1st fan

[fantheflame]

[Action: Awakening ((Closed))]

[Sasuke is not enjoying getting used to being unsure of things. But he is - unsure - and finds that while the things he is unsure of are troubling, the state of unsurety isn't as terrifying as it used to be.]

[Right now, there are two very important things he's unsure of: whether he's alive or dead, and, if the second, whether this is heaven or hell.]

[The last thing he remembers? His deranged excuse for a... cousin of sorts? Taking on the ten-tails as its container. And now he's here - wherever here is - standing in a stranger's bedroom, holding a photograph of his brother with (presumably) that stranger. He awoke nearly naked with a pair of wings sprouted from his own back, and now he's somewhere with evidence of one of the dead. What else could have happened?]

We lost, huh...?

[Something like guilt makes a feeble case for life in his chest, but it's hard to feel guilty when you don't remember an ending. Instead he's just... staring at this photograph. One thumb swipes idly across the cool glass, over Itachi's face, half-expecting it to vanish once obstructed. It doesn't.]

[He's not sure whether to feel a sense of final relief - he's here, and, it seems, so is Itachi - or sick doom - who the hell is this complete stranger who's gotten to share in his brother's... something. Not life, maybe, but...]

[The Itachi in the picture is almost smiling, and his eyes look more alive than Sasuke remembers since they were very small.]


[Action: Examination ((Sometime Later; Open))]

[Sasuke is - a little bit of everywhere. He doesn't exactly believe... most of this. Half thinks this is some sadistic side-plot in Obito's (Madara's?) ridiculous Moon's Eye genjutsu (keeps having to remind himself he wouldn't know that exists if that were the case). So he's exploring - barracks, apartments, the shrine, the forest - here one moment, maybe lingering to examine (Sharingan blazing red the entire time) - and then gone in a flicker, off to the next place. He's not taking particular care to remain hidden (really, he doesn't care who sees him in what may be a fake or an illusion or a dream), but he's not being loud about his presence either.]


[Follow-Up Action: Drained ((Closed to Sakura))]

[One thing Sasuke should maybe have done was paid attention to the tidbits he's heard about halved powers, weakened chakra, difficulty... being, as a shinobi.]

[Because now, feeling more physically real than he has the entire time he's been here - how could he be this bone-tired in a dream? - he's slumped on hands and knees on the riverbank just to the north of town, eyes fading back and forth between blazing red and dim grey-black, breath harsh in and out of his lungs. How did he run so quickly out of chakra? How did Sharingan run him so quickly out of chakra?]

[His eyes fade back to dull black and stay there at last, and he lifts a hand to brush sweaty bangs out of his eyes, feeling at once overheated and clammy. Maybe he's had his question answered, finally, and this is hell.]


[Voice: Greeting ((Sometime Later; Open))]

--believe this thing - hm.

[It's a voice some will recognize.]

If paper can really record - whatever. I'm told I've been here before. I don't think I believe that. I certainly don't remember it.

Some of you know me. That's fine. Some of you would rather you didn't, and that's fine too.

I don't know what you know and I don't know what kind of bullshit this jutsu or hell or whatever it is is pulling, and I don't entirely care.

You should know I'm no longer an enemy of Konoha.

Believe me or don't, but I don't intend to fight you.

[There's a shift, and a few long seconds of tape-recorder not-quite-silence, followed by a muffled shuffle of movement over paper before the recording ends.]

Comments

[fantheflame]

[Sasuke's reaction is silent, so Naruto likely won't catch it - some combination of grimace, eyeroll, and ... weird, creeping nostalgia threatening to tickle the corners of his mouth. He internally steps on that last one. Yeah, this is Naruto, all right.]

A long series of things, yes, no, none of your business.

[Deadpan, 100%.]

[believeit]

[Yeah all he hears is a whole load of you not answering questions, Sasuke.]

Sasuke. This is important.

[fantheflame]

Then stop acting like a hyperactive child about it.

[Not that Sasuke ever expects that out of the blond, not if he lives to be a hundred.]

Most of it's really not your business. But before I came here, the last thing I was doing was fighting Tobi and the Juubi.

Along with you and Sakura.

[believeit]

I'm not.

[He is. Though-- that? He can't help but smile, just a little bit. It's gotta be true, how else would Sasuke know what him and Sakura were doing? Of course it just makes him want to meet up in person even more.]

Yeah, I remember that too, though you weren't there. Where are you?

[fantheflame]

I'm there at home right now.

[That. Feels weird to say. But with everyone telling him no time passes there while he's here, isn't that - technically correct? Ugh, this place.]

I don't want to see you right now, so stop asking.

[Partly because he's running on about 8% chakra right now and feels like a fool for it; he doesn't need hyperactive loudmouths crowding him like that, thanks.]

[believeit]

[Naruto believes it, but it doesn't mean he understands it.] Against that Obito guy and Madara, yeah? [There's only a short pause before he adds:] Why'd you come back?

[After all, last time they met Sasuke had been very much against anything to do with Konoha and even left with Obito, so something important must have happened to change his mind.]

And why not? [He prefers talking to people face-to-face anyway, but even more so in this case.]

[fantheflame]

[Good, this Naruto at least knows that much.] Didn't see Madara doing much fighting. Just baiting the First.

[And there's the question he can't really answer, not in a way Naruto will understand. Not fully.]

[Sigh.]

It's complicated.

[He's just going to ignore the last part. Stop being nosy.]

[believeit]

The First? First what?

[His first thought is the First Hokage naturally, but that would be dumb, right?]

How complicated? [Everything's always complicated with you.] Did you fall out with those guys? Did something else happen? Sasuke?

[If he keeps asking questions, at least one will get answered properly right?]

[fantheflame]

The First Hokage, Naruto.

[Now Sasuke has an even better idea of when Naruto is from. Even if "when someone is from" still seems bizarre as hell.]

If you keep asking me ten questions at once I'm not going to answer any of them.

[A beat.]

I'm not going to talk about any of it to you through this thing where anyone can find it later. I'll talk to you about it later.

[believeit]

The First Hokage? What? That guy's been dead for ages!

[What is even going on out there, first Sasuke's back, and now a dead Hokage too?]

[At least he accepts that it would be better not to talk about these things over the stupid magical book thing.]

What time later? You wanna come to my house?

["Talk to you about it later" mean in like... five minutes two minutes half an hour, right?]

[fantheflame]

And Madara's a spring chicken.

[More deadpan.]

I don't know, Naruto. Later. I'm busy right now.

["Busy" here meaning "trying not to pass out on a cot in the clinic," but who's counting?]

[believeit]

Yeah but he's different, 'cause he was back with that Edo-tensai thing.

[There's a pause for five seconds or so, almost enough to believe that hey he's actually using his brain to think things through, but nope.]

Busy doing what? You just got here.

[fantheflame]

You're still an idiot.

[Seriously, how is this even hard?]

Tensei. Tensei. I'll explain the rest later, dammit dobe, just leave me alone.

[believeit]

Shut up.

[Sorry he doesn't automatically assume people are zombies okay??]

Yeah-- that's what I said. [Tensai, tensei, same difference.] And you keep saying later, but that doesn't say when!

[fantheflame]

[Well if one dead person shows up and your teammate from the future tells you there are more dead people-!]

I'll decide when later is when I feel like it's later.

[That's. Probably also going to go over the blond's damn head, isn't it?]

[believeit]

[Yes. In fact he's just going to... try and find out where he is.]

Where are you, anyway. In town already?

[fantheflame]

You've already asked me this question.

[And he didn't answer then. Have some more deadpan.]

[believeit]

Yeah, and you didn't answer so I'm asking it again.

[If you think he won't ask another fifty times, or ask everyone he knows (or those he doesn't know) if they've seen you... then you're wrong.]

[fantheflame]

I'm not gonna answer you just because you keep prodding. Annoying... You have no concept of privacy.

[believeit]

It's important, of course I'm gnna keep asking. [GOD YOU ARE SO ANNOYING. That never changed.] Why can't you just tell me where you are?

[fantheflame]

Because I don't want to see you right now, get that through your thick skull!

[believeit]

Why not??

[You said you weren't an enemy anymore so WHY NOT.]

[fantheflame]

Because I don't want to see anyone right now, dobe! Fuck, let me choose when I do and don't want to be alone.

[believeit]

Argh, why have you gotta be so difficult, teme! [He can't help but fall back into the old insults. Odd, that someone can be so happy yet completely frustrated at the same time.]

Fine! But you're coming over later! [That's not even a choice, stupid Sasuke, you're doing it.]

[fantheflame]

I'm not the one being difficult, usuratonkachi. [Speaking of easily falling into old insults, y'know.]

Whatever. Just later, not now.