Somewhere I will find you

Prologue

Amidst the pile of corpses of the war-torn battlefield, the smell of smoke was the only thing that masked the blood scent hanging thickly in the air. Mountain of bodies were carelessly strewn across the place once teemed with life, wearing the expression of fear, anger, sadness, anguish and hatred as their last funeral clothes. But there was no one left to mourn them, no dear ones left behind to give them the last rite of passage into the Underworld as the entire world was now laid in ruins.

Still, amidst all the chaos, there was one man left standing. His once bright and colorful clothes was now torn in various places and coated in blood and bile and Gods know what else. His blonde hair damped with sweat, and his once ever lively blue eyes were now as empty as the starless sky above.

At his feet laid another man whose blood-red eyes had finally turned dark and unseeing. His labored breaths were getting shorter and shorter with every passing moment, even as his stubbornness refused to die down. He tried to push himself back up, but to no avail, as his battered body no longer responded to his yet tenacious mind. He peered up the dark void above them, as if hoping to catch another glimpse of the moon one last time. If he could see the moon, perhaps he could finally see the world he longed to see his whole life. Just once, before he was drawn back into the beyond again.

Alas, the fire alighting his heart did not extend its courtesy to his body, his breathing finally slowed and his chest finally stilled. Naruto stood over him and watched as the great Uchiha Madara finally breathed his last after wreaking yet another tragedy upon the world. There were so many things he did not know or understand, but he did wonder if there was ever a way for this man to be saved, if there was a way to stop him before his pride wrought the world into ruins. The First Hokage had tried, belabored over it, but if a man as kind and as talented as he was still failed to bring about such a miracle, then who in the world could have achieved such a feat?

But as he lifted his gaze and took in the sight of carnage surrounding him, he thought that perhaps such a man couldn't, shouldn't, be saved. If this was his means of bringing about peace into this world, perhaps it was best that he was left to rot for an eternity, forgotten and alone. This man, who robbed him of everything he had worked so hard for in his life, deserved no such sympathy from him. Whatever led him to thread the path he did, it was of no interest to Naruto now.

Without sparing a look at the beaten corpse of the once proud leader of the Uchiha clan, he dragged his limping feet across the field of decay. He did not need to look to know where he was going, for he had always known where they were, especially her. Her presence, faded as it was, never left his mind.

It only took a short stumbling trek before he reached his destination. As he looked through his blood-filled vision, he finally found her dead, broken body lying a few feet away from where he stood.

Her rose-colored hair fanned out around her, forming a halo surrounding her face. She would have looked absolutely angelic saved for the blood trailing from the numerous wounds inflicted upon her battered body. The yin seal on her forehead had long since disappeared. Her skin, which was already pale, was covered in a white-sheen of death that made her seemed even more ethereal, a stark contrast with the deep red blood made her skin looked even more translucent.

Her beauty in death was simply too heartbreaking to witness, and he felt the tears he held back for so long finally slipped from the corner of his eyes. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She was supposed to alive, laughing, smiling, being as happy and carefree as he could wish her to be. Sometimes scolding him when he did something silly, sometimes fussing over him when he forgot to take care of himself, forever by his side as they chased their dreams together, filling his hollowed chest feel the warmth it searched for all his life.

Life had taken so many things away from him. His family was taken from him almost the instant he came into this world, then it was his friend who left in a quest for vengeance and left him behind. And now, it saw fit to take his love away. She was taken away in a blink of an eye by the stupid, pointless war that ended with no victory, even to the instigator himself who now numbered among the perished, leaving him as the last living being still breathing on this godforsaken earth, leaving him so, so alone again.

It was fortunate then, that he himself would not be long for this accursed world either.

He winced as he felt a twinge of pain in his stomach from the stab wound where Madara's sword pierced him earlier. His netted undershirt was glued to his wound by the sticky, congealed blood and too many sudden movements caused it to tear. As his shaking feet stumbled his way to her, determined to be with her even in death as they were in life, he noticed another body lying on its stomach next to her with one arm thrown protectively over her, as if to shield her from harm.

Already disoriented from heavy blood loss, it took a while for Naruto to realize that the arm on Sakura belonged to Sasuke.

His heart clenched painfully once again. The time they shared together as Team Seven in life had been as brief as the cherry blossom season, but it became the tether that tied them all together. It became the reason that drove almost all his subsequent actions, his salvation became his and Sakura's goal as they chased after him, come hell or high water. Their reunion became their dream…

Their promise of a lifetime…

As Naruto took one last look at the man he regarded as friend and brother, relentless pangs of regret clutched his fatigued heart. The Uchiha Prodigy's life had been nothing but a wasteful regret. He had forsaken Team Seven that he regarded as his new family in order to avenge his old one. He suffered endless hardships and heartbreaks, lashed out at allies and enemies alike, did what he thought was righteous only to find that they were all but a pawn of a mad man, that all he did meant nothing. All the revenge, all the sacrifice, they did not matter.

Naruto understood so well that Sasuke's heart, despite it all, held a kind of purity of a naïve child that could not let go of an ideal. That ideal, twisted by vengeance and corrupted by the world, had led him down such a dark path that caused endless cycle of tragedies and sufferings most of all to himself.

Had he not taken the path he did, Naruto was sure they would have been…

Actually, Naruto wasn't sure what they would have been, but he was sure it would be better than this. They would have all been together as Team Seven, at least, and that surely would be better than anything. They might have fought, because Naruto knew that deep down, Sasuke did love Sakura as much as he did, and starved of love as they were, neither of them would be willing to relinquish their love for her. But in the end, the bond between them would keep them together, he was sure of it. Their ties to each other would lead them to the light at the end of the tunnel, whatever that light might have been.

He saw that while Sasuke's eyes were closed, his expression was by no mean peaceful. Naruto could still see the blood stain forming tracks under his eyes, indicating an over-usage of his eye power. As his eyes travelled down, he finally noticed a shokuto sticking out from Sasuke's back. Madara must have stabbed him right through his heart.

Weeping bitterly now, Naruto knelt down hard next to the body of his teammates. The action tore his wounds and more blood came gushing out, soaking his already soiled jacket in deeper scarlet. He ignored the pain as he slowly lied down next to Sakura and draped one of his arms over her body and Sasuke's arm.

It wasn't supposed to end like this, his mind raged even as his breath slowed. He was supposed to fulfill his lifetime promise to her. He would bash some sense into Sasuke's thick head, drag his sorry ass back to her and make him apologize to all of them for being an idiot, and their happy ending with all three of them reunited would finally begin. They would take missions together, be stupid and stupidly happy in their happy ending.

As he felt his consciousness starting to slip away, he could not help but wish that there was something that he could have done to prevent such an ending. As he watched Sakura's pale, lifeless yet always beloved face with a trace of dried-up tears and Sasuke's with blood and anguish written all over, he longed to be the fool that he once was, the fool who believed that if he worked hard enough, he would achieve all of his wishes. That one day, fate would finally grant them the chance to be together at long last.

In his moment of weakness, he wished for a chance to do it all over again.

And he swore he would find them again.

It was the last thing on his mind before consciousness completely slipped away.

When Sasuke woke, his mind became clear it an instant. Strict training and discipline made him a light sleeper at the best of times, and it enabled him to clear his mind from sleep in a blink of an eye.

Yet, he remained still and did not open his eyes. Something didn't feel right. The last thing he remembered was the battlefield, people dying all around him. They had been fighting for so long even he lost track of time, and eventually, even the strongest shinobi could not hold out against such fatigue. One by one they started falling to the enemy's blade and ninjutsu. He recalled Shino was the first to fall, and then the rest of Team Eight soon followed. While he didn't witness the demise of other teams himself, he had under no illusion of what fate would have befallen them.

Then, it was Sakura. She had been trying to heal everyone around her as best she could with Lady Katsuyu, and for a long, long while she held out admirably. However, as days and nights rolled by, as more people were injured and dying all around them, even her enormous chakra reserve could no longer keep up. Amidst the battle, he saw the byakugou seal on her forehead started fading, and she faltered. Her knees buckled, and she finally fell forward, eyes fluttering from exhaustion.

Behind her was White Zetsu, creeping up to her, the blade in his hand glinting in the dim light of the moon. He had been hiding in the shadows, waiting for this particular moment of weakness.

Surrounded as he was, it became utterly imperative in that moment that he reached her. Even though it left his flank open and gave the enemies the opportunity to attack, he found himself dismissing the thought of self-preservation almost naturally. His sluggish feet raced towards her, as if hoping to catch her fall.

To no avail.

The metal blade in that pale hand pierced through her cleanly as White Zetsu yanked her back from her fall into the waiting weapon. He hoped against hope that it would miss, but it was impossible at that range. Her body convulsed as she tried to stay conscious and healed her wounds, but all her chakra was expended. Her eyes, glassy from unshed tears, started to close as she fell to the ground, never to open again.

In that moment, his mind went white with rage and sorrow, and yet, a realization came to him unbidden, clear as a ringing bell.

He did not want her to die.

It was a strange realization, considering he was willing to kill her himself on that bridge, knowing that she was there to kill him as well. After that stunt, any lingering feeling between them should have dissipated. He was within his rights to hate her, for trying to kill him and disrupt his plans, for living in the village that sacrificed his clan, for telling him she loved him and then forsaking him. Her death now, by all logic, shouldn't have made him feel anything.

Why, then, did his heart feel like it was about to tear itself apart? Why did everything in the world suddenly feel so wrong?

She couldn't die, shouldn't die. Not her. Not her. Anyone but her.

It wasn't enough that he had to witness his whole clan perished, now even she was dead, killed right before his eyes and he couldn't do a damn thing to save her. Why did such a thing keep happening? Was it perhaps a curse that everything he touched must decay and everyone he loved must depart?

And then, the only color he saw from then on was red.

He remembered relishing twisting his blade out of that White Zetsu's heart as he kicked the pale corpse away. After that, everything seemed to blur together incoherently. His body instinctively fell into motion of combat, but he remember staying rooted to the spot next to her body, refusing to leave her body to her fate among the chaotic battlefield. It was a useless endeavor, irrational even, but perhaps he was too fatigued to be tactical at that point.

Then, in the distance, he saw Madara made his way toward him.

His eyes opened abruptly at the memory. Did someone manage to save him and take him away from the battlefield? All around him was quiet and he heard a familiar sound of cicada song outside. It must be nighttime, he concluded. He was on a futon with his body covered by a thick blanket, so he surmised that for the moment, he was safe somewhere outside of Madara's reach. Someone must have healed him from the brink of death and took him here. But who, and how? Was there still such a place that on earth safe from that madman?

He listened again to make sure no one was around, and he rose to get up. And he was startled to see his own hand over the blanket. It was smaller than he remembered. In fact, it was so small that it could not belong to anyone older than five.

He quietly got up, scanning his surrounding more carefully to see where he was or if there was anything that could tell him what had happened. He was in a spacious, if traditionally-looking bedroom that was beautifully decorated. Not far from the futon he had laid on, there was what seemed to be a dressing table with an ancient-looking polished copper looking glass on it. Sasuke walked towards the table and looked into the glass, dreading what he would see, only to have his fear confirmed.

Uchiha Sasuke, the most feared and powerful ninja of his generation, had returned to his five-year-old body.

Roughly the same time, somewhere far away, a blonde ninja was finding himself in the same predicament, and havoc ensued all around him.

"Where the hell am I?!" He frantically ran through winding corridors that seemed endless, determined to find an exit. He had no idea what was going on or where he was, but that wasn't the most important question.

Just as he thought he found a way out and ran madly toward it, he was insistently pulled back by a pair of a much larger hand. Lifted into the air as if he weighed nothing, more like. As a man who had not been manhandled in such a manner for a long time, this was embarrassing, humiliating, even.

He thrashed and fought to free himself to no avail. He shouted at the mysterious hands to let him go, but that pair of hands held fast. Commotions began to reign over, and more people rushed to surround him. He cried out desperately as he felt himself falling unconscious again.

"Sakura-chan! Sasuke!"

Then, before darkness claimed him, he managed one last coherent thought.

Sakura-chan, where are you?

AUTHOR'S NOTE

12/03/2025: Rewritten to polish and add more detail.