Author's Note: So, yeah, here is another story. I know. I suck. But I'm really liking this idea and had to get it out today. This won't be in tandum with the story line, so if you don't like that, I suggest not reading it. Okay? Also, there will be OOC-ness. Let me know what you guys think! Enjoy!

Warnings: Language, maybe. A bit of violence.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. The idea was brought to me by RedGoddessEclipse and asked me to write it for her. :3

Word Count: 5,388

Sasuke never thought that it would turn out this way. Thinking back to when he was just a little boy, he remembered the stories his mom and older brother read to him before bed time. No matter the trails and heartache, when the heros all got together and formed a seemingly unstoppable force to be reckoned with, they would all pull through in the end. No matter what, there was always a chance that they would pull through, regardless of how peril-less it may seem.

Naruto too, seemed so sure that they would somehow pull through this battle with the Rabbit Goddess, Kaguya. He would look at Sasuke with large, sky blue eyes, grinning broadly and offering Sasuke a thumbs up before charging up a rasengan and rushing toward the long white haired woman. It was usually something that Sasuke would scoff at and roll his eyes, doing his best to ignore the blond, but this time was different. He was a bit relieved by Naruto's certainty in their success like the possibility of them losing never crossed the boy's mind. It was him, Naruto, Sakura and their sensei, Kakashi.

They were a team. Team 7. For a long time, that hadn't meant anything to him. At least, not as much as it probably should have, but now at the face of this great adversity, he finds solace in knowing that his childhood teammates and sensei were at his side, fighting with him.

He wanted to believe that they would somehow be able to full this off. He wanted to have faith in his long time rival and reluctant-on-his-part friend, pink haired teammate and sensei. He wasn't much for faith and belief, but he had hoped. Hoped that, like in all the stories he was read to as a kid, this would all turn out to be okay.

But hoping wasn't enough.

And Naruto was wrong.

Kaguya was too powerful. There was only one thing that they could do.

"Save this future!" Naruto said, grabbing hold of Sasuke's shoulders. Behind the blond haired boy, Sakura and Kakashi were jumping around, dodging the long white whip like strands of hair.

"What are you talking about, moron?" Sasuke grunts, trying to pull away from Naruto's iron-tight grip. Over Naruto's shoulder, Sasuke watches as the hair wraps around Sakura's waist and trapping her right arm to her side, lifting her up into the air before throwing her hard back down on the ground. She doesn't immediately get back up.

"Sasuke," Naruto says, strangely solemnly, pulling Sasuke's eyes back over to the blond boy, "Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei will hold her off long enough for me to send you off."

Sasuke shakes his head, eyebrows pulling together tightly. "What the hell are you saying? Have you lost faith?" He narrows his eyes. "How strange of you, moron?" He couldn't believe his ears. Was Naruto really telling him to give up? Perhaps not in those words, but the underlying message was clear. And very, very disturbing.

Naruto doesn't smile, he just stares back at Sasuke solemnly. "We can't survive this. I need you to ensure that things change. This is a one way trip, so make it worth it, okay?"

Sasuke continues shaking his head. "Why are you doing this? What are you saying? We don't have time for this. Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-"

"Sasuke!" Naruto snaps, making the blue haired boy stop. He had never seen the blond like this. "Sasuke," Naruto says again softly, "you have to go. Sakura and Kakashi-sensei are all the way over there. And Kurama and myself together can only perform the jutsu on others. I need you to go, Sasuke. It has to be you," Naruto says, putting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

Sasuke stares at Naruto's blue eyes, trying to understand. "What are you saying?" Sasuke whispers softly, feeling his stomach sinking deep into the soles of his feet and a painful constriction in his chest. He never expected to hear this, not from anyone. Especially not Naruto. Behind the blond, the dead Goddess drops down like a heavy bolder where Sakura was laying prone. The pink haired girl would have surely been crushed to death had Kakashi not suddenly appeared at her side and jumped out of the way quickly, their female teammate laying limp in his arms.

"I'm saying..." Naruto says softly, squeezing Sasuke's shoulder and returning his attention to the blond. "I'm saying, it was awesome knowing you, Sasuke. You're my brother after all." He smiles. Not a Naruto smile. A sad, goodbye smile. Sasuke starts shaking his head again. "Sasuke, if you remember anything from these moments, remember this: I am not sending you into the past, do you understand?"

"What are you doing, Naruto? What are you-" Sakura's moving again, jumping and dodging the Rabbit Goddess with Kakashi. Both are measurably slower than before.

"You'll be fine," Naruto says, looking deep into Sasuke's eyes. "I have faith in you. I believe in you." Naruto is suddenly surrounded by a familiar golden light, his right hand, branded with the light sun of the Yang seal, grabs hold of Sasuke's left hand, branded with the Yin seal. A strange shock goes through them and Naruto grins, looking passed Sasuke as someone stands behind the boy. "You'll be great," Naruto says confidently. "Believe it!"

At the last moment, Sasuke felt as if the presence of the Sage was at his back, as if offering his own help. Sasuke wanted to rip his hand from Naruto's, his heart pounding in his chest, wanting to yell and scream at the blond to stop being a fucking idiot, but he doesn't get the chance. Naruto smiles, one more time, as if able to read Sasuke's mind. He winks and mouths, "Later, Teme."

Everything goes black.

Sasuke opened his eyes, feeling dazed and unbalanced. Never before had Sasuke felt quite like this. It was like his chakra was swirling around in his head, bouncing around inside his brain. His body is pulsing painfully and it feels like he just spent the whole night getting a royal beat down by a dead goddess and the five Hokage and their respective Water, Wind, Lightning and Earth counterparts.

Sasuke sits up slowly, his entire body aching just from the minimal movement. His head feels heavy and the moment he's upright, he turns a bit to puke next to himself. It was surprising he was able to puke at all, since he hadn't eaten in at least over a day. It's mostly stomach acid. When he finishes, unable to puke anymore, his body feels weak and numb. He has to put his left hand on the warm grass to hold him up from falling into his bile.

The last of the Uchiha spits a bit to clear his mouth from the burning bile that had filled it just moments ago. He glares at the offending waste from his body and pushes himself away, wondering why he's feeling so strange. His arm holding him up is shaking just from holding his weight, which makes him growl under his breath in annoyance.

He gives himself a vicious shake to try and stabilize his trembling limbs. Putting his hands on his knees, Sasuke pushes himself to his feet, glaring at the ground when his balance tilts back and forth unsteadily. He leans against a nearby tree to keep himself on his feet, reaching up with his left hand to rub his pounding temple when he spots the dark, moon-like marking on his left palm.

In his mind's eye, he recalls the last thing Naruto did, putting Sasuke's left and Naruto's right hands together. Whatever he did, made this power pointless. Without Naruto, he could do nothing with it. And when he forced himself to feel through the thick fog in his brain for his childhood teammate, he couldn't find him. But he could sense the power of the Yang seal.

As if warily, Sasuke slowly turns his right hand over to see the light, sun Yang seal on his right palm. Sasuke presses his back hard against the tree behind him, making him feel worse than before.

Naruto must have done it. Must have somehow transferred his seal to Sasuke. So that was truly it? That was how this was all going to be? Naruto was going to be some big kami-damned hero, sending Sasuke away - and for what? What did he want Sasuke to do? Obviously he was no longer trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi, judging by the clear moon in the mid-morning sky.

Just trying to process it makes Sasuke's head pound even more.

Sasuke pushes off the tree and looks around, dazedly, trying to decide which way to go. Not even knowing where he should go, Sasuke just picks a direction and starts walking, after leaning down and picking up his sword that somehow was brought with him. He walks with his head slightly bowed and his shoulders pulled in. He has to close his eyes because his vision won't clear up. He focuses on his other senses to make his way through the forest opening his eyes only once when he felt the presence of one of the very large snakes that have inhabit the Land of Fire, slithering closer to him.

Turning his gaze toward the snake and stopping his stumbling way through the forest. Sasuke locks eyes with the serpent and stares it down, silently daring it to try and stalk him through the forest. He was vastly unhappy. His mood was sour and he wasn't feeling well. He was not in the mood.

It back down, turning and slithering away. Sasuke waits until the snake is out of sight before closing his eyes and continuing his long journey to who-knows-where. At this point, there was nothing for Sasuke to do. He had no where to go and no one who would be able to understand what he's going through. Sasuke is feeling raw enough right now to want to tell someone, but put said someone in front of Sasuke and surely he'll win them over with his award-winning personality and then he'll still be alone.

He'll never find someone as stupidly committed, or audacious, as Naruto and Sakura were about him. Even Kakashi held a great willingness to want Sasuke back if the Uchiha was willing to start playing on Team Konoha. Which was also to be expected. At first, all of that was annoying to Sasuke. He hated that they were so disturbingly loyal to him. At this precise moment, he would give anything to be in that situation again. What he wouldn't give to go back to when he was twelve years old. Before his curse consumed his entire life.

Before he sacrificed everything... for a lie. For one big, horrible lie.

This entire thing left a sour taste in his mouth. Well, aside from the cotton taste too. Sasuke needs water. And food too, Sasuke's weakness can also be attributed to his lack of consumption in the last day. That and there was nothing favorable about his chakra levels. Apart from being unable to see because of blurry vision, Sasuke's new Rinnegan is a much more efficient chakra vacuum than his Sharingan.

It wasn't much longer before Sasuke found himself stumbling from the forest to see, down a hill in front of him, lies a village. It probably has a couple thousand people living in it. It was a decent enough size that Sasuke could easily slip in, find some food and drink and a change of clothes - for his were ripped, tattered waste of fabric barely hanging onto his body - and get out of there before he can draw too much attention. Then, he'll sleep out in the forest and return in the morning and start to gather information.

Naruto's words echo in his head, "Sasuke, if you remember anything from these moments, remember this: I am not sending you into the past, do you understand?" Which is something that can only make sense in his nightmares. Obviously he is no longer in Tsukuyomi, but the rest of the world isn't in it either. The only logical thing Sasuke can think of would be that Naruto and the Nine Tails somehow sent him into the past, but Naruto already specified that that wasn't the case. Until Sasuke gets his bearings, he's going to have to be alert.

But that can't happen until he gets some food in his belly and some sleep to replenish his chakra supplies and maybe settle them down. Sasuke's not even sure he'd be able to mold his chakra correctly to perform jutsu. That leaves an uncomfortable pit in his stomach.

Sasuke trudges to the village, keeping his head down and his hair covering his closed Rinnegan eye. No amount of hunched over backs and downward turned eyes can cover the obvious fact that Sasuke was in some sort of epic battle and if he wasn't the one walking through town, he would be in the right mind to believe that they thought he lost. Sasuke's not so sure him being here could be considered a victory.

But Sasuke doesn't want to think about that now. Just seeing a flash of Naruto's smiling face behind his eyelids is enough to stir this torrent of emotions in his chest. Sasuke was mad and annoyed and just plain unhappy. He didn't know what to do and he felt a bit helpless, which only fueled his anger and annoyance. So to keep from lashing out at the people of this village, he forces the thoughts into the back of his mind to mull over later, once he's cleared his mind and has better control of his emotions.

Sasuke ignores their stares and quickly picks up an assortment of clothes, different from what he's used to, but deciding that he's going to be a nomad now that he really has no place to go, he might as well dress the part.

He trades in his tattered clothes for a long sleeve, high collar black shirt that goes to his mid-thighs with slits up the sides and a breast plate that goes over his right shoulder, reminiscent of Kumo's own breast plates but his is a solid dark gray. He's got simple gray pants that go to his mid shins that are a bit worn at the ends with gray wrapping up to his knees, under his pants, and around his simple black shinobi shoes. His only splashes of color is the dark blue wrapping around both hands, pinning down the ends of his sleeves with a single band around each of his elbows and mid upper arm. The last touch is a dark blue head band around his forehead, where his forehead protector once was.

Sasuke didn't mind the hair now resting around his eyes and on the bridge of his nose. Even some of his wild hair puffing out in the back of his head, over the top of his headband.

The young Uchiha was just thankful that his money still worked, at least he was somewhere in the world where they accepted his yen. A last minute purchase was a long brown poncho that could easily hide his entire body that cascades down into a 'v' at roughly the same length of his pants. It came with a hood and the woman that sold it to him told him it was important to add a bit of color, and gave him three different bead necklaces; a yellow one, a red one, and a green one.

Normally, the irritable young Uchiha wouldn't care much for how it looked - and that is ignoring the safety hazard of having clacking beads around his neck that could alert enemies of his position - but the woman was insistent that it completed the outfit and Sasuke didn't have the strength to fight her. After he left, he went in search for simple, yet nutritious food before it got dark. He ate quickly, feeling a lot better than before, and slipped out of the village as it began to close up shops and head to bed.

It wasn't until late into the night, while Sasuke should be sleeping, but was instead staring at the three different necklaces that he wondered why these reminded him of his team. Yellow for Naruto, red for Sakura, and green for Kakashi. Surely something like that was just coincidental, or perhaps Sasuke was just overthinking it all, but he closed his fist around portions of the three necklaces, leaning his back against the trunk of the tree he chose as his bed for the night and closed his eyes, silently cursing the blond teammate he once not-so-begrudgingly called friend, for putting him in this position.

If they were all going to die, shouldn't they have all died together? As silly the sentiment was, Sasuke would have preferred to die with them - if death was the only choice, that is - than be here, in some strange place, surrounded by strange people. All alone. If Sasuke didn't know any better, he'd believe that this was Naruto's revenge against him. Sasuke wanted to so bad, for so long, to be left alone. Well, now he's got the chance. Now he's alone.

Alone with his thoughts and the blazing full moon above him.

It was before dawn when an explosion jerked Sasuke from his sleep. While not restful, Sasuke's sleep was deep. His chakra supply was mostly replenished and having settled down. His headache was gone and his Rinnegan allowed him to see in the dark, noting immediately that the explosion was coming from the town that he was in just a few hours prior. Having no way of ignoring what was happening, Sasuke climbed to his feet and headed in that direction.

He swiftly made it to the break in the trees to see the village, slowly, but surely, being set ablaze. Sasuke's jaw clenches in both anger, at the people burning down the village, and annoyance, at himself for somehow allowing people to get that close to him without noticing. He must still be more out of it, than he thought. And that just makes him more annoyed.

Somehow, a battle from the outside managed to roll into this village. There was two forces, one burning the village down, and the other trying to save as many people as they can while battling off the enemy.

Sasuke recognizes the shinobi vests on both sides. The defenders were Konoha shinobi, and the attackers were Iwa.

Even if this wasn't the past, these was very reminiscent of what Sasuke would assume the Third Great Ninja War looked like. Sasuke remembered reading up on how the Iwa and Kumo were really kicking ass and managed to push deep into the Land of Fire until about the half way point in the war when the future Fourth Hokage took to the field and began kicking some major enemy ass. Sasuke has no way to confirm exactly where they are in the war, or if there is even a way to know if this is even the Third Great Shinobi war or not.

No, wait, Naruto said it wouldn't be the past. But there is Iwa and Konoha shinobi doing battle out there. So, this has to be in some way connected to his timeline, doesn't it? But then why would Naruto say that? Shouldn't he be concerned that Sasuke would fuck something up by saying that? Unless this was some kind of alternate universe of some sort and Naruto wasn't fucking with him.

Sasuke groans under his breath, glaring at the burning village in front of him. He just didn't know. He needed some proper time to sit and meditate over this.

An angry sneer crosses Sasuke's lips. It's typical of such brutal savagery. Sasuke had no idea what this village did to somehow get plunged into the middle of this conflict - and if Sasuke had to guess, it would be nothing, or guilty by assosition - but he was feeling way too raw to let this go unpunished. Sasuke was pissed off and annoyed beyond belief which could be attributed to both his lack of sleep, and the overall shitty past few days he's been having.

For a moment, just a split second, Sasuke want to enter the blissful, silence of a battle high. Anything to not have to deal with his thoughts any longer. Anything to distract him from the shit-storm his life has become. Or perhaps it had always been this way and just recently Sasuke's come to realize it. But either way, Sasuke is ready to just stop thinking.

Be damned the consequences. Naruto already said, didn't he? This isn't the past.

Sasuke grabs his sword, unsheathing it with his right hand, while holding the sheath in his left, jumping off the branch and making his way towards town. Sasuke had no particular love for the Leaf or it's shinobi, but for some reason, Sasuke couldn't bring himself to sneak up behind them and kill them indiscriminately. Perhaps Naruto did more to him than just sent him back in time, or whatever he did. Either way, whatever the blond did didn't make Sasuke have any qualms around killing the Iwa ninja.

Sasuke forced himself to think of nothing but focusing on the battle. The first dozen shinobi were easy. They weren't nearly experienced enough to take on Sasuke's Rinnegan. Sasuke didn't waste either it's power or his Sharingan on the lowly peons, only fighting them off with his sword and sheath. It felt nice, being able to swiftly move about the crowd, dodging kunai and shuriken and the random jutsu. None of them were strong enough to put up too much of a fight against Sasuke, but still being unused to his new left eye, his chakra began draining quickly, much to Sasuke's chagrin.

Closing that eye and continuing on with just his Sharingan was a bit more of a challenge, because he couldn't see with his left eye, but his right eye with the Sharingan made up for it. Sasuke also didn't miss when people saw his family's blood limit, they would gasp, "Sharingan" or "Uchiha" as if it wasn't completely obvious what he was and what was in his eye socket.

Sasuke smoothly steps out of the way of some shuriken flying his way, turning to look at the Iwa ninja standing on one of the roof tops. Sasuke easily crosses the distance, swiping at him with his sword. The Iwa ninja jumps back to avoid the strike, hands immediately moving in a few quick hand signs. The Sharingan analyses it, but Sasuke didn't need that. He knew the jutus well.

"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" the shinobi yells spitting a large fireball at him. Sasuke jumps high into the air, easily clearing the large burning inferno, charging his sword with his lightning chakra, listening to the familiar crackling as he spins around and descends fast, sword first.

There was a split second of indesicion on the shinobi's face, before he does a new series of hand signs. This time it's an earth style attack.

"Earth style: rock defense!" He yells, jumping off the building and onto the dirt, stooping down low so the solid rock barrier can easily encompass his body. Sasuke's minor shift in position had his sword land in the rock, easily cutting through it. But Sasuke didn't feel his sword hit anything soft and quickly pulls it from the protective bubble around the Iwa ninja. There was no blood on the blade.

Sasuke's mind immediately began working through the possibilities on where he could have gone. Substitution? No, Sasuke feel anything in the initial strike. If he did perform a jutsu it was a very minor jutsu and he had good chakra control. Sasuke could barely distinguish if the chakra filtering from the hole in the barrier was from that jutsu or another.

It's as soon as Sasuke kicked away from the rock and hit solid earth about a foot away that the answer came to him. Headhunter jutsu! It was right then that Sasuke felt the movement under his feet. Not having the time to jump away, he charged his sword again and jabbed it hard directly between his feet as far down as it could go. There was a long moment of silence before Sasuke swiftly removed his blade, taking a moment to glance over at it and not the red sheen glowing in the sunlight over the horizon.

Sasuke jerks his sword a bit, flicking the blood away, and looks around the immediate area, noting that the sounds of battle has stopped. Figuring that was his cue to go, Sasuke turns around and heads back the way he came, stepping around his conquest, over two dozen dead bodies. He felt other chakra signatures approaching him from behind him.

It's only when they are within fifteen feet of Sasuke, does one of them call out, "Halt! State your name and... oh Kami..."

Sasuke pauses next to a decapitated Iwa nin, turning to look behind himself with only his Sharingan eye, There was five Konoha shinobi, all of them were looking around at the bodies and then to Sasuke. Looks of recognition cross their faces at the sigh of Sasuke's Sharingan. Some of them relaxed. Sasuke had to physically stop himself from rolling his eyes at their naiveté. Just because he was an Uchiha, didn't mean he was on their side.

His chakra levels were getting low again, so Sasuke deactivates his Sharingan and turns back around, feeling fairly sure he wasn't going to get attacked from behind by these naïve shinobi. Sasuke had to get out of there. He wanted to find somewhere cozy to sleep and rebuild his strength, as well as get his chakra under control, and isn't feeling like talking Will of Fire with other Leaf shinobi.

One of them call after him, but Sasuke ignores them and makes his way out of the village. He attacked for the village, not for the Leaf. It was just dumb luck that it happened to be a Leaf protected village and there happened to be shinobi near by. In fact, Sasuke should kill them. It's their fault that the little was attacked in the first place. If they were protecting it better, this wouldn't happen in the first place.

Not that Sasuke ultimately cares.

Sasuke leans again the tree in front of him, growling under his breath. What is going on with him? He's been out of whack since he woke up, and it's annoying him greatly. Sasuke pushes off the tree again and keeps walking away from the village, stretching out his senses, keeping on eye on anyone following him. So far no one. They probably figured he was only stopping by because of the disturbance, but had a mission elsewhere or something and thought it smart not to follow him. Either way, so long as no one was following him, he didn't care what they thought or why they let him go unmolested.

At some point in the middle of the day, after hours of aimlessly walking. Sasuke's hungry and tired and irritated. And as if Kami was looking out for him, Sasuke stumbled across a large lake with a glass surface, disturbed only by the fish jumping out of the water.

Normally Suigetsu would be the one to go out and get the fish, but that ship has already sailed, because like all things in Sasuke's life, he managed to fuck it up with his award-winning personality and monumental fuck ups - one after another.

Sasuke caught two fish and built a fire easily enough. While they were cooking, Sasuke couldn't help but bitterly wonder why he was here. Wherever here was. Obviously Naruto was the one that sent him here, with the help of the Nine Tails, but why him? Once again, Sasuke had never given Naruto the impression that he should be trusted and yet again the dumbass believed in him. Sasuke wasn't the person who should be here - once again, wherever here was - because, like he's been his entire life, Sasuke is an asshole. He knows it, and has come to accept that about himself.

He just cant help it, somehow. It's like every good thing that comes to Sasuke in life, he has to fuck up one way or another. A great part of it can be blamed on the curse of hatred on his family, but Sasuke refuses to believe that he wouldn't have the power to fight through it. He wasn't weak like Madara or Obito. He should have somehow been better than that. And if he believes that, then he's been a complete asshole for absolutely no reason other than to be an asshole.

More and more, Sasuke is beginning to believe that he was on the right track thinking that this was punishment by his blond haired rival. He sent Sasuke somewhere he could wallow in his own loneliness.

Sasuke won't deny it. Not now. He's lonely. Well, no, not lonely. Not yet. Sasuke always liked his space, but that will only last for so long. He has nothing anymore. He has no goal. He doesn't need anymore power, he's doing pretty well for himself, not that he's not going to hone his abilities, but there is no more need to seek out a teacher. He doesn't even have a competent team to follow him around because he doesn't need one. Why would anyone follow him just for the hell of it? He didn't need to seek revenge on anything or anyone. And there was no one he knew.

In the back of his mind, Sasuke wondered if one day, the possibility of returning home to Konoha always existed. Sasuke's main focus was achieving his goal, but so long as Naruto never gave up on him, after all was said and done, he would be able to return to his home in Konoha and start rebuilding his clan. But now that doesn't even matter, not really.

Sure, Sasuke could go back to the Hidden Leaf and try and acclimate to however this place is different than his own, but there isn't a reason. Sasuke isn't meant to be here, that much is obvious. Never before had Sasuke felt like this before. He literally has nothing here. No friend, no family. No direction.

And it's all Naruto's fault.

Sasuke blinks back into reality in time to notice that his food was burning, which did nothing to sooth his already ruffled feathers, as Suigetsu would have said, had he been here, in reference to Sasuke's hair. Sasuke never found those jokes amusing, but Suigetsu always got a kick out of them. And Sasuke never cared enough to get the white haired swordsmen to stop. Now Sasuke misses just how normal it would have felt to have the annoying man by his side.

Sasuke must already be really desperate for human companionship if he's missing Suigestu.

After Sasuke choked down his fish and stomped out the fire, he got up, chose a random direction and started walking again, doing anything to keep himself from thinking. Sasuke knew nothing else that he could do. Just pick a direction and walk.