-1

Yeah, uh warnings for the whole story (more will probably be added later): Powerful! Naruto and Sasuke, severe OOC, EVENTUAL Yaoi (I'm bad at romance of any kind), angstyness, unoriginality (as I've been told) , and Sakura bashing. She's the only character I truly hate. With Hinata almost there.

Now, if you're still reading, on with the story!

¤Chapter Two¤

He was floating. He couldn't feel any part of his body, yet he felt comfortably warm. Why was it so dark? Were his eyes open? What was going on? Where was he?

'I'm dead…?'

Yes.

Silence. His thoughts were slow and hazy. 'Naruto.' Maybe he was crying. He couldn't tell. Then…

Doki………doki…

'Hn? What's that sound?'

Doki…doki…

'A heartbeat…is it…mine?'

No. You're dead, remember?

Pain shot through him. Doki, doki, doki, doki- Pain, pain, pain.

He breathed.

¤

Sasuke sat up like a bolt of lightning, his heartbeat racing as he clutched his chest in agony. Finally, it receded and he could think coherently.

"Is this…the afterlife?" Or maybe not.

He looked around. Bare, dark colored walls surrounded him on four sides. A single window adorned one wall, and morning sunlight struggled to pierce through the heavy black drapes. He was sitting straight up in a double navy blue wide bed.

"This is my room." To say he was in shock would be an understatement. He was in his room in the Uchiha mansion.

The mansion was one of the first things razed to the ground in the war. He'd made sure of it.

And now he was here again, surrounded by the memories of his brother, and family. Now one question rang through his mind.

"What the HELL is going on?" Finally he realized that his voice was definitely two or three octaves higher than normal. He reached up to touch his throat, but stopped when he saw his hand. His very small hand.

He spent a few seconds staring at it, then calmly climbed out of the bed. Then, noting his decreased height in contrast to the closeness of the ceiling, he strode out of his bedroom and to the bathroom.

After all, Uchiha's didn't 'freak out'.

At least, not until they had all the information.

He reached the mirror, almost afraid of what he would see.

There stood an eight year old version of himself, rather rumpled and cute looking with his hair in all directions from just getting out of bed.

That was when, even years later, though he would never admit it to anyone, the great Uchiha Sasuke, betrayer, avenger, and hardened ninja, calmly…fainted.

¤

It had been three days since Sasuke had awoken in his younger body (and the subsequent embarrassing reaction). The weekend was over now, and it was time to head to the Academy. Inside, Sasuke had been dreading going there. Why?

He would see Naruto. Would he be able to restrain from flinging himself on Naruto and begging for the blond's forgiveness? Would Naruto even remember anything? He had yet to see him, and Sasuke assumed that the other had not searched him out.

So if Naruto did remember, he wanted nothing to do with him. And that Sasuke could understand.

He trudged sullenly along, pointedly ignoring the whisper and rustles coming from around corners and behind bushes. He'd been mortified to remember he had fan girls even at this age. It disgusted him. They hadn't even developed hormones for heaven sakes!

Ino and Sakura reacted the usual way when they saw him. They leapt at him with a shriek of "Sasuke-kun!", glomping onto his arms when he tried to shake them off. He grimaced at the sight of Sakura. He had so many bad memories of her. She clung to him, crying again. "Sasuke-kun, I know you don't mean it! Please come back!" He felt like strangling her. ….In the midst of this he felt it. The eyes that pierced the back of his head. He looked up to be met with startling blue eyes and golden hair.

'Does he know?' His heart beat faster. The eyes narrowed.

Just as he managed to pry the two now arguing girls off him, Naruto looked away and refused to meet his gaze again.

Sasuke took a seat across the classroom. He tried to pay attention to what the instructor was saying, but he couldn't concentrate. The problem ate at his mind. He'd already decided not to go to the Hokage. Sarutobi would press for future events and about his life, and he didn't want that. With all that he had done, he'd probably be locked up in some high security cell somewhere, or even killed. There was only one person he could talk to.

Sasuke was so distracted that he barely noticed when the instructor called an hour break for lunch. He cursed himself for his inattention. He grabbed the bento he'd made himself and walked out the door with a quiet sigh. As soon as he stepped out girls bombarded him with offers to eat lunch with them. 'I don't want to be near any of you, dammit!' He turned them all down with an angry scowl. He looked wildly around for a way to escape. His heart skipped a beat. (Heart problems?) Naruto was sitting on the tree swing, with his eyes focused steadily on his hands. He seemed totally oblivious to anyone ore thing around him.

Sasuke cautiously approached, waiting for any sign of hostility, but Naruto didn't look up. He blurted the first thing that came to mind.

"Tch. Where's your lunch, dobe?" He could have slapped himself.

Naruto's head snapped up to look at him. "Don't call me that, teme!" was the automatic response. Then Naruto's eyes widened, and he slumped against one of the chains.

"You too, Sasuke?" he asked quietly.

"Hai."

There was a moment of awkward silence between them. They both silently wondered 'What now?' Then Naruto spoke. "So, what are you going to do?"

"What?" Sasuke looked at him, confused.

"I asked, what are you going to do now Sasuke?" Sasuke stared into the other boy's eyes until the meaning sunk in. He smiled slightly. "Whatever you want me to, dobe." Naruto's eyes narrowed at the nickname, but Sasuke could still see them sparking with happiness at his answer. "Good! You should listen to your Hokage." he teased, and lightened up the mood considerably. He almost sighed in relief.

Sasuke snorted in annoyance and slapped him gently on the back of the head. "Itaii! What was that for, teme!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You never answered my question. Where's your lunch?" Suddenly Naruto looked embarrassed and ducked his head. "Ano…I forgot to bring it." Sasuke snorted again and opened his bento. He handed an onigiri to Naruto. Naruto looked at it in surprise before taking it.

"You've…changed Sasuke."

"So have you."

"Aa." Naruto nodded and took a bite.

¤

Naruto sat comfortably perched on top of the Hokage monument, basking in the beauty of the village below. Beside him sat Sasuke, who was in a deep silence.

When Naruto had first awoken, he didn't know how to feel. First shocked, then joyous. Then he became angry and deeply saddened when he found out exactly how this had come about.

He told Sasuke what he knew.

:Flashback:

Naruto was sure that if his eyes got any wider than they were now they would pop out of their sockets and roll across the floor. He stared down at himself in wonder.

"I…I'm alive." He looked back to the cracked dirty mirror that hung on his kitchen wall. Finally something else registered.

"I…I'M A CHIBI!"

I guess you could say he took it better than Sasuke. He was back to three freaking feet tall! That was a huge change from his former six foot stature. "What the hell happened!" Did he hear an echo?

'Kyuubi!…….Kyuu?' Only a desolate silence answered him. Now he was starting to feel a biting edge of worry. 'Calm down! There's no use in panicking!' Naruto scolded himself.

He sat down right therein the middle of his kitchen floor, and slipped into meditation reinforced calm with practiced ease.

¤

In just a few minutes, Naruto opened his eyes again to a mucid, water-filled pipe. He frowned. He remembered fixing the place up years ago. Then he shook his head. Now just wasn't the time. He ran. Through the tunnels he knew by heart, splashing water onto the walls. "Kyuubi!"

At last he reached the main chamber. It was pitch black inside, and Naruto couldn't see a thing. Terrible silence. The one thing he'd hated all the years of his life. "Nee-chan?" he whispered desperately.

Then just as an all too familiar scent hit his nose, his eyes finally adjusted. Blood, and a gigantic hunched form in the back of the room. "Nee-chan!" He tore off to the figure, barely paying heed to the broken iron gates of the small piece of torn rice paper ashe passed.

He was barely to feet from the giant, and the blood scent was almost overwhelming now, so much that Naruto was ready to pass out. "Nee-chan please!" he knelt unsteadily by the kitsune's head. She wasn't breathing.

"Iie! I didn't sacrifice my life just so you could die, Kyuubi!" he clutched some of her fiery fur with his childlike hands, hoping, wishing for her just to open her eyes again. Naruto could feel the hot tears spilling down his face, but he didn't care anymore. First Sasuke, and now his adopted sister were gone. His two most precious people.

A flash of red chakra was all the warning he had before the first image hit him. He was looking out someone's eyes as though they were his own. When he saw a gigantic red tail in his peripheral vision, he knew who's memories these were. Kyuubi's.

Naruto only had time to register the mass of Kyuubi's body suddenly roiled, and his hands started to sink into the furry flesh. Then he blacked out as over a thousand years of memories exploded in his mind.

¤

'He will gain my memories and powers. They will only help him in the end….'

It faded out there.

¤

When Naruto awoke again, he understood. 'She gave me her body and her memories.' He knew it would probably take his lifetime to sort through them all, but Kyuubi had given him the greatest gift she could.

'If only it hadn't cost you your life….' He held up a small hand and watched as the nails lengthened into claws at his will, without any chakra. He reached to touch his ears, and found only very slightly pointed tips. No one would notice if they weren't looking, but it still washed away any doubts he might have had.

He was the new Kyuubi.

"It looks like what Sasuke once, and all the villagers have always called me, is finally true…"

'Youma. Akurei….Bakemono.'

¤

Sasuke had sat in silence through the whole tale, and as Naruto told it, his heart seemed to squeeze tighter and tighter. Half way through he had shifted his legs so that his head sat on his knees, with his arms wrapped around them. When Naruto finally finished, they both sat in silence. Sasuke could see him staring out at the village with a small sad smile. He couldn't hold back his questions any more.

"Doshite?" he closed his eyes and buried his face in the crook of his arms.

Naruto turned to look at him. "Nani?" he questioned. Sasuke let out a shaky breath, still not sure what to say.

"Why…are you being like this Naruto? Telling me all this. I…You should hate me for everything I did and said. To you….to everyone! I betrayed you!" he let out a have choked sob of frustration. "Why…have you forgiven me?" the last was barely a whisper of breath. After a moment of stillness, he felt a movement beside him. Sasuke flinched, half expecting a strike, but none came. Instead, Naruto just moved in front of him.

"Sasuke…Sasuke, look at me!" He finally raised his head to meet Naruto's ocean colored eyes.

"Sasuke, I never blamed you. Your perceptions had been twisted by everyone around you, first Itachi, then Orochimaru. Heck! Even the shinobi of Konoha did nothing to dissuade you from it! …But you know what?"

Naruto was looking directly into his eyes, but Sasuke felt like his soul was being stripped bare und the stare. He shook his head negatively.

"What you did for me…in the end…that made up for it." He smiled and almost absently stroked Sasuke's cheek. For some reason, he didn't push him away. Naruto's hand felt comforting. He almost sighed when he pulled it away.

"And now we both get a second chance, so everything works out!" Naruto said with a brilliant smile, standing up and dusting himself off. Sasuke couldn't help but smile back slightly at his ever shifting moods. Naruto held out a hand which he accepted and got pulled to his feet. Naruto suddenly looked up and at the sky. "Hey! The day is still young! Let's go grab some ramen!" he exclaimed taking hold of Sasuke's wrist with the intent of dragging him all the way to the stand. Sasuke just raised an eyebrow at him. "'The day is still young'?"

Naruto shrugged. "Meh, I heard Gai saying it one time. I thought it was good." Sasuke shuddered as they started walking. "Dobe, never quote anything from Gai again." Naruto pouted.

"I told you to stop calling me that, Sasuke-teme!"

Conveniently, neither noticed that Naruto was still holding ontoSasuke's wrist.

¤

A/N: Yes, done! I'm so inspired! (But it's short…) I really should be writing Invictus…..(shrug) Oh well. Inspiration comes when it comes.

The reason this is SasuNaruSasu, is because I can't decide who the dominant one in the relationship should be! I changed their personalities so much…though I do lean towards NaruSasu…

Review and tell me what you think.