He is alone. It's the first thing Sasuke's aware of. There's no one else around – nor nothing else around, but a myriad of colors that stretch above him, below him, around him. It makes no sense. He is on nothing, nothing at all, and yet he is standing. The Uchiha takes a step forward, glancing around, and that's when he sees him.

It's him, from long ago.

The young him is crying, fiercely crying, and Sasuke feels no need to wipe his tears. He feels the need to shake him, to tell him to stop crying because crying solves nothing, it does nothing, but the other boy speaks first. "Father and Mother didn't need to die!"

And suddenly, he's back in his home.

The bodies of his parents lay before him, fallen over each other from where they were kneeling – why? Why were they kneeling? – but everything has a sheen of… of fakeness to it. It's like one of his nightmares, when he keenly realizes it's a nightmare, and knows it's not the truth. But the younger him keeps talking, and the real Sasuke trembles.

"Everyone was killed," the younger boy says, and the older Sasuke can't see his eyes anymore, can't see his gaze, as he hunches forward, hiding in the shadow of his hair. "I had no power so… the clan vanished."

This is an illusion, Sasuke thinks. It's not a nightmare. It feels too… too vivid to be that, the other Sasuke, but everything else is so fake it must be an illusion. But not a genjutsu…?

"After all," the young boy says, clutching at his head, "Without power… I can't do anything! Because I had no power… everyone was killed!"

"No…" he says, and he looks up, and the real Sasuke trembles. "You killed them. You only watched. If I only I had power…"

And the boy shifts, transforms, and it's Itachi, it's Itachi and he's reaching out for him and- "If only I had the power…"

Sasuke wakes up. There's no pain. He feels… strong. Powerful. As if he could take on the world and leave it as nothing but ashes behind him.

It's a good feeling.

Naruto is lying next to him. He remembers how Orochimaru had pinned him to the tree, had done something, so he reaches out, pressing his fingers to Naruto's throat to make sure he's alive, and he does. Thump, thump, thump goes his heart, and he breathes, and Sasuke pushes himself to his feet.

There are others here.

Team 8 is here. Hinata pins down a sound genin. Shino holds Kiba. One sound genin lies on the ground, stunned and groaning. One sound genin stands, a half-crazed grin seemingly on his face beneath his bandages. Two Ame genin, in the same uniform as Oboro, stand in the center. And Sakura-

Sakura is hurt. One arm wrapped up, as if broken, hanging from a strip of cloth around her neck, a bloodstain on her front, her hair chopped short, Akamaru clutched to her with her free arm and tears on her face. Sakura looks beaten up and terrified.

She meets his eyes. "Sakura," he says, slowly but surely, feeling the power swirl in and around him. "Who did this to you? Who is it?"

"Sasuke…" She says, and she shakes. "Your body…?"

He has his sharingan activated, he realizes, though he doesn't recall activating it, but that's not the concern here. Sasuke looks down, and there are… flames trailing up his arms. Not real ones, but… tattoos…?

That should be alarming. He doesn't know where this power is coming from, he doesn't know why these marks are on his arms, and the sharingan activated without his conscious thought.

Sasuke isn't alarmed.

"Don't worry," he says. He understands, now, what the woman had been saying. She had given him power. The power that flows freely within him – and she can give him more, if that is what he desires? Interesting.

He smirks. "Sakura, get behind me." Uncertainly, she glances at Shino, and then Hinata, but does as he says. Slowly, but surely, shuffles towards him, step by step by step. She's slow, but that's something Sasuke has long learned about her. He has all the time in the world… None of them can stand up to him here.

The moment she's close enough, he grabs her. Not hard, but not gentle either, and she looks terrified.

She shouldn't be looking at him that way, whispers part of his mind, but he ignores it, squashes it back down and refuses to think about it. Who knows. Maybe she should.

"Who did this to you, Sakura," he says, and it's not a question. It's a demand, and her eyes skitter away from him. From the corner of his eye, he can see Team 8 readying themselves for something, but he pays them no mind. He can take them.

She's terrified, trembling beneath his fingers. "Oro… Orochimaru," Sakura whispers, and Sasuke absorbs that. The blood on her front must have been from when she cut her. The broken arm from when she fell. But her hair…

"Was she the only one?" he presses, and Sakura's eyes flicker. Flicker in one specific ninja's direction. Sasuke lets go and he's gone.

This power is so much. He flies across the clearing in an instant, smashing his leg into the sound genin's side and sending him into the closest tree. The genin cries out, falling helplessly onto the ground, and it's clear he's broken something. Sasuke grins, putting his foot on the other ninja's chest. "Don't touch her," he breathes.

(Something's going on behind him, but he ignores it. He cares little for the antics of Team 8. They're nothing to him, nothing but dust and ashes and vermin.)

The genin's eyes are wide, wide wide wide and frightened, and Sasuke relishes in this. He brought him down. He made this genin feel as though there was no way out, no possible way to win. "Please," he begs, and oh he begs. It's delicious. It's beautiful. Sasuke presses down harder with his foot, and the genin gasps. "P-Please… I'll g-give you my scroll, just… let us go, please…"

Sasuke stops. Considers this for a moment. "Give me the scroll."

The genin reaches into his pouch, and Sasuke watches him closely. He pulls out naught but a scroll, and the Uchiha relaxes, reaching down to take it. It's an Earth scroll. Exactly what they need.

He smirks. "This is exactly what we need," he says, and hope, desperate, dogged hope flickers across the sound shinobi's face. "Too bad it doesn't matter." Sasuke grinds down with his foot, digging into the genin's ribs, and he screams in pain.

"Sasuke-"

There's no one but the two of them, no one but Sasuke, the one who is feared, who is a threat, who has so much power he can dispose of this genin with barely a thought-

"Sasuke!"

If this is what true power is, he needs it. Craves it. This is the way to defeat Itachi, he knows, and he grinds down even harder. Any more, and he'll kill him, Sasuke thinks. Snap the remaining rib bones and drive his foot straight through his heart. It's what he deserves. It's what he should do. He hurt Sakura, and that meant Sasuke should-

The fist comes out of nowhere.

One second, it's him and the genin and power and fear and everything he'd ever wanted, and the next, a fist is slamming into his cheek, sending him flying off the sound genin. Sasuke twists around in midair to land nimbly on his feet, glaring with red red red eyes, and meets the eyes of his opponent.

It's Naruto.

He's breathing hard, Sakura right behind him – she must have woken him up? – and he's glaring. "Bastard!" he says. "What the hell was that for!? You were gonna kill him!"

Of course he was, Sasuke almost says. He deserves it. He did, and Sasuke should end him and the world would be better and-

But he stops. Looks at the way fear flickers through Naruto's eyes, though a different fear than the terror Sakura holds. Looks at the genin, barely breathing at the ground. Looks at the way that the conscious members of Team 8 stand ready to battle, a few feet behind them, and even the Ame Genin seem ready to pounce to save the one that Sasuke had been hurting.

He had… he had been ready to kill that genin. Kill him because of power.

"Why? Why did you do this?"

"To test the limits of my ability…"

Sasuke turns around and throws up in the nearest bush. He sinks to his knees, trembling trembling trembling, hugging himself tightly and he's so, so relieved to feel that power, that terrifying, dark power leave him. The flames on his arm are gone. Chakra no longer swirls around him. He's nothing but Sasuke. Just… just Sasuke.

Naruto wraps his arms around him, and Sasuke sinks into him, shaking. He's warm.

Things go on in the background. Talking. Discussions. Sasuke tunes it all out. He can't- He can't focus on it, can't think, can't really do anything. At one point, Naruto switches spots with Sakura, and she sits next to him, arm wrapped around him. She's not as warm as Naruto.

All he can do is stare at his feet, head between his legs and try to breathe.

Someone is saying his name, but he doesn't respond. He doesn't acknowledge it, until there's a rough shove to his side and he almost topples over, barely catching himself. "Oy, Sasuke," the voice says, and Sasuke realizes it's Naruto. He blinks up at him, meeting worried blue eyes. "Come on. We're leaving."

He accepts the hand that helps him to his feet, staggering into his teammate, and he finally, finally, takes stock of the entire clearing.

All three of the sound genin are tied up, but they're apparently not being left behind. The Ame genin both have one they're carrying, and Shino has the other. Kiba is up, but woozy looking, leaning on Hinata, while Sakura carries Akamaru in her non-broken arm. Oboro's corpse is nowhere to be found, and Sasuke thinks someone must have sealed it away, for there's no upturned earth that he can see.

And Naruto is standing behind him, right there for Sasuke to lean on. "Alright," he whispers hoarsely, and sees a little bit of tension fade from the other's shoulders.

They're slow going. With two members of the group leaning on others, three passengers, and Sakura being… Sakura (though maybe that's uncharitable, given how hurt she is), they make slow going. It's okay. Sasuke doesn't mind it.

The others talk quietly among themselves, but Naruto is quiet, for once, and no one speaks to Sasuke. It's alright. He's okay with that.

He doesn't want to talk.

It's not until they reach the tower, though, limping through the darkness and the night (for there is no reason to stop, not now), that Sasuke comes to a realization. "Naruto," he asks, voice rasping from lack of water, and his teammate snaps to attention. "Did anyone grab the sound genins' scroll?"

There's a silence, and the Uchiha tries not to curse. They need that scroll, they need to keep going, but none of them (except maybe Naruto) is in any state to keep going. "You can have ours," says one of the Ame genin, and Team 7's eyes snap to him.

Sakura protests. "No! We- We couldn't take your scroll!"

The second one shakes his head. "You have to have all three team members, to… to finish the second exam. We. Don't." His voice cracks at that, even as he reaches in his pouch, pulling out his scroll and offering it to Sakura. "You did your best, with- with Oboro. Take it."

She does.

They're some of the first teams back, but Sasuke can't bring himself to care. Iruka is stunned by the state of their team, and there is a lot of yelling, lots of strong words, lots of things that Sasuke just tunes out.

He pays attention when Kakashi shows up, though, because Kakashi tries to take him from his teammates.

"Sasuke," he says, with patience that the genin has never heard from his teacher in his life, "We need to deal with that seal."

The boy shakes his head, stubborn as can be. "Then they come with me. They can watch." He's not letting them out of his sight. For… quite a few reasons, but he doesn't want to think of them, because they whirl and twist and blend in his head until he can't focus. He can barely focus at all, right now.

Kakashi sighs, and caves, and the two watch as Kakashi draws painstaking patterns over the Uchiha's body. "You have to want it to stay sealed away," his teacher says, and Sasuke nods.

He wants it to stay tucked away. Very, very much so.

For the next three days, all he does is sleep. That medic, Kabuto, shows up at one point, and offers to heal everyone who needs it – all the Konoha ninja that need it, that is, and Sasuke decides he must not be so bad. Sakura definitely needs the healing.

At least one of his teammates is by his side at all times, and Sasuke can't find himself mad about it. He likes having them close. Likes waking up with a sudden jolt and seeing them right there, breathing and alive and decidedly unmurdered by Itachi or Orochimaru or even himself.

Sakura must tell Naruto everything, because he doesn't bother Sasuke with questions, and the Uchiha is extremely grateful for that. He doesn't think he could answer them right now, and it's not like he exactly has a lot of answers.

Naruto just stays close, and Sakura just stays close, and even Kakashi occasionally peeks his head in, pretending he was just swinging by even though there's no reason for him to be in the tower aside from visiting his team.

The night before the second part of the exam ends, Naruto sits next to him on the bed, their shoulders brushing. "Are you ready for tomorrow?" he asks with a grin, like nothing has happened, and Sasuke…

Sasuke finally, finally relaxes. He smirks. "More than you, idiot."

The ensuing squabble is a balm to all of his worries.

A/N: All of my current chapters are now uploaded! This fanfiction updates every other Wednesday - meaning the next time it will update will be February 21. Thanks for reading! You can find me on chadsuke on AO3, chadsuke on tumblr, or cornerofyoureyefic on tumblr. Thanks again!