Chapter Text
The oasis It’s guarded by proud people of the old religions, they have chakra but they don’t call it chakra, they call it soul spirit.
They act with kind reverence around Sakura because they could tell she was a healer when they first saw her. Just as they bow with respect around Sasuke because of the lingering dark power he naturally emanates.
They show the travelling couple the way to the oasis as if it was their duty. The place is beautiful.
Underground corridors of weirdly coloured stones leading to a secret cavern and in the middle, a dazzling string of transparent water reflecting the colours of the precious gems lining the place around them.
“Only people with a powerful soul spirit can make use of the oasis.” Says the leader of the people, “the waters of this place allow the travellers who are worthy to go back in their own history and mend past sins.”
“We are powerful enough.” Mutters Sasuke purposely walking towards the waters that starts to glow as if it were sensing his chakra.
He stops at the edge of the oasis, giving Sakura an inviting, hopeful glance. Extending his only hand in her direction.
“Sasuke-kun, we don’t need to do this.” Taking two hesitant steps towards Sasuke, the young Kunoichi tries to dissuade her lover. “We’re happy now. Aren’t we?”
“I did so many mistakes, committed so many wrongdoings in my life, Sakura. I treated you so awfully. Don’t we deserve a second chance? A little more time to be together?” He sounds distant. In the same way he sounded as a Gennin, when his sole purpose was vengeance.
“We have all the time in the world, Sasuke-kun.” She tries.
“I’m sorry Sakura.” He apologises, closing his eyes. “Hopefully you won’t remember any of this when I’m finally done with everything.” After the brief but heartfelt apology, Sasuke allows himself to fall into the water, finding himself surrounded by white light and Sakura’s voice screaming his name.
Then only Darkness.
He wakes up feeling different. Weaker, in a room he hadn’t seen or been in, since his childhood days.
A quick trip to the bathroom and a brief glance at the mirror tells him he’s four, maybe five, in any case just a few years ahead of the massacre that changed his life and transformed him into the man he is… Was.
Now that he’s here, Sasuke is not really sure of what he wants to do. Not in specific terms anyway. He wants to be a better friend for Naruto, wants to be a younger brother for Itachi. For sure.
He especially wants to become the man Sakura deserves. Wants to accept her invitations to dinners and festivals, to hold her hand around the village and in their travels. He even longs for the opportunity to be openly jealous of Naruto’s and Lee’s advances on Sakura.
Sasuke wants to meet her parents without the lingering shame of being the man who broke her heart and tried to kill her. He still remembers standing alongside Sakura in front of the Harunos, telling them that he was going to take their daughter away while knowing he had dared to raise his hand at her in open violence.
He overall wants to train alongside her, to become strong as they grow together under the same sky.
He decides to start with the massacre because he doesn’t want to lose his brother once again. Sasuke will leave the final decision to Itachi, but he will be the one to tell him about the coup d'etat or at least he will find a less violent outcome for his clan.
In the following months he keeps his ears and eyes open for any signs or talk of treason from his parents. He’s aware that he can’t talk to Itachi until he knows for sure his parents are at least in the planning stages of their betrayal.
A few months into his new life he hears his mother talk about spies in the academy reporting to her. His father grunts his approval and then he tells her about Itachi being difficult about his part in the coup d’etat. That’s all he needs.
He cries in his brother’s lap for the first time in decades, that night. Forcing Itachi to comfort him and hear him out. “Mother and father were talking about killing Lord third.” He sobs in his brother’s chest. “Are we bad people?”
“No, little brother,” placates the prodigy. “I just wish you wouldn’t have to hear that.”
“We have to tell Lord third!” Screams Sasuke just in case Itachi hadn’t thought about it already.
“I already did that, Sasuke.” Sighs Itachi with resignation. “And Lord Hokage has been trying to find peace between the Uchiha elders and the village, to no avail. It seems that as long our elders are in power, we won’t come to an agreement.”
“Then…” Stresses Sasuke, “Brother and cousin Shisui should run the clan.” This is enough for Itachi to stare at him.
“And what about father and mother?” Asks the Uchiha heir softly.
“They’re doing something really bad, Nii-san.” He says seriously, in that childish manner of speaking he’s been forcing himself to adapt to. “We can’t let them, even if it makes them sad, even if Lord third has to punish them after.”
In the following months the crimes of the Uchiha elders alongside his parents and some extremists are revealed to a close number of people. The elders and his parents are put on trial and disposed as leaders of the clan.
In their place, a group of young powerful Shinobi with Itachi as the youngest clan head in history are taking their place. But the Hokage is merciful with them, only banishing them into the outskirts of the Uchiha district, being carefully observed by Hyuuga Anbu.
At the same time, Shisui, coming out of a horrifying fight with Danzo, exposes the man and his followers as sadistic treacherous Shinobi. Training young kids into a personal army, experimenting with dead Uchiha. Killing young, promising ninja just for the sake of emotional torture.
Sarutobi-sama, intransigent as he may be, can’t and won’t allow child abuse in any form, the deaths of so many children forever carved in his mind and his heart as a personal penance. He orders Danzo’s execution on the spot.
Sasuke celebrates his sixth birthday without his parents, but with his big brother by his side as a better clan head than his father could ever be.
Sasuke finds Naruto on a park a few weeks after his birthday. He wasn’t planning on it but he figures this is a good enough moment as any other to start a better friendship with his surrogate brother.
“Hi.” He says over the blond boy who is kneeling alone in the sandbox, looking dejected and broken. “My name is Sasuke. Who are you?”
At first the boy doesn’t realise he’s being talked to, he moves his head but doesn’t look at him until Sasuke stomps his foot on the sand to get back his attention. “I’m sorry” apologies Naruto. “I can go if…”
“I asked for your name.” Insists Sasuke.
“Naruto Uzumaki,” answers his future friend surprised.
“Well Naruto, do you want to play with me?”
Naruto screams an excited yes with one of those sunny smiles that never failed to make girls blush in his timeline, Sasuke smirks as he sits alongside the blond and plays with him until Itachi himself comes from a consul reunion to bring him home.
“Hi, Nii-san,” smiles Sasuke, expecting and faking annoyance at his brother poking him in the forehead. “I made a friend today can he come for dinner and stay the night?”
Itachi would deny his request in a heartbeat if he wasn’t aware of Naruto’s story. But he does and so, he grants him his wish that day and the days to follow. Effectively becoming a surrogate three man family unit for Naruto.
Sasuke still wants to find Sakura, maybe even partake in his own version of puppy-love with her. But the Uchiha’s second son can’t be seen marauding civilian territory. Tentative peace between the Uchiha and the village put into action or not.
So to his utter disappointment they don’t meet each other until they both enter the academy.
Part of Sasuke doesn’t want to be Sakura’s knight in shining armour. Because he genuinely believes that is Ino’s job and because he knows Sakura deserves her independence.
But he hates seeing her cry, hates seeing mean girls hurting her and humiliating her as if the act of belittling her were a sport they were particularly good at playing. Sasuke feels the physical need to run over there were the little girl is kneeling on the floor, hiding her pretty face with her long bangs and tiny hands as she cries her green eyes out while she’s being insulted and kicked by her classmates.
In the end Ino ends up beating him to the punch. The Yamanaka heiress does a beautiful show off being Sakura’s warrior princess, too.
She jumps on the scene with her chest held high, screaming at the girls to stop and to scram, the bullies glare at Ino with defiance and the flower girl returns the challenge with the same or even stronger determination.
She then takes care of Sakura, cleans her dirt covered face and puts a cute ribbon on her head to clear her face.
“There, you look cuter this way.” Compliments Ino holding a hand-mirror in front of their faces.
“But… But my fo-forehead,” stutters Sakura, in a display of shyness Sasuke has never seen before. He’s always known Sakura as an energetic, strong and confident girl, this shy version of her is new and not something he knows how to handle.
“The more you try to hide it, the more attention you bring to it!” Exclaims the blonde. “Besides it’s not so bad, you just have to show off a pretty face like that. I like the style, anyway.”
Sakura blushes and looks at Ino as if she’s the sun. Sasuke decides to let them have their moment.
He has all the time in the world, anyway.
Sasuke resolves to wait until they get in team seven together to become closer to Sakura. He tries to start a conversation with her a handful of times, but her shyness always unsettles him.
He still acts kinder to her than anyone else when he can. Smiling at her when she manages to sit by his side, accepting her hand-made bento when she wills herself to give it to him, he even trains shuriken-jutsu with her two or three times when Iruka-sensei instructs them to pair off.
Sakura doesn’t notice, still too shy and with a still too low self esteem. But Naruto surely does. Sasuke knows Naruto still likes Sakura, he’s attracted to her odd hair and her sunny smiles just as much as every little boy who ever fell for her in his timeline was, and even if the younger Uchiha is aware that someday in the future they will develop a sibling bond, his heart still constricts when Naruto asks him:
“Do you like anyone?” His eyes staring at the ground, while unconsciously scratching his head.
“Yes,” he answers with the honesty Naruto deserves from him. “I like Sakura.”
“Wh-What?!” Exclaims the Kyubi. “You can’t like Sakura-chan!”
“Why?” Maybe it’s healthier for them to exteriorise their feelings about it. He knows one or two things about bottling up emotions.
“Because I like Sakura-chan!” Confesses the boy as if it was the easiest thing in the world to say.
“Well, I like her, too. So if you want to win her over you’ll have to confront me, idiot.” He challenges his best friend with an air of superiority.
“You’ll see!” Screams Naruto, pointing directly at his face “I’ll become Hokage and I’ll marry Sakura-chan!”
And so, their rivalry is born.
Sasuke knows that someday in the future, Naruto will notice the girl that has been chasing him around for longer than anyone.
He also has the conviction to never give up on Sakura’s love, not ever again.
But for the time being, their relationship could do with some girl related rivalry.