It had worked! Sasuke wasn't dead. His people were alive-somewhere. Now he just had to find then and play the messenger.
The problem with that was that Sasuke was somewhere he had never been before. But he felt that this was not Konoha.
Instinctively, he suppressed his chakra as he had learned not long ago. Then he went to observe his environment.
From his bad chakra-sensing he could feel no one.
From his ears-enhanced with chakra he could hear nothing but a few animals.
He couldn't smell anyone either ( but Uchiha were seldom trackers and that was...dangerous.)
And his eyes saw nothing but barren land with the seal all around him.
Sasuke sighed.
So he was on an island somewhere and maybe it enemy territory.
But, he supposed, at least he wasn't in the middle of the ocean. Thinks could always be worse.
He leaned against a huge rock so that he was at least covered from one side and pulled out two maps: one from his time and one from the warring states.
And then he thought.
Depending on what island that was, could he make it over the water? For all his planning Sasuke had forgotten one thing. Chakra Exhaustion.
He had already spent a lot of Chakra today- and a lot of his chain-to-this-place-of-existence chakra. Which he probably shouldn't pull from in order to remain here.
Sasuke ate a powerbar and an extra chakra pill and reached one hand into his weapons pouch so that it was accessible. With the other, he pulled out a kunai and played with it- that was a nervous habit, to be honest.
Then, he cast a mild genjutsu in order to not-panic over himself.
It helped. He was still anxious and paranoid but not to the point that he couldn't concentrate.
He went back up, activated his sharingan and stared into the distance of the water. There was nothing.
Then Sasuke froze. His Sensing skills were still bullshit but the chakra pool that was on or near the island was enormous.
What did that one book say? Ah yes. Assess the Situation and flee, ideally if the person is distracted if you encounter someone you can't defeat. Or something like that.
Sasuke didn't know where he was or if that person was friend or foe but he did know that they could kill him easily so, without looking back, Sasuke began to sunshin over the water.
The presence pursued him. And then, they were in front of him, interrupting him mid-sunshin.
Sasuke lifted his head because they were far bigger than him and was staring right into the unimpressed, red eyes of Tobirama Senju.
He was so so dead.
You see, Sasuke knew he looked very similiar to Izuna when Izuna was his age. His clan always brought that up. He knew SenjunTobirame had killed dozen Uchiha and that he had not really liked the Uchiha when he governed Konoha. Hell, the man had taught the third Hokage who was, In Sasukes justified opinion, the worst hokage ever.
Great. And now Sasuke was panicking, again.
But he couldn't afford to freeze up, he had to try to move, had to try to achieve the seemingly impossible again.
So Sasuke put another layer of calming genjutsu on himself- and Tobirama Senju watched him very warily until he reakized the genjutsu was cast on the caster-and sunshinned in another direction.
But, predictably he followed. Unpredictability, the man had now taken hold on Sasukes coat.
Sasuke sighed.
" So...are you going to kill me or not?"
Tobirama stared at him as if the question was nonsense. " First of all, I try to avoid to kill children. Second of all, we are at peace and a village now so why should I do that? Third and most importantly of all Madara would definetly find out if I kill you and he would murder me, slowly, painfully, for killing any Uchiha...but if I would kill a kid who looked so much like his brother too he would kill me, find a way to bring me back and kill me for all eternity again."
Sasuke Hnned. " Hey can you tell me what year it is?"
Tobirama stared at him again. " XXYYZZ. But how can you not know any of that? Why were you on a barren island near Uzushino? And what is going on with your chakra?"
Sasuke Hnned in Thought. " You won't believe that, probably- or well, you are you, you might. I time-jumped? time-traveled,whatever, but I didn't know where to or when to exactly.
Tobirama raised an eyebrow. " But how can you...not know that? Is it a secret Uchiha-power again?"
Sasuke shook his head. " If it was I wouldn't tell you. And no, I tried to mix and mash seals and somehow it worked. And what time or place didn't bother me. My duty is more important than the mere possibility of dying."
"...alright. I have a lot of questions that I'll ask you. And back in Konoha you definetly need to talk to the Uchiha, they can spy a lie a mile away anyways and I doubt they or Hashimara would allow you a Yamanaka in your head."
Sasuke shrugged. " Probably for the best. The lady time they had to puke. The nurse told me that at least."
"Okay...well,we shall go to Uzushino, into the warmth inside. You are going to die sitting out here in the cold otherwise...or washed away by the sea."
With that, Tobirama picked the boy up and threw him over his shoulder.
" Hey!" protested the child but Tobirama hushed him.
" Don't complain. You are just a kid, you are slow and you do not know the Water surrounding Uzushino, nor the way. Being here and being unprepared without someone who does know how to get across safely is a death sentence. You are very very lucky I was on a diplomatic mission here- if I hadn't sensed you, you would have probably been dead come morning."
Sasuke grumbled but eventually hnned in defeat and gave a small " Thank you."
Uzushino was interesting. The city stood high on cliffs of the island and there were huge walls covered , Sashke could feel that ( and see some of them).
There were people, guards before the huge gates and they made wide eyes when Tobirama approached witch Sasuke over his shoulder.
" The weird chakra you sensed that appeared out of nowhere was a lone Uchiha kid?" One of them exclaimed.
" But...how?"
Seeing as Sasuke did not answer, Tobirama did.
" He claims to have traveled through the forces of time without having a specific end or time in place by using seals. "
One of the two guards paled. " That would be so incredibly dangerous...and impossible because he wouldn't have something to let him stay in the past."
Sasuke hned. " Hey, can you let me down now?"
Tobirama contemplated.
" Fine but know that I will catch you and knock you out shall you try to run again."
"...Fine."
As soon as Tobirama let him down, Sasuke bowed to the guards.
" Hello. I'm Sasuke Uchiha. My apologies for accidentally intruding on your borders. Know that I was born many years later and so you shall not blame my clan of this time, they have no hand in me being here.
As an apology I can tell you about a great future threat to Uzushino if you so desire, but I understand if you don't want that too."
One of the Guards nodded and turned to Tobirama.
" Well, you definetly need to talk to the uzukage. I trust you to keep an eye on the Uchiha kid? There are many ways he could accidentally die here and that would be horrible for the peace you and the other clans eventually created in the last two years."
Tobirama nodded. " I shall." He promised.
Then he took Sasuke by the arm and dragged him through the huge village, to a tower and eventually to a stunned person in Kage clothes.
Once again Tobirama spoke and once again, there was expressed disbelief about Sasukes claim.
" May I see it? " The kage asked and Sasuke obliged, showing then an illusion of both his shoulder seal and the one he had painted.
" This one is on me." Sasuke explained. " I need something to chain me to the past until I fulfill my duty so I used chakra from people who are dead to that purpose. I didn't know where to find or if there were any individual chakra stores so I couldn't be sure at what point in time I would end up. " Sasuke shrugged. " And with that and my own chakra I activated that seal...I dunno if it's wrong, It's a wonder it works, I mean it made sense to me but I have no experinece creating seals and just mostly combined different things I read in books. Do you think you can figure out long I am in this time? I have things to do, people to protect. ."
" That is interesting. Very interesting. My people often develop seals that break reality but we were never able to work out time travel because of the lack of an anchor. We never thought of this.
You designed the seal so that it should be able to...chain you to this time unless the extra chakra is totally depleted. But your chakra and the other chakra are intertwining because you put that seal on a pojnt where it interacts with your own chakra system. In time you might actually belong here."
Sasuke widened his eyes. " That...wasn't what I planned. I..."
Due to two layers of calming genjutsu, Sasuke didn't have another panic attack.
" Well." He fake-coughed. " Thank you for your counselling and receiving me. I...do you want to know what I know about...the Fall of Uzuzhino?"
The Kages eyes widened.
" I...would very much do. Are you opposed to a seal showing wether you show the truth or not?"
" If it isn't permanent and you remove it after no."
And so, Sasuke spent an hour explaining everything he knew about uzushino fall and the uzumaki ( though he neglected mentioning the chakra creatures. They were, he had read, at this time in history still peaceful and sealing them only brought chaos in the wars and mistrust for his clan.)
Sasuke spent two more days in Uzushino, being shown super basic seals, being asked to actuvate hid dojutsu and awwwed at when showing his baby sharingan and exchanging stories and legends with the locals. It was surreal. These people...didn't hate the uchiha, they had simply never seen them before.
Most of the Time, Tobirama or an adult shinobi kept an eye on him but Sasuke was long-used to having watchers and really if they wanted to kill him there was nothing he could do against them anyways.
When Sasuke and Tobirama left, Tobirama spoke to him.
" You are different from you clan."
Sasuke incline his head. " What do you mean?"
" You...do not bear your clans curse of hate. You can stand to be around me even though I hurt your clan not long ago."
Sasuke shook his head vehemently. " You are projecting. We have no curse. Our emotions are more intense than you can ever experience- the yamanaka actually did a study on that and uchiha memories are up to eight times more intense than the one of other shinobi. We do know how to counteract that though and Kamis gift helps with it. It is our biggest strength and burden.
All our emotions are more intense. Hate, anger, sadness, depression, joy...and all of them can activate Kamis gift.
You just think it's negative or hatred only because you were raised to believe that.
And I don't blame you now...it must be hard to go from killing someone to interacting with them on neutral grounds- but if you ever want peace you have to be able to distinguish past and future."
Tobirama gave him a blank look.
" Madara won't be able to."
Sasuke grimaced. " Maybe but he's just one person. And the chances are big that he'll try time travelling too- chakra storing is a bit of a tradition in my clan and I'm sure Madara has something like that from Izuna. That way he could move on too.
Either way, other people not doing so doesn't give you an excuse to not do the same. And you can't judge a clan based on a few people. We are clan but we are still different and individuals."
Tobirama raised an eyebrow. " That's....wait actually that is a great idea because Madara than disappears forever and makes the world better or different in another timeline and doesn't cause trouble here. Or he dies amd doesn't cause trouble. But he is a competent ninja and if a little kid can survive this he undoubtedly will too.
Actually...your seal solves the whole cure of hatred thing. That's brilliant."
Sasuke groaned. " The curse of hatred is still just Senju propaganda! "
-------------
On the way to Konoha ( on which Tobriama mostly carried him after they had left the sea by boat because ' he was too slow' which was quite humiliating ) the two bickered, argued and discussed a lot.
But by the end of it, Sasuke wasn't scared of that man anymore and Tobirama did have to aknowledged that the Uchiha are way more than mindless fighting machines.
Then Sasuke was brought to the Hokage tower. Hashimara stared at him, eyes wide and mouth open.
" Does Madara have a secret brother?" he exclaimed. Then. " Where on earth did you find an Uchiha kid when visiting Uzushino?"
"...On the borders of Uzushino. It's quite a tale but Madara should really be here for it."
"...True. Just wait for a bit Uchiha-kun. And don't worry, Madara is a bit grumpy but he won't hurt you. I hope my brother didn't scare you too much- he can be a bit intimidating at first cause he sometimes doesn't know how to deal with people."
When doing that, Hashirama had already formed a Shadow clone who sunshinned and so it wasn't a surprise when Madara arrived mere seconds later.
" You said you found an uchiha kid..? " He stared at Sasuke and his face paled. " What...? Is that supposed to be a joke? "
Sasuke shook his head, activated his still not matured sharingan and asked " May I show you my memories Madara-sama?" The man nodded. " You may."
And so Sasuke did.
The Senju brothers were staring at Sasuke when Madara just sort of turned a bit into himself and didn't say anything or react.
" It's an Uchiha technique. As the clan head, he is allowed to know my life and the full truth that I know. He is good enough to know if I fabricated something and I am not good enough to do so. It may take a bit.
" Is that wise?" Tobirama asked, lips tightly pressed together.
Sasuke shrugged. " It might. Or not. But it's Madaras responsibility to take care of the clan right now and he is here so that isn't my duty. Now I fulfilled my point of being here, being the messenger, which might allow for change."
"...Konoha wasn't good right? I was...judging your people for the curse of hate wasn't you?" Tobirama asked.
Sasuke nodded. " Yes. You were awful. Your students were even worse. Don't let it happen again...you are a genius, supposedly, so you should figure out the consequences of what doing so could bring."
" Hello!" Hashimara waved his arms around. " Can someone tell me what is going on?"
Tobirama sighed. " Sasuke time-jumped or traveled from the past and the past so our future of konoha is appereantly bad and a reason for his time-whatever was a threat to his people that I might have something to so with. And my students are in a position of power and idiots but I don't even have students yet so I don't know who...and his Konoha is biased negatively against the Uchiha due to propaganda. And Sasuke is showing Madara his whole life. Try and keep up, nii-san."
" Hey." Hashirama protested. Then he turned to Sasuke. " If this is true I apologize that we failed you and promise that we will make sure that it doesn't happen again."
Sasuke inclined his head and Hashimara looked like he wanted to talk more but Madara interrupted him.
" Well...I suppose it's great to meet you, greatgrandnephew. You did so, so well. You did your duty and protected the clan even though the task should have been impossible. You did way better than the me in your time and I do aknowledge that my actions hurt your clan. Rest assured I won't let it happen again and that I highly disapprove of your brothers actions. Genocide and Torture. Fucking hell... Your parents and the village are so incompetent. Thank you for the chance to get Izuna back...while you told me everything, don't leave. That's an order."
While talking with him, Madara had steadily gotten closer and then just...picked him up in his arms.
" Wh..why? How?" Sasuke asked, irritated, confused and stunned.
He was glad this Madara understood and would help his clan. He believed him.
Yet, he was also irritated a just being picked up and cradled in his arms as if he was something precious or a little kid.
" You showed me your memories, you know. That includes your emotions. I know exactly how you feel. That you feel that you shouldn't be here. That you want to leave. That you don't want to leave. That you don't want to be alone. That you are afraid of me but also not because you do not care if you die. That you think you are pathetic even though you did the impossible. I...can't imagine my brother ever acting that way but if he did I wouldn't know how to act either. I also know that you hate that you still love him in a way, well, his past-self. That you haven't allowed anyone to comfort you and haven't had anyone comfort you after all of this. And you crave it but are also afraid of it because positive emotions are more intense than negative ones if you are swimming in negative ones. I won't let you down or drown kid. I promise. "
It was childish, stupid and pitiful. Sasuke shouldn't show his emotions so openly, lest of all in front of almost strangers. And yet he couldn't help himself.
Sasuke hadn't cried after the Massacre. He hadn't been able to cry...
And now he bruied himself in the near strangers, his great-grand-uncles chest and sobbed.
Whatever they discussed was mere background noise to him he couldn't pay attention expect for to the occasional stroke through his hair that Madara gave him and the warm arm and body that surrounded him and reminded him that he wasn't alone. Eventually he fell asleep like this.