PART II

Chapter 9: Doppelganger

x-x-x

Escorted by the same two ANBU officers that guarded his room, Sasuke walked grudgingly towards the hokages office. He refused to return the stares of the villagers, some of them even former comrades and academy classmates. One blonde haired kunoichi watched from the distance with special interest in the imprisoned former missing-nin, laughing that the irony that it was. Sasuke Uchiha, who once walked the streets freely, now had his hands tied behind his back, two masked ninja at his side, their presence an obvious burden on him, yet he showed none of it. If only he had never left! She laughed to herself, shaking her head, all romantic interest in the Uchiha completely obliterated the day he left Konohagakure.

They entered the Hokage's office with a stern glare plastered on the woman's deceivingly young face. Sasuke figured Sakura had ratted on him for escaping the prison and being an ass. Okay, so maybe he did feel that perhaps he had chosen the wrong words to speak to her with, and maybe said things that didn't quite convey how he felt, and was maybe a bit harsh. But he didn't feel bad. Uchiha's don't feel bad. Just like Uchiha's don't get jealous or fall in love.

Nope. They definitely don't fall in love. Because if Uchiha's fell in love, he would have had parents and they would've had children and happy families and…Oh wait. They did.

"Where is Sakura?" Tsunade asked flatly, firmly, and so suddenly that Sasuke wouldn't have known she was talking to him if it weren't for the fact that she was looking directly at him. Still, he felt the need to clarify this.

"Are you asking me?" he asked.

"Don't play stupid, of course I am." Tsunade snapped, impatient and unwilling to play games.

Sasuke glared, "Why should I know? I've been locked up for the past three months and only just spoke to her yesterday."

"What did you two talk about?" she inquired as her patience began stretch to an almost invisible layer.

"She came to tell me that her and Naruto are together and that she didn't want anything to do with me anymore." He shrugged, still not sure if Sakura had told the hokage about what he had done to deserve it. Not that he believed he deserved it. Oh no. Again, Uchiha's don't feel guilt.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. Well this was news to her. "She and Naruto are together now?"

"That's what I said." He repeated calmly.

"Well that may explain where she went then…but it doesn't explain how she managed to make it out of Konoha without any one of the watch guards seeing her." Tsunade relaxed, leaning back in her chair.

"She left?" he asked, the faintest tinge of alarm seeping into his voice.

"Without a trace." Tsuande responded, "Which concerns me greatly." She sighed, then turned to the window. "You're late."

Kakashi hopped through, waving a hand in apology, "gomenasai." He smiled, carrying his ridiculous (Sasuke thought) orange book. He still reads those things?

"Sasuke," she began, looking back at the teen, "What do you know about Uchiha Madara's abilities?"

The teen's upper lip twitched in anxiety. "Not much, actually. Just that he possesses mangekyou sharingan. Other than that, I haven't seen him in battle."

"What do you know about the mangekyou?" she asked, drilling the raven for answers.

He didn't know whether or not he should be overjoyed to be able to boast about his clan's abilities, or adverse to the subject in terms of what it had cost him, "A great deal, as you would imagine…" he trailed off, "what in particular would you like to know? How it's attained? What it can do? Advanced forms?"

Kakashi had to smirk at the boy's obvious Uchiha pride. Although, he could sense the teen was straining to keep himself collected, for reasons Kakashi couldn't understand. "How about jutsu that it affords? Madara's version in particular."

"Unfortunately, I don't know what he can do with his sharingan. My brother, as you know, possessed the Tsukiyomi ability, and as I later found out, also wielded Amaterasu, a black flame that consumes anything it touches for seven days." The boy smirked.

Kakashi took careful note of how he addressed Itachi. Instead of calling him "that man", as he had so referred to the elder Uchiha in his younger days, Sasuke now called him "my brother", a delicate slip-up that he wasn't sure if Sasuke had even come to realize he had made.

"What about space-time jutsu? Obviously Madara has been around much longer than he should have been. I can throw people and objects into different dimensions with my sharingan, but it puts me on bed rest for days. If he is the Uchiha clan's strongest member as he is famed to be, no doubt this would be an easy feat for him to carry out, no?" Kakashi mused. He had obviously thought this over long before Sasuke had even met with the hokage.

"Like I said…" Sasuke began to show impatience, "I don't know any of his techniques or abilities. What you said sounds highly plausible and possible, but I can't know for sure."

"Well lets just say he can, then, for now." Kakashi put the possibility out for them to examine, "Then it wouldn't be difficult for him to pull Sakura out of Konoha without our knowledge."

The raven haired teen fell silent. Kakashi was right. Madara could do something like this, and easily. And he had all the reason to do so as well. "I agree it's the only possible explanation." He spoke finally as all eyes rested on him.

"Sasuke, are you still in contact with Uchiha Madara?"

"I wouldn't talk to him now even if he wanted me to." He replied calmly, "He may be one of my clan, but we want to achieve vastly different goals. I have no reason to contact him…" he trailed off at Tsunade's raised eyebrow, "had no reason to contact him."

"As of right now, you are the only one who knows how to find him or have any idea of possible locations he might be." She sighed, "As much as I hate to do this…I'm taking you out of prison. You will be given this one chance to redeem yourself."

The teen nodded compliantly, absent of smirks or mal-intent. He was just freed—he didn't want to fly out of the nest before testing his wings. "So you are sending me on a mission then." Sasuke asked rather than stated.

"You will be accompanied by Kakashi and your two other teammates." Tsunade smirked.

The Uchiha mentally cringed. Teammates…she's rubbing the past into my face. I swear to god that if I find out that what Madara said was true, I am going to kick some serious hokage ass. "If I'm not mistaken, Sakura told me yesterday that Naruto was off on a mission, and she herself is the person that we are searching for. I don't recall having two other teammates, other than Kakashi-sensei."

The silver-haired jounin flinched. It was so strange to see his former missing-nin student standing before him, still calling him sensei. "Ah, godaime-sama, he's right. Sai and Yamato were never part of our cell when he was…younger…" Kakashi didn't know exactly how to phrase it without sounding too condescending…yet…it was the truth.

"Sai…" Sasuke sneered. He remembered Sai, the one who was meant to replace him in "team Kakashi". Sasuke didn't like the guy. Something about him reeked, though he never got close enough to smell him. And Sasuke was thankful for this.

"I take it you've met him?" Kakashi smirked amusedly

"Yes, back when…" Sasuke bit his tongue. Damnit! He wanted to just say 'back when he was training under Orochimaru' like it was no big deal—like it had been to him—but he had to play the act of the repentant prodigal missing-nin, "…when reunited with Naruto and Sakura." That freak spouted off some crap about trying to protect bonds and gave me this creepy fake-assed smile. It was rather amusing to wipe it off his face with my sharingan, though. Perhaps I'll have some more fun with that. He mused, his trademark smirk weaseling back onto his face.

"Sasuke, you WILL work with your comrades. Do know that if you do betray us again, the punishment is death." Tsunade warned, seeing the evil smile beginning to form on his face again.

"Hn." As if anyone in konoha could actually even lay a finger on me… "I will not leave again, if that is your concern." Tsunade nodded to the two ANBU behind Sasuke to remove the handcuffs on his wrists. For the first time, Sasuke looked surprised, "you letting me free now?" he asked, expecting her only to free him when he was to leave.

She nodded, "Go home and get ready to leave."

Sasuke swallowed hard. Home...Is my apartment still intact? What about the Uchiha district? He turned to leave, feeling a hand set on his shoulder.

Kakashi was about to speak but then stopped, "The heaven seal is gone…" he said aloud more to himself than to Sasuke. The raven haired teen stayed silent, exchanging words with glances. Finally the copy-nin spoke again, "let me come with you, Sasuke."

The raven haired teen nodded simply and the two slipped out of the office silently, the door closing softly behind them. Sasuke wasn't an emotional person, but he couldn't deny the sense of déjà vu that took over as he walked along his old sensei through the hokage's building. He wouldn't admit it, but…he was a little happy to be back in safety's hands. It reminded him of when he was little, running into his mother's open arms as he buried his tiny face in her apron. Sasuke smiled.

"You must be happy to be free." Kakashi spoke, noting the teen's unusual facial expression.

"I'm…." he began, unwilling to say the words which expressed his true feelings. Happy to be back… "just reminiscing."

"We all missed you, Sasuke." The jounin gave one of his characteristic crease-eyed smiles that reminded the raven so much of his younger days. "Even Sakura, no matter how angry she may seem." He laughed, "and I don't think I have to tell you how much Naruto missed you."

Jealousy. As soon as the happy fluffy feeling began to grow in his heart, the mere mention of the blonde dobe made the youngest Uchiha clench his fist. "I don't know how he can go on about being like a brother to me. He just betrayed me after all his begging me to come back."

"And you don't think he's felt betrayal?" Kakashi questioned calmly, though Sasuke understood the stabbing insinuation, "He's wanted Sakura for a long time. She wanted you for a long time. But you hurt them both. Maybe you should let them be together, as a payment for what you did to them." He wasn't going to candy coat it—Sasuke had been an absolute jerk, and Naruto had every right to be with Sakura, even if she was pregnant with his child.

Sasuke looked straight ahead, silent. He wasn't quite ready to come to terms and admit that he was wrong. But Kakashi had a sneaky suspicion that what he had said to the teen had at least registered. But one word kept playing over and over like a mantra in his head, prohibiting Sasuke from agreeing with the scarecrow.

Mine.

The red setting sun brought Team Gai and Naruto back to the village with two over enthused green spandex-wearing ninja and three others dragging their feet far behind them.

"I'll never understand how they can have so much energy this late at night, after a five day mission, no less." Tenten sighed, watching as Gai and Lee ran off through the village gates as a race for the "power of youth".

"Even I have an overabundance of stamina, but man…" Naruto muttered, his back arched as he dangled his arms in front of him. He was so ready for a nice hot bath.

Neji remained silent as always, preserving the dignity of the Hyuuga clan with his stoic demeanor. He reminded Naruto somewhat of Sasuke, though the latter was much more of a loose cannon than the long haired byakugan wielder.

When they reported to the hokage's office the details of their mission, Tsunade held Naruto back after dismissing the rest of the team. He had anticipated that the subject had something to do with Akatsuki, but was blown away at what the blonde haired Sanin had to tell him.

When she revealed to him what Sasuke had told them, however, the blonde was at an even greater loss for words.

"Talk to Sasuke before your mission tomorrow. And try to avoid a fight, if at all possible." Tsunade ordered.

Naruto nodded, yet the characteristic energy from his voice was missing. Instead of the charged "Hai!" he would normally give with a salute to the forehead or something of the sort, the blonde simply turned to walk out of the office. Shizune and Tsuande tried to reassure each other that he was simply drained from the mission, but neither could fool the other.

A loud knock at the door startled, though did not completely surprise Uchiha Sasuke. He got up from his position of lying flat on his back on his old mattress, remembering how good it felt on his young body after a long mission.

He had spent the afternoon with Kakashi, dusting and cleaning nooks and crannies to the point of perfection that Uchiha's were famed for. They had cleaned in mostly silence, save for the few times where Kakashi would ask where to put certain things and Sasuke would direct him. Other than that, the two were known for being men of few words, and a few words were all that were exchanged.

The cleaning process went quick, and Kakashi had excused himself after the tidying had been done, claiming to have a meeting with an academy teacher and was late for it. Sasuke waved him off and soon had the apartment to himself, left to look through old boxes that he had wanted to explore, but not in the presence of anyone who could see his sentimental side.

Not that he had a sentimental side.

He opened the cover of one of the boxes to find many picture frames stacked face down on top of each other. The first one he lifted out seemed to burn his fingers the moment he set eyes on it. Pressing his lips together tightly, he couldn't help but continue to stare at the four faces looking back at him. He lied back on the bed, gazing at it in one hand as he wrapped the other arm under his head. Each figure in the photograph had midnight hair and onyx eyes, though each unique and individual as the faces which held them. It was his family picture, taken just before his sixth birthday. After gazing at the face of the man he had hated for so long, bitterness and sadness welling inside him, he finally turned to look at himself, shocked at the revelation it provided.

He was smiling wide-eyed with a big goofy grin and much shorter hair, clinging onto his mother, who held him in her lap. He couldn't believe that this happy little child, once so carefree and full of energy had turned into this—a calloused, pessimistic, ice cold being who seldom showed emotion and never felt love. The face in the photograph seemed to be someone other than him. It couldn't be him! For as long as he could remember, he had been unhappy, revengeful, cold and bitter. How could this young child looking back at him with warm, cheerful eyes have been him?

And thus, he was startled out of his thoughts when the front door began to shake with harsh knocks. He propped the picture up on his nightstand before walking out of his room to answer the door. Looking through the peep-hole, he glared at the door, readying his menacing face for the one behind the door.

"What do you want?" he asked as he opened the door.

"Can I come in?" Naruto asked, shrugging his shoulders as if this should have been a normal thing to do in the first place.

"No. Tell me what you want and leave." Sasuke snapped.

"Okay…well first off, Tsunade told me what Sakura said." Naruto began to explain.

"That's nice. Good bye." Sasuke went to shut the door, only to have it be stopped by a strong palm keeping it from closing.

"Wait." Naruto sighed frustrated, "Sakura lied to you. We're not dating. We never were."

Sasuke opened the door to raise an eyebrow at him, "Right. Hence why she tried to kiss me when I turned into you. Nice try, but you're the one that's lying."

The first sentence shocked the blonde into a million questions just enough that he hadn't time to react when Sasuke slammed the door on him. Naruto growled, leaning against the door, and began to pound against it.

"Damnit, Sasuke, open up! I don't know why she did that, but we haven't even talked for over two weeks! I've been gone on a mission for five days!"

Sasuke was about to walk away from the door when he heard the last part. Two weeks? Five days? Mission? That doesn't make sense. Sakura made it seem like Naruto was supposed to leave the day that I talked to her, but that was yesterday. If Naruto was gone, and she was supposed to know…

The door opened wide within half a millisecond, "Get in here." Sasuke commanded. He sighed in frustration as the blonde stood there, trying to process what was going on. He was taking too long. Sasuke grabbed his wrist and pulled him in, slamming the door behind him.

"What the hell is your problem?" Naruto finally spoke, rubbing his wrist where he had been yanked.

"When I saw Sakura yesterday, I was curious to talk to her so I transformed into you." He explained. Naruto gave him a shit-eating grin.

"Aww, isn't that trick supposed to be for amateurs and dobes?" The blonde stuck out his tongue, reminiscing to the time when Sasuke had scolded him for transforming into him to talk to Sakura four, almost five years ago.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, obviously not in the mood for verbal play. "Can it, dobe. I'm serious. She thought that you were supposed to leave on a mission yesterday, when you've been gone a mission for days. Not only that, she was convinced you were an item with her."

Naruto looked up to his left, "I can't think of any time that would make her think that we were together. Hell, I haven't seen her in weeks."

"Which is why I'm concerned." Suddenly Sasuke's brain seemed to snap as a thought occurred to him, "Madara!"

"What?"

"He's been trailing her, trying to pit her against me."

"Yuh…"

"So what better way to get her to fall in love with you, BY PRETENDING TO BE YOU!" The raven haired teen started to pace the floor, and though Naruto would have been amused at any other time by the Uchiha's distress, he was just as concerned and worried for the medic nin's safety.

"Wait, so you mean some doppelganger was able to convince her to go out with me? That's so not right…" Naruto sighed dejectedly, earning a death glare from the Uchiha, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm just as freaked out too that there's been another me running around, doing god knows what with my life."

Sasuke sighed, realizing there was nothing they could do at this point but wait until tomorrow came for their mission, "So you two weren't dating…"

"No."

"And you never asked her out…"

"No."

"Good." Sasuke nodded. Naruto looked at the teen incredulously, amazed at how easily said Uchiha had lost it.

"So…uh…I'm taking that you were ready to beat my face in if I had, then?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, knowing that he had asked Sakura out on a number of occasions before Sasuke had returned.

Sasuke turned towards him, raising a slender eyebrow, as if to say, Are you really asking me that?

"I'll take that as a yes." Naruto gulped under the Uchiha's stare, wondering at how threatening his gaze had become. "Though, really, it's not like you two are dating. I mean, you do kind of treat her like crap. A lot."

Sasuke sighed, sitting down on his couch, hands folded in front of him in his characteristic thinking pose. "I don't...I don't mean to." He finally admitted to the blonde, who just stood in front of the kitchen bar, looking at the distressed duck-butt. Naruto smiled.

"I think somebody's in loo-oove!" he grinned, sitting down next to the raven haired Uchiha.

"I…" he was about to protest and say that he wasn't in love, but then again, how would he know? I don't remember what it's like to love…how would I know it if it hit me in the face? "I don't know," he said in a voice so quiet that it rivaled Hinata's.

"What'd you say?" the blonde asked.

"I said I don't know!" the distressed teen lashed out, the thought of falling in love quite ruining his pride.

"How can you not know if you're in love or not?" The blonde raised a speculative eyebrow.

"Try living a life full of hate and you'll understand, dobe." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"No thanks. I'd rather not end up in prison stuck under ANBU guard for three months." The kyuubi vessel jabbed. "Or backstab my friends, or train with a freaky pedophile, or—"

Sasuke went to punch the blonde, but missed, as the future hokage dogged it easily, "Really, I take pity on you, but now that you've got the chance to make up for the past, do something right for once." He said, standing up. "Who knows, you might win her over after all."

"Hn." Sasuke looked away, unsure if that's what he really wanted or not. When the hell did he get so wise anyways?

"Whatever, teme." He waved the thought away with his hand as he walked towards the door, "It's your decision, but you better not make me chase after your sorry ass to valley of the end again." He smirked, hand on the door.

"Oh, by the way," Sasuke stood up, walking past the kitchen to the door, "The place we fought…it was a historic battle site between Madara and the Senju Hashirama."

"Who the hell is that?" the blonde asked.

Sasuke nearly fell over, "Senju Hashirama? The first hokage? The second Hokage's older brother? Don't you think the future hokage should know this?" he raised a skeptical eyebrow at the blonde.

"Heheh, I think I fell asleep during that lecture…" the nine-tailed vessel rubbed his head sheepishly, "But that's interesting to know." His gaze finally fell stern after a couple of seconds of staring at the floor, "Let's hope it never happens again." He said quietly before walking out the door and shutting it behind him.

And for the first time in his life, Sasuke agreed.

RA: I appreciate everyone that has stayed on board. I'm going to be honest—when one of my best reviewers told me she didn't want to follow the story anymore because of the direction it was taking, I was crushed. I thought to myself, "maybe I'm not a good writer, maybe I'm just as mediocre as I was when I first joined." But then I realized something. When I write, it's not just for you guys, but I do because I enjoy it. I enjoy coming up with a plot and creating something that's unique and special to who I am. When I thought about going back and changing the story, I realized that at that point, my story would become a tool to impress people, and not to express myself as a writer. So as a result, I'm going to keep writing not for the reviews or the hits, but for the love of fan fiction and writing.

So I guess as a note from the author, I'd like to leave you with this quote, which has become my life motto upon entering my senior year of high school:

"Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish."

-John Jakes