A/N: If there are any scenes that seem out of order I apologize, I'm going by the timeline of the manga and I'm positive it's accurate - but if it doesn't coincide with the anime's timeline then that should be the only discrepancy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's affiliates.
M
Our Linear Story
Chapter 3
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On sleepless nights he would wonder when the forest would end and where it would begin, how had the existence of this planet pertained to the reality he found himself in. How — when he truly thought about it, they had come to face a God and in the face of that God — had overcome it.
Existential questions plagued him, even now.
Before, when his mind had been deterred by the thoughts of revenge — dark spots in his memory that he had drowned in led the path he chose. These new questions seemed starkly indifferent to what he thought, and he couldn't be sure that he had the answers to them — but his friend did.
Maybe that's why the darkness chose him.
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Somewhere between that dreaded forest and their next step as a team, he felt an uneasiness that pressed down on his shoulders, flares of pain radiated from the curse mark that made his face twist in an attempt to disguise it, he gripped his shoulder to calm the fire that threatened his progress.
The waves of pain are becoming more frequent…
The perceptive eyes of his female teammate glanced at him with that concerned glance that shook his resolve.
News of the preliminaries forced him to grind his teeth to mask the eternal throb on his shoulder.
"Now…There are no more retiring, right?" Hayate coughed, dull eyes glancing through the crowd of chunin prospects.
"Sasuke-kun! You should also quit this preliminary round!" the delicate, yet harsh whisper wafted through him, Naruto's eyes bulged at Sakura's outward suggestion.
The weight of the forest hadn't fallen on their blond member.
"You've been strange since that Orochimaru guy attacked you!" her eyes begged him, pleaded with him to listen to her, but Sasuke narrowed his own — she didn't know what he had to go through, this was only another stone in the finite steps for his final destination.
"—That mark still hurts, right!?" she paused, breathless concern radiated within her, and he could clearly see her adept ability in watching the pain he was trying to conceal.
"—If you continue-!"
Naruto had quieted down his obtuse questioning, the quiver in Sakura's voice stilled him — and curiously he glanced at Sasuke's shoulder, unable to understand what had transpired between them in the pits of the forest.
Sasuke remained quiet.
"Please…" her hands clasped together, for his sake.
He couldn't bring himself to say anything, steel eyes watched the girl that had infiltrated his life beg for his safety — she understood, but she didn't see the grand picture that forced him to proceed.
"Please quit…" tears sprung to her eyes, the dismal sobs that began to shake her body pleaded with him— "I'm afraid…"
Sasuke perpetuated his silence, struggling with his inner resolve and the words that reached a place within him that he had forcefully shoved away. Had she always been finely tuned to see through the layered fabrications of his vengeance?
Her innocence on the subject of his life left him unable to comfort her.
Naruto shifted beside him, he could hear the listless question of what she was talking about on his lips — two people that had come into his life, but the fateful night that swept him into darkness kept him quiet and resolute.
Contrived, disquieted anger broke through her pleading, "you are in no condition to fight right now!"
She spoke too loudly for him.
"Shut up!" he barked under his breath. Other teams began to shift inward to listen to their conversation.
"I can see it! You have been hiding the pain all this time!"
Bubbling anger seeped through him. She had perceptively cradled this knowledge with her when he had worked so fretfully to hide what he felt made his eyes narrow dangerously.
"Be quiet," he hissed under the the increasing scrutiny of the people standing around them.
"Whatever you say —" her voice whispered on the verge of hysterics, "I'm going to tell the sensei's about that mark."
Her hand began to raise, but his reflexes and will to push forward through the throbbing pain — he couldn't deter from this test of strength.
He gripped her wrist and dragged it back down between them, their familiar touches had become a staple — whereas she usually brought a source of comfort, she dragged an unwelcome deter in his path right now.
Naruto stood confused between them, a light in the banks of pink and black.
"Shut up about this mark," he repeated darkly, fingers still laced tightly around her petite wrist.
More tears — more unbidden concern for his well being.
"Why are you so stubborn?! I don't want to see you suffering anymore-!" she attempted to pull away, "to me you are—"
"This has nothing to do you with you," he ushered tightly.
The harsh words made her visibly flinch in his grasp.
"Stay out of my business," he finished resolutely. Anger tied to the storm, he remained by her mutely — he left no room for debate. This was his path, not hers — her concern for him would only harm them both.
Again, viridian met onyx — words and emotions that were too complicated to speak sat between them with a sad, understood conversation that couldn't take place.
"Sakura," he drawled in the mess that had become the prelims, "I have told you before — I am an avenger."
He felt inclined to explain. To help her understand.
Their conversation during the bell test played itself across her features, but he couldn't expect her to truly understand the severity of what he had to do, of what he had to accomplish. A life like hers didn't coincide with his, beyond her stood the shadow of his brother — beyond the pain he felt now stood the thirst for power to kill him.
"This isn't just a test to me. I don't care about becoming a chunin."
His teammate's faces broke into confusion.
How could he explain something he had trouble understanding himself?
"'Am I strong?' I just want the answer to that…" he paused to glance at the peculiar face of the redhead from Suna, "to just fight the strong people here—and they are here."
He looked at the girl that had time and time again stood by him, "I can't forgive even you if you take that away from me." The tears had stopped, and an unusual silence of recognition passed through her visibly shaken form.
A small, unrecognizable gasp left her parted lips.
"You bastard!" Naruto growled, "stop acting all cool!" anger seeped through his temporary placated silence.
"Idiot! Sakura is this worried and—-"
"Naruto," he quipped casually, "I also want to fight you…" He had never been free with compliments to his rival, but the unusual opening he left for them to try and see into the void he had been consumed by left him particularly vulnerable.
A shocked, cleared eyed look calmed the raging jinchuriki.
They understood.
The intensity between the trio expelled itself until the pain shot through his spine once again, "-ungh!"
His perseverance eluded to the flashing screen atop of the Hokage's daunting form.
Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi
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"Do you think your feelings are truly connected to mom's?"
The question had been answered before he had realized, because annoying had taken different forms and became the silence shared between them, where words failed but actions spoke — their eyes would lock and there wouldn't be a need to explain.
"Yeah."
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The most perceptive and intuitively annoying man that Sasuke had ever come across was his precarious sensei. Kakakshi had been a step ahead of them in their thinking process before they had a time to formulate a plan as a team, whether it be from their mission to see beneath his mask or Sasuke trying to conceal his curse mark
This fell true during his preliminary battle.
Being explicitly told not to use his sharingan or his battle would be disrupted by this man had settled his reserve. Kakashi knew about the mark, but Sasuke couldn't think of how he already found out about it — they hadn't seen each other since before the exams began.
So be it.
However, Innate strength had left him during the battle with the sound shinobi — his body felt weak in comparison to the forest.
Exhaustion took a hold of him, his limbs felt heavy and the sound ninja didn't waste time to exploit his struggle to persevere without the use of chakra. He couldn't pinpoint the exact cause of his sudden dreariness, as if his chakra was-
Unless-!
His chakra was being drained from him by the simple touch of this masked shinobi.
Ever tactful, a new strategy formulated in his head when the obnoxious voice of Naruto echoed through the vicinity.
"Sasuke! Are you really Sasuke Uchiha!? Is that the best you can do?"
Sasuke maneuvered himself to kick the dominating male in the chin, effectively causing the crowd to gasp—
"It's over," he chimed, the small surge of chakra to disable his opponent made the curse mark buzz sharply within him.
Damn..
The veil of hatred began to lift and the sense of losing his consciousness began to suffocate him. It began to spread across his skin, marring his pale skin with the pronounced markings of the curse, slowly — the world began to dim as power surged through his body.
The concerned faces of his teammates flashed before him — the bonds that he had gained with him made his normally focused ideals break.
Heh…Having them worry about me.
To be powerless in the face of a new, unspoken strength that the mark provided him
He needed to control it.
The Uchiha refused to allow this to control him, and with an exertion of practiced endurance the mark began to recede.
He won that round that day.
Kakashi escorted him from the preliminary round, the shocked faces of the other contenders resonated behind him, shock evident in the silence that followed his leaving.
They wouldn't need to worry about him.
"I'm going to take you to the back and seal up that curse," his sensei's voice echoed in his ear, a small grudge began to form in his throat, but there wouldn't be any arguing against Kakashi.
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Somewhere between inner turmoil and a struggle to stop shaking from the seal being placed on him, the distant voices of his sensei and the Orochimaru figure surrounded him.
What was going on?
His body felt exhausted, but the words continued to tumble — "Sasuke-kun is a very important piece."
The world tumbled around him when the curse mark and seal began to counteract, the chains on his body began to make his equilibrium swim around him.
He fell into unconsciousness once more.
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"You must control the seal by your own will, that's how it works—" Kakashi stated simply during the month they took to train before the final round of the exams. In this time, the curse mark had receded to a dull throb until it felt like it disappeared entirely, unknown to his sensei, Sasuke could feel the edges of it's power beckoning him if he allowed himself to dip into it — but he refrained from doing so.
It didn't fail Sasuke's knowledge that his match against the red-headed male with the gourd from Suna would be his opponent, and during this time Kakashi made it painfully obvious that Sasuke would need a way to break through the sand.
"You don't think I can do it on my own?" Sasuke bit back after another failed attempt to learn the new jutsu, for two weeks now his mentor had taught him his singular move that he had created —
The raikiri.
His lightning release had never been utilized or mentioned by his family when he had been training when he was younger. Traditionally, his clan dominated in fire jutsu's, so when his sensei had told him about a jutsu that could help him that involved his lightning affinity — Sasuke had been intrigued.
Not even his brother had an affinity towards lightning.
"Sasuke, you're fast enough, but you need to hold your ox seal a little longer, then proceed to collect your chakra," Kakashi scolded — eyes finely tuned to see the mistakes the Uchiha was making.
"Alright," he took a shallow breath and focused, he performed the hand seals and the surge of chakra began to swell within his hand — sparks of electricity shot around his arm and the sound of the chakra counteracting with lightning forced the Uchiha to rush forward towards his target — the vicinity lit up with the jutsu that could cut through rock and scared birds into flight within the training grounds, the severe echo and strength of the jutsu only served to push him forward to his target.
He had closed his eyes when his hand pierced through the trees, and with a single motion the anchored tree had been split in half through the middle with severely charred branches and dusts of smoke that blew up the surrounding brush.
Kakashi gave a confident smirk whereas Sasuke glanced at the damage he inflicted and flexed his hands approvingly — so this was the power of the chidori.
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He arrived late that day, not by his own admission — Kakashi had kept him away to talk to him. "Don't rely on your curse mark if you begin to lose, understand?" his voice held no room for argument — but Sasuke wasn't concerned with that, he had been controlling the mark with little ease ever since the seal had been placed on his body.
"Understood," he relented — his body hummed with anticipation when he finally entered the arena, hundreds of people had swarmed to the event from different villages, Kage's and strong shinobi alike had been waiting for this match between him and Gaara of the Sand.
They faced each other in the middle, the crowd erupted with a deafening roar when the two opponents were introduced, and Sasuke couldn't help but give a small tilt of his lips at the arrival of this fight.
He would finally prove his strength.
To himself, and everyone else.
Gaara held a face of indifference, arms crossed casually across his chest — an aura of violence and death confided within the red head, and Sasuke couldn't help but narrow his eyes — he would need to finish this battle quickly.
"Begin!" the proctor motioned for the two rivals and jumped out of the way.
Sand began to dislodge itself from the gourd on his back — So this is the sand Kakashi told me about.
A sand clone began to emerge in front of the vehement red head, and Sasuke decided it would be better to get this over with quickly — he ran forward to hit him directly, his fist connected with the face of the clone until it began to sink in — a confident smirk grabbed at Gaara until Sasuke flickered from his view and punched him from behind.
A unified gasp lit the arena — Kakashi had mentioned how effective Lee's taijutsu had been, if he could maintain this type of speed, then beating his sand would wear him down first. The sand attempted to catch up to him, but he dodged once more and landed a kick to his stomach, knocking him back ten yards — a satisfied huff of triumph resonated from Sasuke.
"I'll tear your armor off," Sasuke announced as Gaara slowly picked himself up off the ground.
He ran again, if it hadn't been for his sharingan and copying the taijutsu user, this battle could possibly go differently — Sasuke ran at a newfound speed, when he noticed a break in Gaara's concentration he launched forward and kicked him in the chin — a sickening crunch! echoed around them and he wasted no time in using this momentum to grab the front of his shirt and kneeing him in the stomach.
Gaara's face had a crack in it, Sasuke eyed his work appreciatively but couldn't ignore the fact that his body was beginning to tire from the exertion of speed.
Only a little longer.
The sand began to eclipse around it's user, Sasuke ran forward — the new expulsion of chakra made the air thick within the arena. He aimed to break through the sand — except sharp tendrils forced him to stop, dust lifted into the air around them, Sasuke stayed mutely frozen — barely missing being impaled by the morphed sand.
The hardened density of the sand ripped open the skin on his knuckles that began to bleed through his bandages — Sasuke contained the grimace that threatened to push itself onto his face.
Sand swarmed above them like a hoard of flies before a storm.
The thick chakra that emanated from the ball that surrounded Gaara unsettled the Uchiha.
Sasuke knew that whatever Gaara was planing would be detrimental, he distanced himself to gather enough chakra to use the chidori to pierce through the thick sand.
The crackling of the chidori rebounded around the arena, the crowd had gone silent among the piercing noise of his jutsu, light cackled around his arm — his own thick chakra battled against Gaara's — he would need to end this before his chakra ran out.
It happened in a blur of motion, he remembered his chidori cutting through the sand, the stench of blood and charred flesh permeated the air. The crazed sand shinobi remained stoic in the sand, until something shot out at Sasuke and grabbed a hold of his arm, something instinctively vile.
The sudden emergence of the jinchuriki's power gripped onto him, Sasuke surged his chidori until it broke loose from his arm and he doubled back.
The sand broke loose and fell around Gaara —
The arena remained silent, the confused atmosphere could be felt for miles —
A bomb detonated in the Hokage's perch.
More bombs detonated around the village, the ground shook with a measurable force and screams began to echo around the arena of those that didn't get caught in the genjutsu.
Sound shinobi arrived into the arena in a mess of chaos as they began to slaughter innocent people.
Their village was under attack.
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Sasuke could think back now and understand that the downfall of Konoha planned by Orochimaru had been a minuscule part of his plan — the attack of his village had been a part of a bigger scheme, and this attack catapulted the events that led to his defection.
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Author's Note: Existential Sasuke is always fun, although I think that's a trait most Uchiha's have.
I love the times when Sasuke is unable to explain himself - but his actions speak louder.
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