Summary: The last thing Sasuke wanted was to wind up in the past. Yet here he was, wandering into people who should be dead.

Warnings: Angst, violence, Sasuke's various family issues, Uchiha issues in general. Also, this work completely disregards the Naruto ending, so there's that. WE'RE REWRITING CANON HERE AND I AM SO EXCITED FOR IT.

"But Moose!" You might be saying, "You have five other works in progress! Why start a new one?" The answer is because I'm trash and have been sucked into the time travel genre by well written fics written by other people so I decided to make my own. Also in this first part I've left something purposely vague bc Sasuke is not in a good Mental State at the moment and I wanted to showcase that in his scattered thoughts.

Anyway, on with the story!

Sasuke is certain of one thing.

He's dying. The hole through his chest is testament to that, he can feel life slipping away through his fingers.

He thinks dying feels a lot like the silk kimono's his mother used to wear for formal events. It's soft, like floating. Like falling asleep. Dying is peaceful, a quiet calm that is slowly overtaking his limbs.

Sasuke is tired. Tired and sore; the war against Madara and Kaguya had lasted years. Years of watching the Shinobi Alliance fall to ruins and years of watching as more and more people, both shinobi and civilians, fell then came back in mud mockeries of what they used to be.

More than one person had been struck down by a mud corpse that resembled their loved one.

Sasuke just considered himself lucky all the people he loved were ash. It was the Uchiha way to burn their dead, so when the Hokage had asked a six year old Sasuke what to do with the bodies of his clan Sasuke, young as he was, had ordered them burned.

From fire to ash, that was the Uchiha way. Sasuke had burned Itachi's body after killing him, even when he thought his brother was a traitor he still had enough respect for him to burn his body.

There are no bodies to use to as an attack on his already fragile mind.

Perhaps that why they put him the forefront of the war. He had no attachments for Kaguya or Madara to use against him. Sasuke had once had Naruto and Sakura, and while he would admit caring for them as friends he wouldn't hesitate to strike them down should they turn against him either.

When they had died, Kaguya had make the mistake of sending their mud corpses to attack him. Sasuke had laughed, a wild light in his eyes, and struck them down without a thought.

They were not his team.

(Taka had long since fallen, scattered to the wind and leaving a hole in Sasuke's heart.

Taka had been his damn it.)

Madara had taken everything from Sasuke through his manipulations and Sasuke wants him dead. He wants Obito dead too, each time he looks at his cousin all he can see are the faces of his dead clansmen and he blames Obito for it as much as he blames Madara. But the two of them have come to a truce of sorts as long as the war continues neither of them will attack the other. Obito had been manipulated too, and he wants Madara dead as much as Sasuke does.

Sasuke had fought for the people that were unwillingly dragged into the war, for those who had been wronged by the system of government the Elemental Nations had.

He had fought for change, for the hope that after the war was over people would realize that a system built on secrecy and battle wasn't conducive to peace.

But the war is nearly over and Sasuke is dying. His old team had died before him, Naruto had been the first to go, struck down defending Konoha, their last stronghold, even as it had been overrun by mud mockeries of people he had cared about. Sakura was next, killed while ensuring that the injured and dying made it to safety and taking down a horde of those mud corpses in the process.

The war is nearly over, and Team Seven is nearly dead.

Kakashi is lying next to him, breathing heavily and clenching a wounded shoulder.

He doesn't have much time left either, especially not if the hordes keep advancing as they do.

Obito's appearance isn't a surprise, decimating the mud corpses as they get closer, neither is his snarling rage.

"You idiots," Obito says, mouth fixed into a snarl, "You fucking idiots."

Sasuke would laugh if he could, Obito has never been the prime example of an Uchiha.

The again, Sasuke muses, neither has he.

Uchiha aren't suppose to let their emotions get the better of them.

Neither Sasuke or Obito have been very good at that.

Kakashi cracks a smile from behind his torn mask.

"Eh, Obito," he says, "Looks like you're late."

"Fuck off Kakashi," Obito says, "Fuck off, if you think I'm letting you or the last Uchiha here die then you are sorely mistaken."

"We're dying Obito," Kakashi says, voice grave, and Sasuke wants to laugh, "There is nothing you can do about that."

Obito is silent then.

"I guess I'll have to prove you wrong then won't I?"

Sasuke feels the shifting of chakra in the air around him, twisting and pulling him toward something.

It's the last thing he knows before he loses consciousness.

Sasuke wakes slowly, consciousness returning at a snail's pace. It's odd, the past three years Sasuke has had little time to rest fully, always out fighting, defending. He hasn't had a good sleep in literal years.

It's when he realizes that he's suppose to be fighting a war that he snaps fully awake. One black eye and one purple Rinnegan eye staring at the wooden ceiling above him.

"Kai," Sasuke says, attempting to dispel whatever genjutsu had been cast on him.

"Kai," he says again when the first attempt doesn't work. Nothing changes.

Finally, Sasuke resorts to activating his Sharingan.

He forces down the hysterical laugh that bubbled up in his throat.

Nothing changes.

It seemed that Sasuke was actually in a wooden hut. Stripped to his waist and with bandages covering most of his chest. Judging his chakra levels, he decides that while they are not at their max they are certainly enough to force answers out of whoever captured him.

While he doesn't know why anyone working with Kaguya would save his life, he doesn't want to test his luck and assume that whoever rescued him is an ally.

Even if they were an ally, there aren't many medic nins left, and none that would have been able to heal the mortal wound Sasuke had been dealt.

Vaguely, Sasuke wonders if he's in the Pure World, if the after life is a wooden hut and if he'll be able to see his parents again.

The thought lasts until he feels a presence outside the door, someone, a woman Sasuke assumes judging by her voice, is humming as they unlock the door.

Sasuke immediately sits up, his eyes, one spinning red and the other purple, staring at the door in trepidation.

The door opens, and an old woman with salt and pepper hair and purple chakra markings on her face enters. The woman raises an eyebrow at his tense posture and sets the basket full of herbs she was carrying on the the table in the center of the room.

Sasuke doesn't relax.

The woman chuckles.

"You Uchiha," she says, "Always so tense."

Sasuke narrows his eyes, registering her small chakra reserves. His own, half full as they were, were still larger than hers.

That didn't make her any less dangerous, you shouldn't make assumptions about how strong someone is based on their chakra reserves alone.

Sakura had taught him that.

"What do you want from me?" Sasuke asks, because if training under Orochimaru and three years of war have taught him anything it's that everyone has motives. It's merely a matter of unearthing them.

The old woman chuckles.

"Would you believe me if I said I took you in out of the kindness of my heart?"

"No." Sasuke's answer is simple, curt.

It seems to amuse her.

"I thought so," she says, "I won't bother you with lies then, I healed you because you seem interesting. You don't wear a Konoha headband and yet you are obviously an Uchiha. So tell me, what was an Uchiha doing half dead more than fifty kilometers from Konoha?"

"Exactly what it looked like," Sasuke deadpans, even as his mind short circuits from the mere idea of Konoha still standing, "Dying."

The woman's brown eyes narrow, "Don't play with me boy," she warns, "I could have sent a hawk to Konoha at anytime. It's out of my good graces that you're still here and not in T&I."

The woman has a point of course.

Sasuke choses to ignore it.

"Now," the woman continues, "Were you on a mission? If so I'm sure we can contact your clan and let them know that you're alive."

Sasuke's heart nearly stops at the mention of his clan, his dead clan, the clan massacred by Obito and Itachi, and yet she's speaking of them like they're still alive.

She's speaking as if Konoha is more than ashes, like the village is still standing.

This isn't a genjutsu, Sasuke's Sharingan confirms as as much, but Sasuke remembers Obito's chakra swirling around him, twisting and pulling him toward something. It had felt similar, like Obito was using Kamui on him.

The thought of Kamui jolts Sasuke's scrambled thoughts. Sasuke knows that Obito had been working on a fail safe in case everything went sideways, knows that that son of a bitch would be stupid enough to use it on a dying person.

Obito reminds Sasuke far too much of Naruto sometimes.

"Lady," Sasuke says, careful to keep both his face and his voice blank, "Is the war still going on?"

The lady scoffs, "Of course it is," she says, "You were only out for four days. It seems to be drawing to a close though, people are already calling it the Third Shinobi War."

Sasuke blinks.

Ah, he thinks, fuck.

The lady as it turns out, is named Nohara Yuna.

Sasuke knows the name Nohara, it had been the name of Kakashi's and Obito's deceased teammate. He wonders if the old lady and Rin are from the same clan.

Introductions are made, Sasuke is sure to leave off his last name when he introduces himself. If he is in the past, in a time before he was born, then it would be better to go around as a bastard Uchiha than one with a clan name.

After all, the Uchiha had always kept track of all their members, it would be odd for someone with no records to pop up claiming to be a full blooded Uchiha.

Sasuke is now, quite literally, Sasuke the Bastard.

He thinks Naruto and Sakura would be laughing at him if they ever found out.

Regardless, Sasuke is still an Uchiha and Uchiha don't leave debts unpaid. He's well enough to do menial tasks such as heavy lifting for Yuna.

So he does. Yuna is old and though she had once been a shinobi not even they are immune to the effects of old age.

He works for Yuna, Yuna doesn't tell the Uchiha about him and makes sure he's healing well enough to travel again.

It works out well.

Sasuke has no plan, no idea what he's going to do next.

Well, that's almost a lie, there is a list of things he wants to do, an almost plan, but he has no idea how to go about enacting it.

He knows he's at the end of the Third Shinobi War, knows that Kanabi Bridge must be coming up soon and that it's then that Madara will make his move.

Killing Madara and destroying Zetsu and his clones are a must. But he has no idea how he's going to take out that many clones without some slinking off to form more plans to bring back Kaguya. Sasuke isn't an idiot, knows that it's likely the Zetsu's have their eyes on Orochimaru should their plans with Madara fail. Knows that Orochimaru is dangerous in his own right.

But he's killed Orochimaru before, even if he nearly died in the process. His main focus should be on Zetsu. On destroying the statue that is used to take the bijuu out of their jinchuuriki.

Sasuke knows what he has to do, he just needs to figure out how to do it.

It takes three days after he started thinking about his plan to actually see the beginning of it. Yuna has been kind to him, seeming used to silence that Sasuke wore. She still spoke to him sometimes, asking about his life and how he had wound up wounded. Sasuke always answered carefully, he wove a story of being a traveller, of winding up attacked by nuke-nin on his way through the Land of Fire.

Yuna had snorted when he told her his story, but if his time with Orochimaru had taught him anything it was how to lie. He keeps up the act and soon she comes to accept it.

It doesn't stop her from asking nosy questions.

"Do you know any jutsu Sasuke?" Yuna's question startles him from where he's tending to the herbs in her garden.

Sasuke considers his answer, he could lie to Yuna, tell him he's an ordinary traveller, but that would make little sense considering his chakra levels. Sasuke is certain she can tell how much chakra he has.

She is still a shinobi after all, if if she is a medic.

"Yes," Sasuke answers honestly, "I've had a few teachers."

Yuna nods, looks at him like he's passed some sort of test, and continues drinking her tea on the small table she has set up outside.

"I thought so," she says, "But always better to check. You should be warned though, in a few days time my cousin and her team will be passing by. There is no chance they won't notice you and your abnormally large chakra."

Sasuke raises an eyebrow, "Why are you telling me this?"

Yuna meets his gaze evenly, "Because I want to know if you can fight. Because I want to know if you can hide your chakra so they won't find you."

Sasuke's eyes narrow, "I will not fight your cousin for you."

Yuna laughs, "I'm hardly asking that. No, I want you to meet them, then I want you to follow them when they leave."

"You're worried about her." It isn't a question.

"Just call it a bad feeling," Yuna says, "I'd like to make sure my cousin and her team get out of this mission alive."

Sasuke considers Yuna's reasoning, considers his debt to her.

"Alright," he says, "I'll do it."

His summons were predators for a reason.

Sasuke would repay his debt; and figure out more about when he is while he was at it.