Synopsis: When Sasuke Uchiha woke up from a dream, after his entire clan had been slaughtered, something else awoke with him: the memories of his past life.
Now, being alone in a world with no one, nothing to tether him, and memories of his past life and knowledge of the future, what will he do? But no matter what, Itachi thinks the higher-ups of the Leaf think.
He will be his own person!
He is not Chris from Earth; he is not Sasuke the Avenger; he is definitely not Indra; he is just Sasuke Uchiha and will get his revenge for his clan and parents.
Could he find his way by joining the Anbu? Joining the Akatsuki? Or just becoming a rogue ninja? No matter what he does, he will find himself and companions along the way to help keep him grounded.
Chapter 1: Post-Massacre, I
—Third Person POV—
—Land of Fire, Konoha, Uchiha Clan Compound, Hours after the Massacre—
The sun had only just begun to rise over the Uchiha Clan Compound, casting its first rays across the site of the massacre.
Its warm light glinted against the pools of blood scattered across the ground, creating an almost beautiful reflection that stood in horrifying contrast to the countless corpses sprawled throughout the streets.
The lifeless bodies of the Uchiha Clan members could be found everywhere, and several of them had even suffered the additional indignity of having their eyes brutally gouged from their skulls.
Within the home belonging to the clan head, the only known living member of the Uchiha Clan remaining in Konoha twisted and turned beside the bodies of his dead parents.
Fugaku Uchiha, the head of the clan, and his wife, Mikoto Uchiha, remained seated in formal kneeling positions nearby, their bodies motionless and their lives already extinguished.
Sasuke remained unconscious beside them, trapped within a mental world from which there appeared to be no escape.
—In the mind of Sasuke Uchiha—
Sasuke, still appearing as the young child he was, looked down upon the entire Uchiha Clan Compound from what seemed like a god's-eye view.
He could see everything.
He watched Itachi silently approach several members of the Uchiha Clan. They sensed that something was wrong, but each of them pushed that uneasy feeling to the back of their minds after recognizing him.
'This is the son of the clan leader and one of our brightest and most talented shinobi. He would never harm us.' They were wrong.
Itachi suddenly moved toward them in a blur, drawing his Anbu-issued katana and slicing through the throats of several Uchiha men before they could properly understand what was happening.
"ARAGRR! Ita-chi... why...?"
The man never managed to finish his question. Blood poured from the wound across his throat as his knees struck the ground. Before his body could fully collapse, Itachi had already moved on to the next clan member, cutting them down with the same merciless efficiency.
Of course, some of the Uchiha attempted to fight back. They were members of a clan famous for its powerful shinobi, and not all of them would allow themselves to be slaughtered without resistance.
However, whenever one of the stronger Uchiha stepped forward to challenge Itachi, another blurry figure appeared and killed them before Sasuke could clearly see who it was.
The mysterious figure handled the strongest and most experienced members of the clan, leaving Itachi to kill those closer to his own level while the women and children attempted to escape.
Some of the braver children chose to remain behind and fight beside their families. They lifted kunai with trembling hands, activated whatever Sharingan they possessed, and tried to protect their younger siblings and parents.
Their courage made no difference. Itachi cut them down like the others, his expression remaining unchanged as he moved from one target to the next.
He eventually began entering the homes belonging to the clan's unmarried and adult members, searching for anyone who had not yet come outside.
"Itachi, what are you doing?" a woman demanded when he entered her home. Shock and disbelief filled her face as she recognized him.
"If you stop now, we can still... Shhhhk... gurgle..." The woman never received the opportunity to finish her sentence.
Itachi's blade tore through her neck, cutting so deeply that it nearly decapitated her. She fell to the floor, both hands desperately clutching at the wound as blood poured between her fingers.
A man had been slowly creeping toward Itachi from behind, a kunai held tightly in his hand. However, the moment he witnessed his wife being murdered by someone they had both trusted and thought highly of, all caution vanished from his mind.
Rage consumed him.
He pushed chakra through his legs, greatly increasing his speed as he lunged toward Itachi with the kunai prepared to strike.
When he came within only a few inches of him, he caught sight of the fearful yet resolute expression hidden within Itachi's eyes.
Then he felt a bone-deep, unbearable burning sensation. Black flames erupted across the man's body and spread over him in an instant.
He screamed as the unnatural fire consumed his clothing, skin, and flesh, killing him before he could reach the person who had murdered his wife.
"Huff... huff... That... huff... huff... was close," Itachi said.
He lifted one hand and wiped away the trail of blood trickling from his right eye.
"Now, on to the rest." Itachi continued forward, hunting and killing the remaining members of the Uchiha Clan.
Sasuke was forced to watch everything.
He watched as Itachi murdered the men and women of their clan. He watched the blurry figure kill the fleeing children. He watched the Uchiha attempt to fight back, only for every act of resistance to end in failure and death.
Eventually, Itachi and the mysterious figure reached the home belonging to Fugaku and Mikoto.
Sasuke saw his parents sitting together in formal kneeling positions, known as seiza. Neither of them appeared surprised. They seemed to have been waiting for Itachi to arrive, as though they had already accepted what was about to happen.
However, before Sasuke could witness what happened next, the vision suddenly returned to the beginning.
Once again, Itachi approached the unsuspecting clan members.
Once again, they recognized him as the son of their clan leader and one of the Uchiha Clan's brightest shinobi.
Once again, Itachi moved toward them in a blur and used his Anbu-issued katana to slice through their throats.
"No... no, no! Make this stop!" Sasuke screamed after the third loop.
During the first loop, he had remained frozen in complete shock, unable to understand what he was witnessing. During the second, his heart had shattered as he waited for the nightmare to end.
It did not end.
By the third repetition, Sasuke screamed and begged for freedom, but his pleas meant nothing within this world.
The massacre continued to repeat itself, forcing him to experience the deaths of his clan again and again.
The Uchiha trusted Itachi.
Itachi betrayed them.
The clan fought back.
The mysterious figure killed the strongest among them.
The women and children ran.
They died anyway.
The nightmare repeated without mercy.
After the two hundred seven thousand two hundredth loop, Sasuke lay across the hardened surface of the artificial sky with a near-lifeless expression. He no longer possessed the strength to scream, cry, or beg for the suffering to stop.
However, something deep within his mind refused to allow him to surrender entirely to despair.
Just as Sasuke felt as though the final pieces of his identity were beginning to disappear, a brilliant light surrounded him. It pulled him away from the nightmare and carried him somewhere else.
—In the mind of Chris Itomoru, with Sasuke in the back of his head— [= Sasuke]
Inside a modern apartment, a half-American, half-Japanese man with long blond hair lay asleep in bed. His hair had fallen across his face, concealing most of his features while he rested.
After several minutes, an alarm began ringing beside him. The man groaned as he woke, brushing his long hair away and revealing his black eyes.
[What is happening to me? Where is this place?] Sasuke wondered as he looked around the unfamiliar apartment through the man's eyes.
"Argh, damn it. I have to be at work soon," the man complained. He inhaled deeply before releasing a tired sigh.
"Alright, let's get started." He climbed out of bed and walked toward the shower so he could prepare for work.
Although Sasuke did not directly observe him while he showered, he witnessed almost everything else, including the strange modern amenities scattered throughout the apartment.
There was a washer and dryer, a dishwasher, air conditioning, a balcony, hardwood floors, and several upgraded appliances that seemed almost magical to Sasuke.
Some devices cleaned clothing, others preserved food, and many performed tasks that would ordinarily require servants, chakra, or specialized seals in his world.
The man eventually finished preparing for work. He put on a formal suit before attaching a name tag to his clothing.
The name printed across it read, "Chris Itomoru."
[Wow, all of this is so cool,] Sasuke thought as he continued looking through Chris's eyes.
For the first time since the nightmare began, Sasuke managed to push the recent memories of his clan and parents' deaths to the back of his mind.
He became fascinated by every modern object inside Chris Itomoru's home and wanted to understand how each one worked.
Sasuke watched as Chris left his apartment and traveled to work. Chris worked as a salesman for a Japanese-American production office.
His job involved ensuring that the company could continue selling its products all around the world, and for his division, he was assigned America; now he would need to find a way around Trump's new tariffs getting in the way.
The tariffs made his job considerably harder, forcing him to spend more time searching for legal methods and loopholes that benefited both the Japanese manufacturers and the American buyers.
(A/N: I am not expressing my political views. I cannot even vote yet. I am only pointing out that the more tariffs there are, the harder business can become for both American consumers and the people who manufacture the products.)
Despite the difficulties, Chris did the best he could with the resources available to him. Sasuke watched him search through documents, communicate with customers, negotiate prices, and investigate every possible loophole he could find for the benefit of both the Japanese and Americans involved.
"Damn it, man. If things keep going like this, they're going to start laying some of us off," Chris said over the phone to one of his friends in the United States.
His friend attempted to reassure him, but Chris did not sound convinced.
"I know I'm not the best at what I do, but I'm good enough that I should hopefully be able to find another job."
Sasuke witnessed it all.
He experienced Chris's entire daily life through his eyes. Chris woke up each morning and prepared for work, stopped to purchase coffee from the cute barista he liked on the way, and continued working until five in the evening.
Afterward, he returned home and spent his free time playing games, reading, cooking, completing his daily tasks, painting, or simply taking a nap whenever he felt exhausted.
Chris also watched anime on his television. One particular anime seemed disturbingly similar to Sasuke's own life and was named after one of his classmates, although Sasuke could not remember precisely which one.
He only remembered that the name started with the letter N.
Whenever the anime threatened to reveal too much, Sasuke's awareness would suddenly disappear.
The scenes either cut out entirely, or he entered whatever counted as rest while existing inside the back of Chris's mind.
At night, Chris occasionally visited a few sites whose names started with the letters H and P. That activity became another part of his routine.
That was the beginning of Sasuke's love for big breasts, but that was something to be explored much later in his life.
As Sasuke watched Chris's daily routine, he gradually began to feel calm. It was as though he were watching a first-person movie while simultaneously experiencing the main character's emotions.
For a brief time, he even felt happy and managed to forget the overwhelming pain and sorrow caused by the destruction of his home and clan.
Sasuke was still only a child. Pushing traumatic events to the furthest corners of his mind was a natural defense for someone his age, as long as he was not being forced to relive those traumatic events repeatedly.
However, Chris's world also showed him the darkness hidden within the human heart.
The darkness inside Chris himself was not particularly terrible, especially compared to what Sasuke witnessed within other people. Sasuke saw people deliberately go out of their way to hinder Chris for seemingly no reason, at least from his limited perspective.
Chris understood that some Japanese people disliked him because he was not completely Japanese. His American heritage gave them another reason to view him as an outsider.
At the same time, some Americans who moved to Japan took their frustrations out on him simply because he was nearby and convenient.
Chris became their punching bag despite belonging fully to neither group.
There were moments when Chris stood up for himself and refused to accept their treatment. During those confrontations, Sasuke believed Chris could overcome nearly anyone who harassed him.
Other times, Chris simply endured it and walked away.
That confused Sasuke. One moment, Chris appeared ready and willing to fight every person who mistreated him. The next, he accepted their insults without bothering to defend himself.
Sasuke could not yet understand that Chris was choosing which battles were worth fighting and which would only create more problems for him.
Just as Sasuke's mind had attempted to protect him during the massacre, it continued defending him by pushing the most traumatic memories to the very back of his consciousness.
For this version of Sasuke, the number of times he relived the massacre stopped at 207,200 rather than reaching the 518,400 repetitions it had originally been intended to reach.
However, as people often said, all good things eventually came to an end.
One evening, Chris walked toward his car after finishing work. His movements were heavy, and his expression was dark. He had just been fired after the company decided that he was expendable.
Sasuke felt both angry and sad for Chris. Although he had only existed within the back of the man's mind for approximately a week, Sasuke had witnessed nearly every part of his daily life.
He had experienced Chris's struggles, interests, routines, successes, and failures as though he had personally been beside him.
Their time together came to a sudden end when a distracted driver approached an intersection while looking down at his phone and ran through a stop sign.
Chris always looked in both directions before crossing a street or entering an intersection, regardless of where he was. This time was no different.
He saw the approaching car. Unfortunately, it was already too late.
The distracted driver finally looked up from his phone, and time appeared to freeze as Chris stood only inches away from the rapidly approaching vehicle.
The driver desperately attempted to turn, but there was no longer enough distance to avoid the collision.
Sasuke, still trapped in the back of Chris's mind, became devastated as he realized that someone else with whom he had formed a connection was about to die.
Sasuke had not personally known every member of the Uchiha Clan. However, he walked past them on his way to and from home each day. He greeted them, listened to them speak, and occasionally received treats from the older members of the clan.
They had been familiar parts of his life even if he had not possessed close relationships with all of them. Watching every one of them die for what Sasuke believed was no reason at all had devastated him.
Now, someone he had grown close to over the course of a week was also about to die because of another person's mistake and the machinations of people beyond his control.
The unfairness of it all made Sasuke feel unbearably sad. Time returned to normal, and the inevitable event unfolded.
The car struck Chris with tremendous force and sent his body flying through the air. He slammed into a nearby wall and died at the scene.
The driver briefly stopped. He looked as though he intended to get out of his vehicle and check what had happened.
But fear overcame him. The driver changed his mind and fled, leaving Chris's broken body behind.
Sasuke suddenly found himself inside a black, reflectionless space. He curled into a ball, wrapped his arms around his legs, and bawled his eyes out.
He cried for his clan, he cried for his parents, he cried for Chris, he cried for every person he had watched die while remaining completely powerless to save them.
Eventually, Sasuke felt a presence somewhere nearby. He slowly lifted his head and saw someone standing before him.
It was himself.
The other version of Sasuke possessed the same general shape, but his body was formed from a black-and-red liquid that had been forcibly compressed into a solid form.
The substance continuously shifted beneath his artificial skin, appearing as though it might lose its shape at any moment.
"So, what are you going to do now?" the other version of Sasuke asked.
"I don't know," Sasuke answered without thinking. "I just want to be with my mommy and Father."
"We are always with you, my beautiful baby boy," a feminine, motherly voice said from behind him.
A pair of familiar arms gently wrapped around Sasuke and pulled him into a warm embrace.
"Wha... Ma... Ma... Mother!"
Sasuke recognized his mother's voice among thousands of others. The moment he felt her arms around him, he turned and buried himself against her body.
"WAAA! WAAA! WAAA!" Sasuke cried his eyes out in the warm embrace of his mother.
"I had a horrible dream! You and everyone else died, and then I saw the life of this really cool person! Everything he had was so cool, but that nightmare was so bad!"
Sasuke told her everything he could remember about what he believed had only been a terrible dream.
"It's okay, Sasuke," Mikoto whispered as she held him.
"Your father and I are so sorry for leaving you like this. I... I..." Mikoto attempted to comfort her son, but everything that had happened became too much for her as well.
She broke down in tears.
The crimson-eyed demoness held her son tightly and sobbed alongside him, unable to hide the pain and regret filling her heart.
A stern yet loving male voice then came from behind Sasuke.
"Yes, we should never have left you alone," Fugaku said.
"However, I trust that you can become the greatest Uchiha who has ever lived. You can become even greater than your brother or Madara Uchiha." Fugaku's voice had always possessed a naturally stern quality.
However, Mikoto had known him since childhood, and she could hear the overwhelming sadness, love, and regret hidden beneath his words.
Sasuke noticed something strange about the way both of his parents were speaking. A terrible feeling formed inside his chest as he finally asked the question weighing on his mind.
"What do you mean by leaving me alone?" Sasuke asked.
"You're both right here. You're not going anywhere, right?" Neither parent immediately answered.
"You're not going anywhere, right? Right?!"
Sasuke desperately wanted them to reassure him. He did not want to consider what their words might mean because doing so reminded him of the final part of the nightmare.
His parents had been sitting together in the seiza position. Itachi had been standing over them, and then, lastly, his blade had been dripping with blood.
"No, we are not going anywhere, son," Fugaku answered. "However, I know you will make us proud."
Sasuke's body suddenly began transforming into countless fragments of light. The pieces drifted away from him, and his form slowly started disappearing from the black space.
"No! I want to stay with you!" Sasuke screamed. "No, no, NOOO!"
Mikoto could no longer bear to watch her son being taken away. She pulled him into an even tighter embrace without saying another word, desperately attempting to hold him together despite knowing she could not prevent his departure.
Sasuke continued flailing within her arms, reaching toward both of his parents as more pieces of his body broke apart.
The other version of Sasuke, whose body was formed from the black-and-red liquid, suddenly reappeared beside them. This time, his face gradually shifted until it resembled Chris Itomoru.
"I won't let my memories change you, kid," Chris said through the artificial body.
"If you ever want to know something, then think about it. As long as I knew the answer, there's a chance you'll be able to know it too." Sasuke stopped struggling for a moment and stared at him.
"This is your life, kid," Chris continued.
"I want you to remain yourself. You're your own individual, and you shouldn't allow me or my memories to change that. Don't let anyone take control of your life or force their way of living onto you."
Chris looked at the fading child with a complicated expression.
"Find out who you are for yourself. Live your own life, make your own choices, and maybe live the kind of life that I couldn't. Yeah, I think that would be enough."
Chris, still wearing Sasuke's general form, delivered his final message while Mikoto and Fugaku pretended not to see or hear him.
Whether they truly could not perceive his presence or merely understood that his words were meant for Sasuke alone remained unclear.
With that, the final fragments of Sasuke's body began disappearing into the black space. Before he completely vanished, his eyes turned crimson. Three tomoe formed within each of them.
This moment marked Sasuke's divergence from the path that had originally been set before him.
It was the beginning of the Epic of Sasuke Uchiha, the Last Uchiha, the Strongest Shinobi, and the future bearer of many other epithets.
It all began within both a nightmare and a sweet yet sour dream.
[3591 Words]