Sasuke POV

I was confused. Confused and angry. After a whole month of training with Kakashi by day and pestering Ren for cheats by night, it was finally time. Time for me to show everyone, the entire leaf village, just how good of a shinobi I am.

That I am better than him. That I am strong enough to beat Itachi.

I was put up against the sand ninja from before. The one Cei had hugged - Cei. The memory of her... I am sad, yet angry.

She left me.

My most important person. Abandoned me, once again.

I hate her.

And right now, I am hating Ren too. The stupid chicken cutlet, in the middle of my battle decided to take over my body! This was my time to shine, my time to show everyone I was better!

Ren you bastard I'll get you back for this!!!

I screamed and protested in my mind as I was forcibly disconnected from my own body and thrown into the dark space of my mindscape. The last things I had seen were a massive fist of sand heading my way and then white feathers falling from the sky. Now there was only darkness. Ren wasn't even letting me see what was going on!

Hearing Ren's familiar voice echoing through the darkness, I wanted to scream at her to let me out. That curse mark had been painful and Kakashi's damn sealing had been painful too! But Ren had blocked the pain for me every time - Kakashi's mothering had long gotten on my nerves, but I couldn't say anything. Couldn't tell him it didn't hurt, because then, he'd wonder how. But anyway, since even that stupid chicken cutlet can stop the mark, I'm sure I can beat that snake woman bastard! No problem!

YOU DAMNED CHICKEN STFU!!!!

But before I could continue cursing the dead, chopped and seasoned chicken strip the voice like winds and storms sounded again, this time with an amusedly unhinged tone that made me seethe with anger.

As the laughter echoed out in the darkness, what followed was only deafening silence.

Third person POV

Standing in the middle of the battlefield, the beautiful figure surrounded by dancing darkness excluded an air of pure, languid seduction. The pale face had an uncharacteristically gentle smile, while the purple tinged Sharingan slowly moved over all the people of importance.

When Cei (in Sasuke's body) locked eyes with Orochimaru in the Kazekage's skin, the yellow and purplish gazes clashed for barely a second before Sasuke smiled happily (everyone shivering at that, disturbed), as if completely not noticing the dangerous enemy forces spread everywhere in the arena and the kunai Orochimaru was currently holding to the Hokage's throat.The Uchiha simply turned, and gave Gaara a look before giving one to Naruto as well. Orochimaru, the Hokage, all the sand shinobi as well as the jounin and conscious genin of the Leaf Village watched, shocked to their very soul, as suddenly Gaara's already half transformed body with yellow beastly eyes made his way to Sasuke. Following him, Naruto jumped off the stands, his eyes quickly becoming fully red, his whiskers becoming more pronounced as he appeared on Sasuke's other side.

Kakashi was so shocked that the infamous S-rank shinobi and former ANBU almost straight out fainted. Even Jiraya, one of the legendary sannin, couldn't keep his head from feeling faint.

The usually colder than ice emo Uchiha smiled so brightly and beautifully at the two genin next to him, it blinded all the spectators.

"Kukukukukuku...so niceee to be back. Missed me?"

The sharingan swirled deeper, slowly excluding a soft purple glow as the Uchiha hooked an arm around Naruto's neck before jumping Gaara, pressing both sinister-eyed creatures to him in a violent but loving hug. Gaara, half of him already transformed into a dreadful sand monster, stretched out his spiky tail and sent it hurtling towards both the creatures in his embrace, loving amusement dancing in his crazed yellow eyes. The fatal hit of the One Tails ended up being completely harmless, as Naruto simply smiled madly, red eyes crinkling as violent red chakra lashed out right back at the dangerous sandy appendage, stopping it in its tracks.

Having witnessed the minor display between what he could educatedly guess to be the jinchuuriki of the Ichibi and his own village's infamous Kyuubi jinchuuriki, the Hokage's eyes flashed with utter bafflement as he stared uncomprehendingly at the Uchiha in their midst. The Uchiha, that didn't belong there. Sarutobi's seasoned mind spun in circles, but no matter what, he couldn't figure out what the hell was happening, and even more, how Sasuke fitted into that. He was just a child, whose only points of note are his clan and kekkei genkai. No expert. And he was no jinchuuriki either. So what was it? Was it really because of his dōjutsu?

Everything was silent, except for the barrier that finally rose up to separate the Hokage and Orochimaru from the rest of the world. Though the four strange sound ninja that had finally accomplished it we're utterly distracted, still staring at the strange show down below.

Completely unaware or uncaring about the befuddled thoughts of their scarce audience, the Uchiha gazed happily at the two children fighting beside him and broke into soft laughter. The laughter was jarring in its foreignness on the frozen face of a boy that had at most smirked in the last few years, never mind smiling or laughing. But he paid no mind to how awkward and foreign the expression looked on his face, only bared his teeth in an excited smile when Naruto gave a ferocious snarl, red eyes tinkling with happy madness, and swiped a tail of red chakra at his kit in a show of playful violence. Sasuke immediately moved back faster than anything could see, and a second later, darkness burst like a wave of evil spirits from the ground, quickly coating the entire field in its writhing dark tendrils leaking miasma, making the field resemble a cursed forest. Shukaku gave a crazy howl, childish excitement alight in his yellow eyes as he observed, proud, his kiddos signature ability at work. Sand started rising from the field, and soon intertwined playfully with the dark tendrils that quickly became tangible, dissolving and running like tar, soaking the sand. Sasuke's eyes crinkled happily, and he melted away into the dark mist around him only to appear behind Gaara a second later, jumping onto his back and hugging the red head half turned sand monster and hanging from him like a koala.

Gaara growled and started violently shaking, but his yellow gaze was filled with giddy joy. Soon Naruto appeared next to the two of them, derisive snarl on his face and red eyes blazing amusement as he gave Gaara a violent hit to the head with a tail of blazing red chakra, almost making the ichibi black out in the process of making him stop moving and letting their kit rest. Jumping off a dazed and dizzy Gaara, Sasuke went to Naruto and quickly ran into his arms, happily cuddling into the other child's embrace.

Their audience was by now not only speechless and shellshocked, but on the verge of complete mental collapse.

On top of everything else they just saw... which was too much to process, now what exactly are they looking at?!!? Kakashi's eyes were about to pop out of his skull at the outlandish scene of Naruto and Sasuke, NARUTO AND SASUKE LIKE WHAT hugging and cuddling each other tightly with smiles on their faces. It was a scene Kakashi hadn't expected to see, not in a million years!!! He felt like his brain was about to die from information overload, he kept thinking that this was important and he needed to find Cei now that there was a clue but he was utterly overwhelmed by everything. It was just too much.

While everyone was still staring, Naruto whispered softly to Sasuke, his volume so low that only the two of them, as well as Shukaku with his amazing hearing and rather close proximity could hear.

"What did you want to tell us, kit?"

Shukaku's ears perked up and he shook off the disorientation quickly to get up and join in the hug, holding his kiddo, looking into Sasuke's eyes which had a tint of blazing purple, a tell-tale sign of his kit in there.

Sasuke cast a quick glance up at the barrier that housed the Hokage and Orochimaru, purple tinted sharingan flashing. The barrier wall was a grumly color, and had cut Orochimaru and the Hokage off from the rest of the world a while back already. The battle between them must have already reached some result or other during the time the bijuu had been wasting playing around. Sasuke's lips twisted into a bit of a grimace as he looked at Naruto and Gaara.

"...I think I'll have to leave for a while. We won't be able to meet for a few years, again. It feels like we'll never actually be able to spend time together, with all the things I run around doing."

Raven black eyelashes trembled as Sasuke looked down, dejected. But quicker than one could say buttersquash, a hand appeared on his head, ruffling his hair with enough pressing strength to almost send Sasuke face first into the ground. It would've actually completely smashed his skull, had he not been reinforced with bijuu chakra. Naruto was grinning wildly, shamelessly rubbing Sasuke's hair with gusto.

"What are you whining about kit? A few years, PAH that's absolutely nothing to beings as great as us! Again, just a blink of an eye."

Gaara grumbled at the intimacy he wasn't part of, but agreed and tightened his hold on Sasuke, who perked up and gave the both of them a bright smile.

"You have a great point, dad! Well, just look out for those bijuu stealing folk that might appear in a few years, and we'll see each other soon!"

Sasuke was chipper enough, and hugged both Naruto and Gaara with deathly strength before slowly letting go and turning to face the stands. When the purple tinted red eyes landed on the stands with passed out and awake shinobi, it was like a shutter closed and all the childish joy in those eyes disappeared, replaced by cold amusement and disdain.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he once again made eye contact with his prize student, who didn't seem to be himself at all. Sasuke held his gaze for a second, before his lips stretched into an eerily familiar easygoing cute smile and he disappeared. Not even a second later Kakashi froze as he felt warm breath on the shell of his ear.

"Sensei, sorry but I think I'll be leaving for a while. Training on my own, going on a self-discovery journey, that kind of thing. See you in give or take three years!"

Kakashi instinctively wanted to reply 'Again?' but before he could utter a word his world turned back.

The other Leaf ninja watched speechlessly as Sasuke slowly leaned away from where Kakashi had stood before he had just collapsed to the floor. When the Uchiha raised his eyes to them, Guy immediately stood forward to defend the students but Sasuke just raised his hand slightly. Immediately, all of the leaf shinobi fell to the floor. They could no longer move, but they could still hear and see, and the thuds that kept echoing through the arena chilled their backs. Sasuke had somehow felled not only them, but all sand and sound ninja as well, with what seemed like but couldn't possibly be just the raise of his hand!

Sasuke didn't waste time on his schoolmates and their sensei's though, his eyes raked over all the toppled, glaring bodies of sand and sound shinobi and finally landed on the barrier. He looked back quickly at Naruto and Gaara, whose eye color had returned to normal, and black mist gently seeped from Sasuke's skin before surrounding the disoriented pair of genin. Some mist quickly invaded their lungs and put them to sleep, whereafter the black mist caught them as they fell, materializing into a soft darkness that cushioned the two jinchuuriki as they slept. Sasuke gave a soft smile before he turned back to the barrier, and disintegrated only to appear in front of the barrier again. Looking at its grumly surface, Sasuke knitted one graceful eyebrow before lifting his hand to the almost glasslike surface. Gently, he tapped the barrier with his pointer finger. Immediately, black cracks formed, and in the next second, they spread over the barrier like the plague, before completely shattering it. The paralyzed but still conscious and retaining ability of sight sound shinobi that had put the barrier up were staring in utter terror, eyes bloodshot at the display.

The shattered barrier revealed a ruined terrain overgrown with thick, dense trees that didn't belong on a rooftop. Gazing at it for just a second, Sasuke walked right in.