Chapter 3

Sasuke had nothing but time, and he eventually developed Time-traveling ninjutsu.

Sasuke thought to himself, “No time like the present”, and he activated his time traveling ninjustsu in conjunction with Obito’s kamui.

A portal opened.

For a timeless existence on a plane where nothing happened, something happening should be a big deal.

Sasuke didn’t really think so though. He was calm, and he stepped through the portal.

He stepped into a lifeless world.

The only thing he saw was the God Tree, and he saw a person crucified upon it.

Sasuke felt something for the first time since he had seen Obito. He couldn’t describe what he felt, but it was something, and that was good enough for him.

Sasuke made a quick seal.

“Shunshin no jutsu”

And he teleported to the seemingly lifeless body on the tree.

The body was frail, naught but skin stretched over bones, the hair was pure white.

Sasuke drew his katana and cut the Ash Bones in half and carefully pulled the body from the tree.

He brought the body to the ground, and he activated his Rinnegan.

He didn’t want to believe it, but his Rinnegan told him that this husk of a person was Naruto, and Naruto was on death’s door.

Sasuke quickly turned his eyes to the God Tree, noting its enormous store of life force.

Using the Outer Path of the Rinnegan, he started funneling the near infinite life force of the Tree into Naruto.

Sasuke sat there for days, continuously forcing life energy into Naruto, before he finally saw results.

A hint of color reached Naruto’s face, and his eyes finally opened.

“Sasuke?”

Sasuke nodded his head.

“Did you end up in hell, too?”

Sasuke looked into the eyes of Naruto.

Lifeless, soulless eyes looked back.

Sasuke quickly cast a sleeping genjutsu on Naruto, and continued with the life transfer from the God Tree.

He had waited a long time for this moment, and he could afford to wait a little longer.

His friend however, desperately needed rest.

Sasuke continued to funnel life energy into Naruto for 7 years. During this time, when he felt hungry, he siphoned life force from the God Tree into himself, and when he was tired, he slept.

He relished the feelings. He would watch the sun move across the sky. He would stargaze at night.

Sasuke continued to channel life force into Naruto with nary a complaint.

To him, simply experiencing the passage of time was enough after an eternity without it.

By the seventh year, Naruto’s body had finally reached a healthier point. The organs were rebuilt, the bones reforged, and a few muscles returned to his frame, giving Naruto an appearance similar to a man who had undergone a long period of starvation.

Were Naruto to see himself, he would think that he looked like Nagato did after reviving Konoha from the dead.

Sasuke finally released Naruto from his genjutsu.

And Naruto opened his eyes. His eyes were unfocused.

Naruto wept bitter tears. Sasuke looked on and said nothing.

Naruto whispered, maybe to himself, maybe to God.

“The dreams stopped. I finally had a good dream. I saw Sasuke.”

Sasuke spoke up.

“Is this a good dream, too?”

Naruto looked over, and his eyes focused on Sasuke’s face before widening in surprise.

“The best.”

Sasuke started grumbling.

“Let’s get you up.”

He grabbed Naruto by the shoulders and sat him up against the tree.

Sasuke sat down next to him, and they both faced the lifeless world together. It was eerily quiet, but neither of them broke the silence.

Naruto said nothing, but tears continuously streamed down his face. He didn’t move.

Sasuke somehow or another, learned patience.

To Sasuke, the last thing that happened was that they were fighting Kaguya together. Looking around, it seemed like there was no pressing issue, so he was content to wait for Naruto to talk.

Naruto said nothing for three days. The two of them sat wordlessly, with their backs against the God Tree.

The happened to be facing east. On the fourth morning, as the sun rose, Naruto finally moved.

Slowly, shakingly, with a supreme effort, Naruto moved his hand. He reached out for Sasuke, desparate for human touch.

Sasuke met him halfway, and the two friends held hands.

Naruto’s eyes were shaking, and in a voice that Sasuke had never heard from him, Naruto whimpered out a question.

“Are you real?”

Sasuke simply said

“Yeah.”

Naruto’s grip tightened around Sasuke’s hand like it was his final lifeline. If Naruto let go, everything would fall apart.

Naruto spoke,

"We lost.”

Sasuke listened in silence as Naruto continued.

“Everything died.

I’ve been dreaming the same dreams for a long time. Over and over. Countless repititions.

They never stop, and they never change.

For a long time, I couldn’t figure out what was happening to me.

I eventually realized, I’m in hell.

I wasn’t able to save anyone, and I am now being punished for it.

Kaguya was able to reform the God Tree and take all chakra back from the world.

Every living thing was steeped in chakra.

The God Tree killed every single living thing on the planet when it took chakra back”

Naruto gazed off into the distance. Sasuke followed his gaze.

“The world is barren.

When things die, they rot, they are eaten, they decompose, that is the natural way.

When every thing died, It was like time had stopped for a while.

Everything that had died simply sat there, untouched by death, looking the same as when it was alive.

But instead of rotting, everything was simply weathered away.

The world is barren because the sun, the wind, and the rain ground everything to dust.”

The world was a hellscape, dust and rocks as far as the eye can see, and where there was water, there was still no life, simply the sterile boundary between land and sea.

Naruto continued in a whisper.

“I died. I felt myself die. I relived it time and time again in my dreams.

My sin was too great though. I would be punished in other ways.

Reliving my own death was only the beginning.

On the second night, I was Shikamaru.

I was him when I shuddered my last breath. I knew I was dying, and I wondered why.

I thought of Temari, Choji, and Ino, and I closed my eyes”

Naruto, through his tears, confessed again

“On the third night I was Hinata. For some reason, the God Tree left a disgusting hollow feeling in every single person it ripped life from. Everyone knew they were dying.

Hinata was no exception. She thought of Neji, Hanabi, and…”

Naruto cried and broke down, he shuddered and gasped for breath.

“And… and… and she thought of me.”

The fourth night was someone I didn’t know. He thought of his daughter

The fifth thought of her brother.

The sixth was too scared to think.

The seventh despaired.

The eighth raged.

I lived the death of every single person in the world on repeat.

Every single cycle, I would dream in the same order.

I died, Shikamaru died, Hinata died.”

Naruto’s eyes were drying.

“I stopped counting how many times it cycled.

I didn’t know the name of the next number.”

Sasuke didn’t know how to respond. An unknown feeling spread across his chest. It twisted and radiated towards his stomach, and expanded, shooting from limb to limb. He didn’t know what it was. After his stay in the timeless dimension, it seemed that an unfamiliarity with emotion had been created. Sasuke’s brows furrowed, and he tried to figure it out.

Naruto didn’t stop talking, he had too much bottled up, and he couldn’t stop just yet.

“Kurama was the last to die; He and I were still trapped in the ice dimension until Kaguya brought us out.

The Bijuu were the worst dreams. They feel emotion in a way that we don’t.

They are beings of pure chakra and emotion, and the way they experience life is a level above us.

Kurama had the worst death.

He watched his father die. He watched his brothers and sisters die, and then, only then, did he release his control over his emotions.

When Gyuuki died, I was still alive, and the residual emotions of Kurama that I felt through my status as a jinchuuriki crippled me. I couldn’t even move. I curled up and waited to die.

But when I felt it from his perspective, it was indescribable.

Naruto’s face was haunted. The feeling Sasuke had in his chest and stomach seemed to intensify as Sasuke looked at Naruto, and Sasuke couldn’t help but turn away.

Naruto, who had been staring off into the distance, finally turned his attention to Sasuke.

“What happened to you?

Why weren’t you there?

Why didn’t you sa… “

Naruto didn’t finish his question. Sasuke, who couldn’t even look Naruto in the eyes, began his story.

“I was separated from you during the fight with Kaguya.

She sent me to an empty dimension, no sky, no ground, just endless white in every direction.

Obito and Sakura were searching for me, and they opened a portal to the dimension I was in.

Obito threw his sharingan through the portal and closed it.

I immediately absorbed his power to try to tunnel my way out, but my efforts were useless.

Kaguya had severed me from the temporal continuum.

I was trapped in a land without time.

I never grew hungry nor tired, and nothing I did ever had an effect on anything.

I experienced nothing for a very long time.

Naruto grimaced and asked.

“How long?”

Sasuke thought for a moment before answering.

“No way to tell with any accuracy.

If we say that it takes about 10 seconds per activation of Kamui, I think I was there for about…”

Sasuke did some quick mental math before continuing.

“Maybe 1000 years before I stopped trying.

After that I just sat there, doing nothing. I don’t know for how long though.

I started to doubt my own existence.

I couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t.

It took me a long time to regain my sanity.

After that, I started trying other ways to escape.

Through trial and error, I finally came to the conclusion that time-traveling jutsu was the only way to escape, so I developed the jutsu and tested it.

Next thing I know, I’m here.

Overall, its been a very long time.

I can show you how long, but we’ll have to wait a few hours.”

Naruto turned his gaze away from Sasuke, and closed his eyes.

“Let me know when.”

The pair sat against the tree and waited in silence.

The world waited in silence as well.

The sun continued to rise, and it beat down upon them at midday. It slowly trekked across the sky and set.

A few hours later, Sasuke finally spoke.

“I can show you now.”

Naruto opened his eyes and waited. Sasuke spoke again.

“Look at the stars.”

Naruto looked.

He was overcome with a sense of horror and wrongness. It didn’t make sense to him.

He looked at the sky, and he didn’t understand. The sky was wrong.

Sasuke continued to speak.

“The constellations have changed. Wei, Kun, Di, and Shi are gone completely.

Only half of the stars remain in Shen, Jing, Mao and San.

Zhang, Yi, Niu, Zi are still complete.

But there are the new stars too. Too many to count, even with the Rinnegan.”

Sasuke started making seals.

“Katon: Hoshiyo no Justsu”

Sasuke made a circle with his left thumb and index finger, and blew thorugh it very gently.

Uncountable fireballs the size of a fist flew out. The trailed away into the sky and slowly superimposed themselves over some of the stars in the sky.

Sasuke spoke with a certain gravity.

“Those are just the brightest of the new ones.”

Naruto questioned.

“How long does it take for the stars to change?”

Sasuke shook his head.

“You don’t want to know.”