Twenty Four-year-old Uchiha Sasuke smirked as he saw Naruto and the younger Sasuke of this time racing towards the training field. He could also see Sakura trailing behind them, trying her best to keep up. Hmm… maybe he should introduce her to Gai and Lee? It was a thought… but was that something Kakashi would do? He hadn't the first time, after all… and yet… the sheer torture but learning possibilities…

He'd have to think on it.

For now, well, he'd known this confrontation was coming and had been going through different scenarios as to what he would say to his younger self. He'd kept coming back to the thought, 'What would Sensei do?' and that had given him many options he hadn't really considered before.

Part of him wanted to test out the thousand-years-of-pain on the younger Sasuke… but even he couldn't bring himself to quite go that far… but nothing else seemed good enough.

So, for now, he decided to just play it by ear.

"There! I win!" Naruto said, panting heavily.

"In your… dreams," younger Sasuke shot back.

Future Sasuke (he'd have to think of himself as Indra to keep the two of them separate) just shook his head. He really had been such an idiot back then.

Deciding that now was as good a time as any to show himself, he appeared in the center of the training ground with a shunshin and began to stride towards them.

After a few seconds, Naruto saw him and immediately his eyes lit up (and wasn't that a good feeling – even his friend from the future didn't seem that happy to see him).

"Indra-nii!"

That would never not be strange.

But it would never not be unwelcome either.

"Naruto," he responded, fondly exasperated.

Younger Sasuke's (eh, no, he was not giving up his name to that, so… Brat? Too endearing. Urchin? Better… Inexperienced Troglodyte? Accurate but too long. He'd just go with 'urchin' for now) eyes had suddenly grown large.

"Y-you…" he said, starting soft then growing to a shout by the end of the word, and sounded far more like he was imitating a ghost of some kind than anything.

'Indra' raised his one visible eyebrow. "Sasuke-kun," he decided to say, eye smiling. May as well play off as family… for now.

It was what Kakashi would do in his position and he'd decided to do this the Kakashi Way after all.

For the most part.

"It's nice to finally meet you."

"Y-y-you're an Uchiha!" the younger boy claimed.

Well, that made this a little easier, actually. Indra nodded. "I was on a long-term mission for the village. I only recently got back."

The Urchin looked dumbfounded.

Okay, this was a little fun, he had to admit. That look was utterly priceless.

Naruto glanced between them, confused.

"Uchiha? Like you, Teme?" the blond asked.

The Urchin didn't answer him, causing Naruto to scowl. Instead, the younger brunet glared up at his older counterpart, who decided to answer the blond.

"Yes. Sasuke and I are related," the older Uchiha confirmed.

Behind them, Sakura gasped and began to cough… again. That was the second time that had happened to her. She really needed to gain more stamina.

"Did you leave before or after the… the…" his younger self faded off.

Wow… Indra knew he'd been screwed up as a kid. He hadn't realized just how bad it had been.

"I heard about the Massacre before," he finally replied. The Urchin flinched while Naruto looked taken aback and horrified, even as he rushed to Sakura's side.

"The what?" Naruto asked.

Indra let out a long breath and met eyes with a still gasping Sakura. "Could you explain it to him, Sakura-san?"

The younger version of his wife nodded and grabbed Naruto's arm to drag him away, thankfully getting the subtext.

"Why did you leave me alone?" the remaining boy asked, sounding genuinely hurt.

Indra sighed. "Mainly because I only got back a couple of days ago… and you were in the hospital." All technically true.

The boy looked away. "They should have told me."

Oh, that needed to be nipped in the bud. "You'd never even met me before."

The Urchin scowled, not wanting to admit the older Uchiha may have possibly had any good reason to stay away.

"I'm sorry you've been so alone," Indra heard himself saying, voice softer than he'd intended.

The Urchin scoffed. "I'm fine. I don't need you."

The older Uchiha sighed. "It doesn't work," he finally decided on.

"What doesn't?" Sasuke asked, surprised and still petulant.

"Spouting a lie until it's true. Especially in this case, it never comes true just because you say it."

The younger Uchiha's eyes narrowed as he glared up yet again. "And what would you know?!"

"I know because I used to be just like you." Literally.

Sasuke's face had turned a rather interesting shade of red-purple and he looked about ready to explode. "You know nothing about me!"

Indra found it particularly difficult – almost physically painful – holding back his bark of laughter and utter contempt. Once he trusted himself to speak, he shook his head.

"Yes, because no one has gone through anything in this world quite as painfully as you have, and that gives you a lease on life. Everyone obviously owes you everything. My apologies, Uchiha-sama." He may have sounded a little too sarcastic there…

The boy looked taken aback again. "What?" he asked. "No! That's not what I—"

"But it is. Everyone has given you everything for as long as you can remember because you're the 'Last Loyal Uchiha'. You both depend on it and despise it because you think it makes you weak. So you refuse to openly rely on anyone as a ninja because that must make you weak too.

"You are nothing but a contemptuous brat who will never reach your goals as long as you have that outlook.

"Trusting in your teammates makes you stronger. Trying to do everything alone makes you weaker. Yes, terrible things have happened to you, but you don't realize exactly how easy you have it. You think that your life is the absolute worst and no one can ever have anything worse than you. You invalidate everyone else's pain simply because it isn't the same as yours!"

"No one else lost their family to the one person they trusted the most!" Sasuke yelled.

"I did," the time traveler said bluntly. That stopped Sasuke short.

"W-what?" he asked.

Indra sighed. "An old man my brother answered to pushed him… pushed him so hard he broke. He killed my parents in front of me. Only later did I find out that my parents were planning to betray the village. The old man wanted my life too, but my brother refused. However, he could tell me none of this under pain of death for both of us. For years, I hated him… but he did the best he could do under the circumstances, even if he didn't go about it… well."

He turned and looked into the distance, the world around him fading as he remembered his past. "I got my revenge – on both of them. I killed them, thinking it would finally satisfy my hatred and anger – that it would right everything that went wrong.

"It didn't."

He blinked, realizing where and when he was once again before he turned and looked at his younger self, who seemed both mesmerized and horrified, hopeful but devastated at the same time. "All vengeance ever did was take away my chances to find happiness again."

"Th-that's just you," The Urchin said, weakly. "My situation is different! It'll be different!"

"Will it?" Indra asked, cocking his head to one side. Then he realized that a couple of words wouldn't change anything. He'd rarely been susceptible to the influence of vocalizations, or he would have given into Naruto's stubbornness far earlier. But he didn't let his disappointment show. Instead he just shrugged.

"I hope, for your sake, that it will be." The 'but I doubt it' at the end of that sentence silently rang throughout the clearing.

"Sasuke!" A loud yell of their shared name drew their attention as a familiar blond came rushing back towards them, a miffed Sakura following behind.

"Naruto, you idiot!" she half-hissed, half-yelled (Indra never knew exactly how she'd pulled that off).

The Jinchuuriki rushed up to his teammate, eyes shining in determination. "I'll help you find your brother! We'll kick his butt for what he did, dattebayo!"

The Urchin's eyes widened for a moment, surprise and an obviously overwhelming amount of pain practically flowed through them.

Before his younger self could screw it up by refusing, the older Uchiha stepped in.

"Then you'll have to train your hardest," he informed them, matter-of-factly. "Uchiha Itachi is an S-ranked missing nin – that means he's almost kage level. Three Jounin can take a kage-level shinobi, if they have the right skills and good enough teamwork."

The Urchin blinked, his mind having problems processing everything. "Th-three?" he asked.

"Of course, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said as she stepped up to them. "I'll definitely help you!"

"But…" the younger Uchiha started.

His older self cut him off. "You're all genin level right now. You cannot comprehend the differences in your power gap… but if you all work hard enough, you can all make Jounin within two years."

The Urchin frowned. "Even them?" he asked Indra, thumbing in his teammates' direction.

"Hey!" Naruto protested while Sakura looked utterly heartbroken.

Indra frowned, eyes narrowing. "Growth for a ninja depends on four things: direction, dedication, experience and instruction," he said as his expression turned stony. "Sasuke, you have had all of these. Is it any wonder you were ahead in the academy? Sakura lacked three of them, but at least two of those are easily remedied. Naruto lacked two."

Instead of a loud, angry disagreement, Naruto just grit his teeth as his hands balled into fists and he looked away.

"I've decided on my direction," Sakura spoke up. "I do want to become a medic nin, and I'll study hard to get there, Sasuke-kun, so I can heal you when I have to." Then, surprisingly, she turned to her blond teammate. "You too, Naruto. It'll be my job to keep you alive!"

The blond looked particularly surprised at that. "Sakura-chan…" he said, close to tears.

"Unfortunately… that means I'm off the market," she said pointedly, then looked at The Urchin with a sigh. "No dating… not even if it means Ino-pig wins. Helping my teammates is more important."

Indra blinked in surprise, then felt his lips twitch into a small smile. Kakashi had given them positive feedback if he recalled, as few and far-between as those instances were. "I'm proud of you, Sakura," he said. "You are now only missing experience. You will go far."

Sakura looked utterly pleased as her cheeks darkened for a second, but then her smile melted into a frown as she glanced at Naruto. "You said Naruto was missing two… but he had everything but experience, didn't he? With how he was always saying he'd be Hokage, no mater what anyone else said, that's both direction and stu… er… determination… right?"

The older Uchiha glanced at Naruto, who shrank in on himself a little, although not in fear, but in anger – like a fox getting ready to pounce. Not for the first time, Indra wondered what effects Kurama had on Naruto without either of them knowing.

"Naruto, can I tell them? Or would you like to?"

The blond flinched and glanced up at him, then nodded and looked away again.

The older Sasuke returned his nod. "Naruto's instruction was sabotaged, purposefully, at the academy."

The other two looked utterly shocked. "What? That can't be! Iruka-sensei—" Sakura started.

"It wasn't Iruka-sensei," Naruto cut her off, voice harsh and angry. "It was Mizuki." No sensei. Heh, that was so like the Naruto he remembered.

"But… Mizuki-sensei… he…"

"Was a traitor," Indra said.

"Why?" his younger self asked.

Everyone turned to him.

"Why you, of all people? Some random kid from the orphanage… you weren't even the only orphan, so… why?"

Once again Naruto, for the barest second, resembled a cornered animal, ready to run or fight. He looked helplessly at 'Indra-nii' for help.

Yeah, he hadn't been able to resist that expression in years. Having it come from a younger Naruto only made the effects of said expression worse.

"That is for Naruto to tell you. It is his secret alone," he said. "Don't pester him about it, but…" and he turned to Naruto, "they deserve to know. It's up to you to decide when to tell them, but don't take too long. Eventually circumstances may force you to reveal it, whether you want to or not, and all of your team may be in danger when that happens."

Naruto looked somewhere between resigned, betrayed, and utterly terrified. Then he shot that same expression at his shocked teammates.

Eventually his shoulders slumped and he nodded.

Then he looked back up at the older Uchiha. "You know?" he asked softly.

Indra nodded.

"And… you don't hate me?"

The older man shrugged. "Why should I? That isn't you." Which was all he could really say without breaking the Third's ridiculous law. Naruto looked so utterly grateful, the Older Sasuke immediately decided that he'd had enough 'emotional' talk for the day (more than enough, really – besides, Kakashi-sensei didn't do emotional talk).

"Now. Training," he said as two clones appeared beside him. "Sakura, I know some medical jutsu, although only the basics. I will teach you what I know, but you will need to find a better instructor. Books will help, but you cannot learn everything through books if you want to grow faster.

"Naruto, 100 clones. Now. today we go through the fourth academy kata."

Naruto groaned, but then several pops sounded and the area filled with orange.

"Meanwhile, Sasuke, you're with me." At least he hadn't called him 'The Urchin' aloud like Kakashi-sensei would have.

Sakura winced. "Good luck, Sasuke-kun."

The Urchin scoffed, finally back to his old self. "As if I need it."

"That is the type of hubris that will stunt your growth as a ninja," the older one called out. Then he grinned and looked back at them over his shoulder. "And I will take a page from my friend's book and beat that into your head."

Even Naruto looked a little worried. "Um… Indra-nii, you won't… kill him, right?"

The Urchin's's eyebrows rose and his head whipped between Indra and Naruto, disbelieving.

"By the time I'm through with him, he'll wish I had."

The younger Uchiha's face paled. The older's smile widened, perhaps a bit sadistically… or would it be masochistically?

This… this would be fun.

xXx

Sasuke sat at the edge of the clearing… and honestly, he only sat because Indra had been merciful enough to leave him upright. It turned out the man only had one arm… and Sasuke still couldn't even lay a finger on him. He hadn't even moved all that much… and honestly made Kakashi-sensei look like… well… a genin.

Sasuke had made the mistake of actually saying that aloud.

"Funny you would say that. Hatake Kakashi is more of a prodigy than your brother. He graduated earlier, was in the field at a younger age, made chunin at a younger age and Jounin at about the same time – or would have, had Itachi ever tried to become Jounin. Instead he became ANBU at age 11. That wasn't possible for Hatake as his guardian refused to let him do so.

"Even now, Hatake is rusty due to his own trauma, and could still be considered a solid A-rank ninja bordering on S."

He'd emphasized each point with a hit of some kind, ending with Sasuke down on the ground trying desperately not to vomit. Now he understood why Sakura and Naruto had been wary of him going with Indra… the man was sadistic. Sasuke could see the satisfaction in the older Uchiha's eyes – satisfaction at beating a younger boy up like this.

"Real… Ninja don't… have trauma…" he managed to get out as he forced his arms to lift him up. To his utter surprise, Indra laughed. Not a little chuckle, but an out right, mocking laugh.

"If you believe that, you're stupider than I thought you were," he hissed before dragging Sasuke to his feet and made him take a stance. He then proceeded to beat Sasuke down again, stating that trauma was a fact of life for ninja, and the only ninja who didn't have trauma were murdering psychopaths that couldn't even be trusted by their own villages. According to him, even people like the Demon from the Bloody Mist and the Konoha Missing Nin Orochimaru had their traumas, buried deeply, but still there.

"The moment you bury your trauma so deep you cannot feel it or anything else like it, is the moment you become your Itachi. Worse even, because then you would gladly murder the one you care most deeply about, and even Itachi couldn't do that."

"He… could! He… wanted… me to… grow strong… to test… his…"

Another mocking laugh from Indra. "You really think he told you the truth, that night? That there was nothing else going on? Honestly? He wants you to grow strong to test his strength? No. That excuse is so weak I'm surprised you accept it so fully."

Sasuke's already painful breathing hurt even worse when his breath caught in his throat.

"What… are you… saying?"

A snort. "Some ninja you are. Even Naruto would be able to get that and yet you look down on him so much. He and Sakura are better ninja than you are now, and better ninja than you ever will be if you don't change. Fine, I'm saying that no one really knows what happened that night except for Itachi and anyone else actually inside the compound from start to finish. To find out the truth, you will have to follow your Sensei's advice and look underneath the underneath."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at that. "How did you… know he said… that?"

Indra just stared down at him, stony mask reminding him so much of Itachi that he wanted nothing more than to utterly wipe the expression off the man's face.

"That's one of Hatake's favorite sayings. Anyone who has ever met him knows that."

After several more seconds of painful silence, Indra sighed and rubbed the back of his head, before squatting in front of Sasuke's sprawled form.

"Do you know why I beat you down?" he asked. Sasuke didn't answer, but Indra must have read his thoughts in his eyes. "Not to be sadistic or cruel. Well… that was part of it, but truthfully, this is the kind of pain you will go through on a regular basis if you wish to grow stronger quickly. There is the fast way and there is the less painful way. Both will get you somewhere, but one will get you there faster… if you survive it without getting mangled. And even if you don't feel this physical pain, you will feel the mental and emotional pain. Most people find a balance between the two that they can mentally and physically handle because most people – including you and Itachi – cannot handle this level of pain every. Single. Day.

"Find your balance and stick to it, no matter how much you want to get stronger faster. What counts is that you get stronger, not when you get stronger. Even Itachi has to reach a plateau in his growth at some point. If you take the time to do it right now, you will be surprised at how quickly you will grow in the fairly near future – even months from now."

Then he'd dragged Sasuke up, slung him over a shoulder (much to Sasuke's protests) and sat him against a tree.

"I'll be back shortly," he said. "And that's one thing that will get you further than both Itachi and Hatake – taking the time your body needs to rest and recover. Your body can take you farther when it's at a hundred percent."

Sasuke just snorted, but he couldn't really move so only watched as Indra literally disappeared. Had that been a shunshin? If so, it had been one of the best shunshin Sasuke had ever seen.

And now he could only lean against that tree, trying to ignore the knot in his back as he thought about everything Indra had said and done and it just… ticked him off! He was about ready to force himself to his feet when the older Uchiha returned, Sakura on his back.

She took one look at her teammate and shouted, "Sasuke-kun!" She scrambled down and had just taken a step towards Sasuke (he wasn't sure if that would have been a positive development or not, but was leaning towards the latter) when Indra stopped her.

"I brought you here so you could see healing in action. You can't actually practice on a live human until you pass multiple tests – one of them including a dead or dying fish – but seeing healing in action can help. Now, watch."

Sasuke opened his mouth to protest – he wasn't some project to be worked on! But a glare from Indra had him clopping his jaw closed.

"Put your hands on mine, Sakura," he said. "Close your eyes and feel what my chakra does – but don't do anything yourself, understand?"

She nodded and did as she was told, closing her eyes. She didn't open them for several minutes as Indra proceeded to heal Sasuke. The aching in his muscles subsided, as did the pounding in his head and heaving in his chest. He trembled less (not that he'd been trembling much) and several sore areas that would have developed into bruises stopped throbbing altogether.

Eventually, the older Uchiha lifted his hands from Sasuke and Sakura opened her eyes, looking utterly thrilled. "That was… amazing, Indra-sensei!"

The man seemed taken aback by the title. "Sensei?"

She immediately backpedaled. "Um… sorry. If you don't want me to, I won't…"

"No, that's… fine," he finally said, face a mix of complicated emotion. "Just… remember I'm not your actual sensei."

She looked away at that, half-pouting, half-blushing. "You've taught us more than our actual Sensei…"

He sighed, looking suddenly tired. "Well, you're not wrong," he muttered. Then he shook his head. "Kakashi… has a lot to teach you." Why did he pause after that? This guy was too suspicious…

"But he's so…" Sakura started.

"He's never taught a genin team before. He's taught ANBU though. And if anyone asks, you didn't hear that from me. You figured it out yourselves." He glared at them until they both nodded. "Good."

Then he looked down at Sasuke specifically. "Do you feel better?"

The younger Uchiha nodded, begrudgingly.

"Good. Get up. We'll go again. After all, you want to get stronger, right?"

Sakura turned in worry to her teammate, just in time to see him pale.

xXx

AN: Quathis and I both thank you for reading this. We've received some very entertaining and/or thoughtful comments and just appreciate everyone's support. :D We hope this lived up to expectations!

Discord: discord. gg/PChdnmNEc5 (no spaces - Note that Quathis is not on the discord, but I can get messages to him if you would like.)