lot of admirers," Naori mused, and Sasuke froze mid-step.

"What did you call him?" he asked, voice weaker than he wanted to admit.

"Oh, sorry," she chuckled, waiting for him to defrost again. "He was such a sweet child, and old habits die hard. Though, I suppose when he grows up a bit to be more like you, I won't be able to call him that anymore."

Her smile wasn't flirtatious, and Sasuke was thankful that she seemed to think of him more as a little brother than anything else.

"We're the same age, though," he said, limbs relaxing again as she gaped at him.

"Really? I thought you were past twenty, at least!"

He raised an eyebrow at her, continuing to walk.

"Must be the difference in your personality," she said when she caught up with him. "How strange."

"Most of the people here have a different personality compared to where I'm from" he offered as explanation, not wanting her to ask any questions regarding how they grew up.

She thought about it for a while, but decided to drop the issue.

"Alright, then." She pointed to a building about a hundred meters away. "That's where we're going now. I apologize beforehand, because you will most likely be bored out of your mind listening to that old woman talk. I know I will be."

Sasuke didn't mind. He'd take a boring woman any day over the stares he got from people who seemed to have nothing better to do. At least it took his mind off other things, like why he'd had the lingering feeling that Naruto had been much closer just before he woke up…

I couldn't resist sneaking in some subtext romance already. I mean, the entire manga is built on subtext romance, anyway. Except when it's painfully obvious and written badly. Let's hope I can think of something to write in the next chapter. All in favor of throwing in Itachi soon raise a hand.