AN: Again I just want to reiterate, especially since it's been so long, that none of this is actually happening. Sasuke is just getting a taste of his future and each future contains the worst possible results where every choice is the most wrong. It's more of a learning experience than anything else.

Captivated versus Captive

Naruto looked peaceful in his sleep. His face was smooth but he had aged. This was much much farther into the future than his previous life then. He'd spent an agonising year there and it had taken death to relieve him of what seemed to be just a nightmare now. He gnawed on his bottom lip. Death. After months of praying and pain he'd been poisoned and his body burned.

It was not an honourable death. An honourable death by fire was one granted by a dragon. Dying as he lived, as a hunter, by the scorching breath of a great beast.

But he hadn't been a hunter when he had awoken in his village. His brother had advocated for him to become a teacher. Said that he wasn't mature enough to accept the burdens of a hunter. His mother had tried to protest it but Itachi had brought up one very damning fact that doomed him to a life of teaching children mathematics and how to read.

He'd lost his dragon spear.

He didn't lose it so to speak but when he'd argued that he would try to bring it back two things had happened. One, he couldn't find Naruto's solid gold scale that would have led him back to the spear's burial ground and two, he was forbidden from leaving the village again. His reluctance to just guide another hunter to the spear was also suspicious but he did not want to risk running into the unicorns out there. He was the only one who could see them anyways and what if they called him crazy for reacting to them. Or worse, they could also see the unicorns and tried to attack them and the stallion killed his tribesmen? Or worse, cursed them all with the worst fate imaginable. He just didn't want to take that risk.

He rubbed at his shoulders as he swung his legs over the bed. He was sure his feet were touching solid stone but it didn't feel cold. No icy jolt that would jar him awake. In fact it felt a bit warm. He wondered if it was because of magic.

Magic!

There was magic in this life! He was with Naruto now and Naruto was a dragon. A magical beast! He smiled a little and breathed a little easier. Itachi would never be able to do those things to him again. Naruto would protect him. He smiled softly to himself. He'd missed Naruto so much. Everyday he had hoped that he would catch a glimpse of him. Just there beyond the treeline. Maybe a glint of him in the clouds but he never did. But Sasuke had never lost hope. Well… mostly never lost hope. After his third cleanse, courtesy of his brother, his days had been a bit more bleak.

His heart clenched and his stomach did little flip flops. Things were different now though. He was in Naruto's home. In Naruto's bed, very far ahead in the future. Were they… together now? Was he Naruto's mate? Had they had children together?

Pathetic…

He heard someone say. He hopped up from the bed and spun around. Looking for the speaker but there wasn't anyone else in this room. Aside from him and Naruto. Naruto who was looking up at him from the bed, one blue eye staring up at Sasuke.

Sasuke's heart started galloping. Assuming it was morning, did he normally give Naruto a good morning kiss before he got up so he was thinking it was weird for Sasuke to not wake him up to one? Should he try to do that now? Or maybe he should play it cool and say that he forgot if Naruto pouted and asked why he didn't get a kiss?

You're embarrassing yourself!

That same voice said again and he spun around quickly. A ghost? Was he being haunted? "Sasuke?" Naruto's voice was deep and gravelly. Not like the smooth baritone Sasuke had adored in the past. This was fine too, just different. Sasuke could live with that.

"Good morning," he answered a little breathless as he watched Naruto push himself up into a seated position.

The dragon raised a cut brow at him, "you're greeting me first thing in the morning? Have you successfully killed me? Is this the afterlife?" he laughed out loud and threw the sheets off and stood up. He was naked and unashamed of his nudity as he rounded the bed to stand directly before Sasuke. The younger man backed up though, a flush rising up the back of his neck.

"You're not wearing any clothes!" He was about to ask the man why he was naked when he paused. If they were mated now then of course they could sleep naked together. Sasuke was fully dressed but Naruto had said to him before that dragonkin didn't mind nudity. Maybe Sasuke was still used to human customs rather than those of dragonkin. Now he wanted to know how long he and Naruto had been together.

That's enough!

In front of him Naruto closed the gap between them and continued to do so despite Sasuke taking several steps back to keep some space between them. "You're behaving oddly," he murmured as he gripped Sasuke's jaw a little too tightly. Sasuke hissed at the pain. Naruto pressed up against him as he pushed him against the wall.

"Get the fuck off of me!" That same voice said again except this time it came out of his own mouth. His body thrashed against Naruto's against his will and after a hard shove Naruto took several steps back. He, well not really him but whoever was currently controlling his body, huffed and stormed up to the blonde and Sasuke felt hot and angry and sad all at once. "It's time," his mouth said.

Naruto smirked at him and faster than Sasuke or Sasuke's ghost could react to him, he snatched a handful of Sasuke's hair and wrenched his head back. He gasped in pain even as his hands grabbed at Naruto's arm to free himself. It was no use. His grip was too tight, and his claws were scratching at Sasuke's skull the more he tried to grapple with Naruto. "It's time when I say it's time." Naruto whispered grinning down at him with a look so cruel it made Sasuke's stomach clench and his throat to close up. This fear very much reminded him of his older brother and he could hardly bear it. His heart was breaking.

"Naruto please," he could barely get the words out, he was so distraught he could hardly stop himself from sobbing. Instead of letting him go though, Naruto licked a long slimy trail of saliva up from his collar to his neck. Sasuke's body jolted against him just as Naruto's sharp teeth grazed his skin.

"Over my dead body!" He roared and in one heaving laboured jolt he sent Naruto flying backwards and tumbling onto and over the bed and onto the floor on the side. The cave seemed to tremble with Sasuke furious roar, little bits of stone and dust raining down from the ceiling. Naruto was perturbed though. In fact he laughed. Head back and holding his stomach as he cackled.

"Ahh my treasure," he purred, "everyday you delight me so…" he drawled and Sasuke felt a cold sweat slip down his back. Naruto had called him that in the cave. Way back when. But this was different from that. This though… there was something wrong with it that past Sasuke couldn't quite figure out. Present Sasuke knew exactly what it was though.

"Fuck. Off." He said again. Much more sternly this time and slowly the mirth drained from Naruto's face as he levelled Sasuke with a look. Like he was hungry. The way his eyes roved over Sasuke's body made him feel naked and embarrassed. He went to cover himself but the other him steadfastly kept their hands at their side.

"I will have you my treasure," he said matter of factly, still eyeing Sasuke with a leer, "if not today then soon. You and I both know that," he said matter of factly, as though he didn't care one way or the other.

"We'll see about that," Sasuke replied. Inside his mind Sasuke watched it all unfold. He flexed his fingers and found that his control over his body was tenuous at best and he'd need to concentrate if he wanted to wrestle control away from, who he assumed to be the rightful owner of this body, himself. He wouldn't do it now though. He didn't think he could, or should, in this situation.

The situation in question was still standing across from them using his claws to pick at his teeth. Sasuke got a better look at him since he was no longer covered by the sheets and saw that his dragon was still gold but darker. As if he were oxidising. And there were scars, so many scars, all over his torso, his arms, his thighs and maybe on his back too. There was a huge x-shaped scar near his shoulder that looked like he had been stabbed. Sasuke wondered if he was the perpetrator.

"I'll be back tonight." Naruto declared suddenly. "We don't have much time. You know that as well as I do. It'll be over soon."

"It doesn't need to be like this!" Sasuke yelled full of anger again. "If you would just-" but Naruto didn't wait for the end. Instead he turned on his heels and marched out of the room and after a few minutes it seemed like he was gone because his body stumbled back and slouched against the wall.

They stayed like that only for a few moments, just long enough for them to calm their breathing and get themself under control and then they were standing and marching through their cave house and into the washroom. The washroom still looked like a cave. It was a wide open area with a cut out area at the top that let natural sunlight in. Moss was creeping up along the wall and there were some flowering plants growing up from the ground, their stalks bent towards the light. Near the back of the cave there was a steaming pool of flowing water. A small waterfall poured in from the side of the cave and into the pool and to the far left there was a small opening where some of the water was draining away. Most of it though was contained and still.

Sasuke tried to walk over to his but he couldn't move from where he was standing where was in front of a tall stone basin that had another mini waterfall that fell into the stone mouth of the basin before it drained away somewhere behind the waterfall and above the basin all along the walls were massive flat reflective slabs of diamonds.

He stared at himself.

Just as Naruto looked older, so did he. His hair had streaks of greys, his face looked gaunt and tired. The owner of his eyes had crows feet at the corner of his eyes and he had deep bags under them. His complexion looked more greyish blue than the pale whiteness he was accustomed to and there was a gash on his mouth that had split his top lip into two. He still thought he was handsome, but the years had not been very kind.

He heard himself sigh out loud before he waved his hand at the entrance to the bathroom before he placed both hands on the basin and leaned forward to look in the diamond mirror. "Okay…" he sighed. "Who the fuck are you?"

Sasuke was startled, his mouth falling open ever so slightly but he noticed that while his mouth was open the reflection staring back at him was glaring at him. "W- what?"

"Don't play dumb. I don't like games. Who the fuck are you and why are you trying to possess my body?!"

"I'm not trying to do that I swear!" he yelled back, panicking a little. He could feel his other selves anger mixing with his own confusion and the jumbled mess and mix of emotions was making his palms sweat and his chest heave. It looked like it was affecting his other self too.

"Calm the fuck down! You're freaking me out!"

"You're freaking me out!"

"Okay fine," he took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Sasuke could feel a headache coming on. The other Sasuke must be feeling the same thing too. "Tell me who you are and why you're here."

"This might sound crazy but I'm actually you." The other him's eyes opened slowly then and judging by the emotion Sasuke was feeling right now the other him was not satisfied with this answer. "I was sent here by the unicorns. Remember the black one? That we met in the meadow a little after we escaped from Itachi? That one."

The other Sasuke actually looked at him. "I don't remember an encounter with any unicorns…" he said slowly. Sasuke could tell he was still highly suspicious of him.

"I don't really know what's going on myself but I met them by that healing spring. Do you remember that? Where we buried our dragon spear?" The other him nodded. "Right so after that some unicorns came to me. A stallion and his women. He didn't seem like he wanted to hurt me so I asked him for help. I was really in love with Naruto but I didn't know if I was doing the right thing so I asked him if he could show me my future. So, he sent me here."

"So you're here to see if you're going to stay with Naruto?"

"Not really… this is the second possible future that I'm seeing. The second of three."

"And what was the first?"

Sasuke chewed his lip for a few seconds before he sighed and shrugged. "I was back in my village but it was different. I wasn't a hunter anymore and Itachi was crazy." The other him snorted. "Do you not remember any of what happened?"

"No… none of what you're talking about happened to me."

"So what happened after we got water from that healing pool?"

The other him rubbed his chin with one hand the other on his hip, "Nothing. We buried my spear and then we went over the mountain, he broke up with his partner and then we became mates. I didn't meet any unicorns."

"So you haven't been to the other side of the mountain. Where there were people… like us?" The other him shook his head. "Oh… then we've been here with Naruto our whole lives? We don't break up?" He asked a little excitedly but the other hims face screwed up and Sasuke could feel that he was annoyed and pissed off again. "You hate him." he stated.

"I don't hate him… not really… kinda," the other Sasuke sighed and dragged his palms down his face. "It's too early in the morning for this," he muttered.

"Can I ask what you two are fighting about? I don't know if I can help but maybe it's the reason why I'm here. And why you're still here," when his other self finally looked at him he felt compelled to explain. "In my other future, my other self wasn't there. There wasn't another voice in my head or another person who could take control of my body."

"My body!"

"Whatever! My point is that it was just me figuring out stuff as I went along. Although it probably wasn't as far in the future as this. I only spent a year and change in my other future. How long have we been here?"

"Uhhh it's been some τ̷͔͚̯͒̇̽́͛ρ̷̘͙͓͙̮̏̌̎͒ι̴̲̣͛͋͆α̸̺̊̊̇̚κ̷̞̗͊̀̍͊̕ό̶̨̜̩͋͂̓σ̶̢͕̠̬̓̚̕͘ι̷̟̒̄̆ά̶͎̱̠̤̈́̎͠ ̴̱̥̥͋͜ͅχ̷̺̤͛ρ̶̲̗͒ό̴̯̪͘͝ν̴̪͋̀ΐ̴̡̭̐͐̽α̶̦͕̺̥̊," Other Sasuke replied. Past Sasuke just stared at him, his vision seemed to flicker in and out on the right side of his face and there was a high pitched ring in his left ear. "What? Dragons live a long time this is nothing compared to that."

"No that's not it… I couldn't understand what you said."

"I said-"

"No, don't repeat it!" Sasuke yelled frantically, holding it hands up to the mirror. The other him raised a brow at him. "Sorry. Didn't mean to yell. I don't think I'm supposed to know that." When the other him didn't say anything he went on. "I mean when you said whatever that was I went blind in one eye…"

The other him hummed softly and rubbed at his cheek. "Out of curiosity, how do I look to you? Just physically. Do I look like you or different?"

Sasuke hummed thoughtfully as he chose his words carefully, "well… you look older. Kind of like father but not that old." The other him didn't say anything. Just nodded while he scratched at his jaw. "I means, we still look great! I guess we've been here a while then," he said chuckling a little hoping his other self wasn't offended.

"A little while is an understatement but yea, we've been here for some time. From what I can tell it sounds like there are lots of things that you can't know." He started counting on his fingers, "How long we've been with Naruto, how we actually look." That was only two things but Sasuke kept his mouth shut.

"How about if you described it to me! If you use basic words we can probably-" The other hims head shot up immediately.

"Shut up!" he said suddenly

"...it was just a suggestion…"

"Just shut up for a minute!" he said clearly annoyed as he looked off to the side. His head cocked to the side for a second and then he was glaring at the doorway. "Naruto's back." He said darkly and even though he could feel his other selves annoyance and anger his own heart was skipping beats.

"I put up a barrier but it won't last long. Naruto's too strong. Listen. This isn't the Naruto you know. My Naruto is cruel. Don't do anything stupid that will make him know that you're not me." He opened his mouth to speak but Sasuke cut him off. "And don't fucking have sex with him. Don't even try." Sasuke growled as he pointed a thin finger at him. He opened his mouth again to speak but was startled into silence by a boom and a crash sounding like shattered glass.

"Oh my treasure! You put up another η̵̛̮̳̬͐͜λ̷̣̱͉̓ε̷͉͉̰̗͑̌κ̷̪̰͈̽τ̸̨̮̙̣̟̆̆̆̿̊ρ̷̼̻̺̬͛ι̶̩̇̿̐̕κ̴̜̙̝͙̘̐ό̶̧͒͑̆ ̵̳̰̥́͐̈́͝π̸̜͙̲͈̒̈͆ἐ̴̺̬̫̣̽͒̕δ̸̡̇͑̅̽͘ί̴͓͉̹̙̩͑̽̅ο̷̂͛̾̀͜͠ ̵̨̦̣̯̠͗́̌͝δ̴͎̥̞̻̩̃̅͂̐ύ̵͔͙̫͈͒̍͊̏ν̴̪̘͎̺͆́̃̕ά̵͚͍̺̩͎̔̄μ̸̞̻̺͔̲̋͌̓͐ὴ̷̫͎͚̉͘̕ς̴̨̦̗͠! You shouldn't have," Naruto grinned as he strutted into the washroom and up to Sasuke's side. "Did you miss me?" he whispered all breathy and hot near Sasuke's ear. The poor young man couldn't even find it in him to flush as he was trying to fight off the wave of nausea that came with whatever it is that Naruto just said.

In the mirror though, the other him was glaring daggers into the side of Naruto's head. He should ask what that's about as soon as he could.

AN: Yay new chapter! I just want to thank everyone for giving this a read and I hope that it was not only up to your standards but that you also can't wait for the next installment.