Sunday, August 10th, 2014.

Yes, I know.

I haven't updated in months. And I apologize for that (I really do, though I'm sure many wouldn't forgive me, and I wouldn't blame you if you don't).

I thought I would be able to get stuff done over the summer - I honestly didn't get anything done. That was the least productive break I've ever had. I don't even think I finished one anime during the course of the break - I tried to watch Hyouka, but if I remember right, I barely finished it by the time school started. I also went to Kenya for a month.

Anyway, for both DoOVer and ReWind, I'll be updating whenever I have a chapter written. That could be within the next two weeks, or next two months (hopefully the former). I'm not going to set deadlines because clearly I'm terrible at them.

If I finish a chapter during the week, I plan to try and update them that Sunday (or Wednesday - school lets out early then). Try to keep some consistency. No promises, though.

Fun Fact(s): Like I said, I went to Kenya this summer. For a month. It was nice. I asked my cousins if they'd heard about anime, and one of my cousins from the city said it wasn't big there (like I expected), but apparently, Bleach seems to be the most popular out of what is spread around. Which makes no sense to me - in a country where basically everyone is either Christian or Muslim, how is BLEACH the most popular? Anyone who hasn't seen it (and even some who have) would make judgments about shows with souls, monsters, and the near Japanese equivalent of Grim Reapers? How does that makes sense? Why isn't Naruto or One Piece more popular then? Ninjas and pirates are more likely to get accepted with or without judgement than spirits are. Not that I'm complaining - it just makes no sense to me.

News: I'm back in school.

AotW: I try to watch anime and write fanfiction over breaks. However, the summer break was completely unproductive. I got more done this week of school (watched the Extended version of Psycho Pass, and the second Season of Free, and caught up on nearly all the anime and manga that I missed) than I did during my whole summer.

Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto.

Dedication: Specifically, Osiria Rose and White Tiger of Onyx Star. Sorry I haven't been a good friend and responding to your guys so late.

GRR:
Guest (who reviewed to chapter 3): Yes, I know. It's pretty bad, I'm sorry. I cringe at my writing, but it can only improve slowly. I wanna finish ReWind and DoOver before I graduate (I believe I will - there isn't THAT much left that I plan to add) so maybe sometime in college/university, I'll re-write them when my writing skills are somewhat satisfactory.
Leo: Thank you for all of your suggestions. I'll take them into consideration. :)
Red (who reviewed to chapter 16): I'm glad you're happy. :)

Chapter:
Content: Sasuke confronts Tsunade about the truth.
Romance: Mentions of SasuSaku.
Warning: Language; quite a few f-bombs in there. And I didn't write Sasuke's relief and reaction as well as I would have liked. Also, this has only been edited once. Sorry for the mistakes. It's also a shorter chapter than usual.

Length:
No AN: approx. 2.5k+.
AN: approx. 3.4k+.

The next chapter will be the start of what I'll call the Holidays Arc (Christmas, New Years, birthdays).


Chapter 48: Answers


Sasuke POV

"What are you doing here at this time of the night?"

She didn't look up once. Just kept shuffling through her stack of paper work, occasionally stopping to read something more thoroughly and either signing or keep shuffling.

"I'm tired," I replied slowly.

"Then go home and sleep. You don't need me to tuck you in," she snapped.

"I'm tired of people giving me the run-around. I want straight answers."

Only now did she look up.

Her head raised slowly and menacingly. When her full face was revealed, she had an incriminating sneer on her face. The moon's rays made her look almost menacing, like a shark.

Almost.

If I were a lesser being, I would have been intimidated by her. But I wasn't.

I'd had a long, angry and puzzling day and I've been confused for months now. Every day makes less sense than the last. The one goal I dedicated my whole life to seems as if it's all been a lie.

I'm sick and tired of not knowing. I want to fucking know what is going on.

Now.

"I want the truth," I reiterated, power and anger and frustration making its way into my voice. "And I want it now." I stood, making my way to her desk and slamming my hands on her desk, scattering her papers.

"Alright, alright," she said pushing my hands away from her desk and rearranging her papers. She still had that stupid smirk on her face.

I stood still and pissed in front of her desk, a scowl on my face, refusing to move until I got what I came here for.

"Can you handle the truth?" she asked me. A movie quote? Really?! I don't have time for this! She knows exactly what I'm talking about, and she's just playing with me!

I growled in irritation. "I don't have the patience for your games, woman. Quit playing around!"

I was barely containing my anger, my body was literally trembling with adrenaline.

She stared at me for a few still moments, as if gauging how serious I was.

In the meantime, I was seriously restraining myself from breaking her desk into pieces or completely flipping it over and throwing it somewhere.

Preferably at her or out the window. At the moment, the former sounds very appealing. Hurry up, woman!

Finally, her expression became somber and serious, and she stood up straighter in her swivel Hokage chair.

"So you're serious, huh?"

"I've never quite been one to joke, especially for matters like this," I ground out through my teeth.

She nodded, standing up and heading to the door. She motioned for me to follow her.

"Come on. I think we need some different scenery."

She nodded at the ANBU we passed by, who disappeared somewhere (likely to follow us), as well as at Shizune, who looked confused when we passed then seemed to lose her confusion when Tsunade nodded to her. Any other employees of the Tower were waved off.

She took me to some (very nice and somewhat large) house near the woods. I figured it must be hers (every Hokage had a house, even if they lived more at the tower or somewhere smaller. The larger houses were often more of a formality and decoration than of actual use).

We entered and she took me to what looked like a study.

"Take a seat."

I sat in a leather seat in front of a desk that she pointed to.

"I figured a more private… environment would be better for a conversation like this." She sat in a seat behind the desk, facing me.

I raised my eyebrow, then sighed lightly in relief.

"So you're actually going to give me the truth for once." Almost immediately, nearly all of my anger and frustration left me in a rush, and I slouched a bit in the chair. I was finally getting what I wanted all along. The truth.

"Yeah. Most of it, anyway. The general gist of things."

I was surprised. "Just the gist?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Be glad I'm giving you even this much. Certain details need to be told by someone else, anyway."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, then."

"So, to begin with, you know about us ladies, right? You know we're hiding something."

"You all as well as Sai, Jiraiya, Yamato and possibly Asuma, yes. We do know."

"Asuma actually is pretty innocent. Poor guy's as confused as the rest of you. Mostly."

"So you admit Sai, Yamato and Jiraiya are in on it." I was right!

"For the most part, that's basically it. Anyway." She coughed, clearing her throat (though it was more likely actually for dramatic effect).

"The girls plus Sai and Yamato used a time travel jutsu to return to the past to prevent a war and other certain events from happening. This is roughly about two and half years into the future."(1)

I froze.

…What? Is she shitting me?

"Are you fucking kidding me? You can't be fucking serious!" I stood, enraged that she would try to pull that shit on me (but part of me insisted that she was telling the truth).

I can't be the only one that thinks it's a little more than coincidence that Lee said the exact same thing that she's saying right now. I don't think she's shitting us, Outer. I think she's telling me the truth.

That's it. Everyone's going fucking crazy! How could I have only realized now that I was surrounded by madmen?

"Watch your language, Uchiha," she said, motioning to the chair to make me sit again. "And I'm serious. It sounds stupid –I never realized how much until now– but I'm telling the truth. And deactivate your Sharingan."

I sat again, cautiously and slowly, glaring at her the whole time. I deactivated my Sharingan, as well. I never even realized that I had activated it in the first place.

"Explain," I growled. Now this is getting fucking ridiculous.

"Yeah, yeah," she rolled her eyes. "I'm serious about the time travel thing. In the future, there's a war, and we sent ourselves back to prevent it. A fourth Shinobi War."

"Oh my God," I groaned, throwing my head back. Am I so tired that I started hallucinating? Am I asleep?

"Please tell me Lee's not part of this," I said, facing Tsunade again.

She looked confused. "Lee? Why Lee? I already told you who went back to the past. Or present, as you know it."

I shook my head. "Nevermind. Continue."

"You believe me?"

"Honestly?" I rose a brow. "Not really. But what more have I got to lose? Might as well try right? And take what I can get?"

She shrugged. "Fair enough."

"So tell me about this... future of yours."

She nodded. "I'm sure you know some of this already, you've been getting dreams, haven't you?"

I blinked.

"Yeah, I knew."

"I've been having dreams, yeah," I sighed. "Just go on."

"Alright. So to start with, you were bitten by Orochimaru, like you have been here. You became more… hostile, I guess, and according to Sakura and future Kakashi, you also became jealous of Naruto's ability to get stronger without you even realizing it. Made you realize that you needed to get stronger, so I assume, and you soon made a plan to leave the village. Because apparently you didn't think you'd get stronger fast enough here. Which I think is stupid logic - if Naruto's sudden progress was surprising to you, shouldn't it be possible for you to have quick progress here, too? Naruto could do it right? Or did you think people here were too soft or something? Or could that be the Curse Mark talking? Either way, dumb logic."

I rolled my eyes. "You're digressing."

"Right. Anyway, Kakashi tried to talk you out of it," she continued, "but that didn't work. I don't know if it was just you, or if it was the Curse Mark enhancing every negative emotion you've ever had, but you became more and more withdrawn, and more and more bitter and bitchy. Soon enough, you set out one night to leave the village, but you found you weren't alone."

Tsunade continued to explain to me how Sakura had been there the night I left. She was never told explicitly what had happened that night, but clearly, Sakura tried to stop me, but I knocked her out and left her on a bench. The bench. My eyes widened. Sakura…

And the night I left was only just the beginning of her story.


Sasuke POV

I buried my face into my hands.

"The details of the Massacre you'll have to learn from Itachi himself. I don't have the right to tell you that much – I can only tell you the general idea," Tsunade finished, her voice low, almost subdued. I guess she has a bit of a soft side.

"No wonder you hate me so much," I murmured, still shocked by everything that she had just told me.

"I'm trying hard not to. Techincally, the Sasuke that hurt Sakura and Naruto isn't you." She said softly. "Not to mention, if the newest dreams are any indication, you're changing for the better. Just a bit. You even helped her."

She's talking about the dream of the future where Sakura helped Obito open a portal to some alternate dimension long enough for me to get through, and how I caught her when she collapsed from exhaustion. I've also been helping Naruto and the others lately.

Despite, that I still did other horrible things. It helped to hear how I hadn't actually killed anyone, despite popular belief (2), and that this war wasn't actually my fault, but my guilt was still threatening to swallow me alive. I was struggling to keep my breathing steady.

Calm down, me. This war would have happened with or without me. Obito and Madara simply used me as a pawn to speed things up, and I didn't object because it helped me with what I wanted. (3) There's no reason for me to blame myself for that.

"What are you planning on doing now?" Tsunade asked, face hard.

I snapped my head up back to her. "Are you seriously still expecting me to leave?!"

She shrugged. "You tell me."

I groaned again, messing up my hair in frustration. "I don't even know what I want anymore. Killing Itachi for revenge would be pointless at this point, and leaving to Orochimaru for any reason at all would be even more pointless. Half my whole life has been a lie…"

I sunk my head into my hands again.

"Well, not quite everything is thrown up into the air," Tsunade commented, "There's something that should still be very clear to you, even if anything else isn't."

I peeked at her through my fingers. "What?"

"You still want Sakura, don't you?"

I froze. Sakura.

I can't believe I forgot all about that.

"Revenge or no, alternate future or no, you still want Sakura, right? Stuff like that just doesn't disappear so easily."

I took my hands away from my face, wary. "You act like you almost approve of my feelings for her. Like you want us to be together."

"I want Sakura to be happy, and you make her happy. I approve so long as it's what she wants and that the condition of her happiness (and well-being, of course) is met." She corrected me. "And you're not all bad. You're a heck of a lot better now than before, as much as I hate to admit it. You may prove yourself capable of being at least somewhat good to her yet. Don't let this go to your head though - I won't say anything like this again and I still don't like you all that much."

I was silent, though inwardly, something like gratefulness, hope, and anticipation sparked inside my chest. Man, she's pretty tsundere, isn't she?

"Sakura's a good girl," Tsunade continued. "She has her faults, but she tries. She's only human after all. And so are you. And the rest of us."

I nodded.

"She shouldn't have to wait forever for you to come around and decide you want her and do something about it. If you want to stay, make her happy."

I remained silent.

"You guys are all going to your mom's tomorrow, right?" I raised a brow at her change of subject, but nodded. Where is she going with this?

"The week-and-a-half long stay at your family's place is a good opportunity to decide what you want to do, and prove to Sakura you want her and will treat her the way she deserves to be, if that's what you decide to do. If you don't do something soon, you may be too late." Her eyes were hard, but I knew she only wanted her student to be happy. And if I could do that, she wanted the best for me, too, even if she never showed it.

"Thank you," I said sincerely, grateful for her advice.

She stood up, gesturing for me to stand up as well.

"Sure, now get out of here. I have work to finish back at the Tower."

I stood, and followed her back to the Tower.

She told me to follow her to her office, and when we got there, she gave me some old scroll from some kind of secret compartment in her desk.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Itachi's mission scroll." My eyes widened.

"Open it at home," she instructed.

I nodded, then made my way to the door to leave.

"Just a second Uchiha." I turned toward her, and found her expression harsh again, and stern.

"Just so you know, if you dare try to leave the village, not only will you fail, but you'll face charges of treason and the life of a convict right here in your home town, your privileges stripped until we deem you worthy of getting them back, little by little. Is that understood?" She spit out.

At first I was shocked, but then I shook my head and smirked.

"Understood."

Right before I closed the door to her office, I peeked back inside for a moment. "And by the way, Hokage-sama? You can call off those dogs of yours that have been tailing me for weeks now. I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon."

Did you really just call the ANBU dogs?

Yes, yes I did.

I closed the door before I could see or hear her reaction.

As I walked home, I remembered something.

I turned away from the direction I usually take to go home, heading instead to a certain store that's been on my mind for the past few weeks.

It's time I take a little detour…


(1): Yeah, about two and a half years. In the manga, Naruto's supposed to turn 17 "tomorrow", whenever that'll be. It seems like it's probably technically around midnight right now, but it's been the same day for nearly 2 years' worth of manga already. In this story, most of the character are 14.
(2): I've said this before, but if you pay attention, Sasuke hasn't killed a soul. He tried, but he hasn't. Back when he was training with Orochimaru, the snake once asked why Sasuke never killed any of the random fodder guys he was supposed to train with and fight against when he was perfectly capable of doing so, and instead just knocked them out. Sasuke said there was only one man he needed to kill in response. That was early Shippuden, if I remember right. One of the first times we see Sasuke. Then, Sasuke tried to kill Itachi, Danzo, and Karin. Itachi was dying already, and Sasuke's Kirin didn't kill him either. Danzo committed suicide (trying to take Sasuke down with him, but failing), and Sasuke told Sakura to finish Karin off for him to test her allegiance to him. Obviously, that didn't happen. So yeah, Sasuke hasn't killed anyone. He's not a murderer guys.

QotW:
#1: More X-Mas present ideas. Remember, that arc begins in the next chapter. Presents between couples, okay guys? Between Sakura and Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata, Gaara and Matsuri, etc.
#2: Got any special talents? Or maybe something that, if you dedicated your time and effort and passion to, you think you can become good at? Have potential in?

Sincere apologies,
Love,
-Cherry.

PS: Don't forget to review!

I love you guys! I've missed you!