My Favourite Story's On The Internet

Findable On: Archive of Our Own (Ao3)

Author: SunflowerDrake

Summary: After the massacre, Sasuke wakes up as more than he was before.

Magic and memories of being Harry Potter, will shake Konoha awake in ways no one could have predicted.

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He opens his eyes, and briefly wonders what happened.

For a second, he can look around. A hospital like environment.

And then the pain hits. He curls up into a ball, his very being is screaming out in pain. Nothing physical. The hurt isn't worse because of moving, but it is still there.

His head feels like it is bursting at the seams.

It is as if too much thoughts and memories have been stuffed inside his mind!

Images flash before his eyes. Flashes of colour, distant and more recent memories, bodies littering everywhere, bright spells thrown around, the ground covered in blood, and those red spinning eyes... He sees them everywhere.

He feels sick.

He uncurls and heaves, rejecting whatever is still in his stomach. Hopefully he got it over the side of the bed, and not unto himself.

It hurts even more now, because all that comes out is bile.

His body is shaking.

He remembers...

His family.

His father, his mother,.... Killed once again.

Why? Why is this always his luck?

He gets that he is Master of Death. He gets that somehow, that means he is bound to be reborn again and again.

But can he get lucky, just once?

Most of the lives he lived, he can't remember now. Only his first life is still clear to him. His first, and his last.

Always.

While his parents always die, this time he's gotten somewhat lucky. He's had ten years with them, even if his father was more absent than not.

Ten years. Only to lose them anyway. As Harry, he'd never remembered having parents. So he'd missed them, but it was different back then. The loss is a lot more real now that he has actually known his parents. 

Someone comes in and suddenly he is being touched. Before he has the chance to recoil a wave of something washes over his body. The pain fades a bit, and he manages to uncurl enough to take a deep breath and look up.

It's some nurse.

Or at least someone he assumes is a nurse. They are so tightly dressed in white he isn't even sure if they are male or female.

He can't recall having seen them in either life before.

The nurse starts talking and it takes a second for his brain to catch on that yes, this isn't English. And another second to realise that yes, he can actually understand what they are saying.

Huh?

Their voice is high enough for him to tentatively class this person as female. At least, until they can introduce themselves.

Of course, by that time they have stopped talking and he has no idea what they asked him.

Because of course.

Typical.

He clears his throat, and winces at the strain that puts on his vocal cords.

Merlin, that hurts.

The nurse hums and hands him a glass of water. He accepts it eagerly, and drinks slowly.

"Thank you." he mutters politely, hoping he is speaking in the right language.

"You're welcome." They reply with a frown as they eye him. "Uchiha -kun? How are you feeling?"

Uchiha-kun? Isn't that a bit too familiar? He frowns at them, trying to recall if he knows this person, but comes up blank.

They raise a hand and it starts glowing green. "I'll just check then. Please keep still."

The hand descends and rest in his arm as the energy spreads. It enters his body and gives him Goosebumps. He visibly shivers at the strange feeling. It is not entirely unpleasant, but…

Their frown deepens and they can't seem top to look away from his face for too long. It makes him uneasy and he wants to s-pat his face to find out what is wrong with it.

"You feel just fine. You weren't physically hurt though, so that is to be expected." She says as she looks at his chart, that is hanging by the end of the bed.

He is gripped by the sudden urge to rip that chart from her hand and look at it himself.

He has no idea what is going on, who exactly he is.

Memories of two very different lives fight to overpower the nightmare of blood and terror.

It is causing quite the headache.

"The Hokage will be here to speak to you shortly. Might be a good idea to freshen up abut, if you feel up to it?"

He isn't sure what to think of that.

The Hokage? That's like, someone just as important as Dumbledore had been? Most important man in the village?

Why would a man that important be checking in om him?

He has never really talked to him before, so why...

Ah, is this because of what happened?

With his family?

As soon as the nurse leaves him alone, he staggers up and goes into the bathroom. He visits the toilet and as he washes his hands, he studies himself in the mirror.

He looks like Uchiha Sasuke always has looked.

Nothing new.

Except his eyes.

His mother's eyes.

Lily that is, not Mikoto.

Bright emerald eyes, that look almost as if they are shining.

He is pretty sure Sasuke didn't have green eyes before.

He splashes some water in his face in the hopes it clears up his mind.

It doesn't. Not really.

He eyes his image in the mirror a bit more intensely. He hadn't noticed it before now, but his face is kind of … pretty. Cute, even. Sure he is young still, but…

He grimaces, and somehow that doesn't take away from the appeal.

Damnit.

He is going to be stalked so much!

He makes his way back into the room and look, the vomit that should have been next to his bed from earlier is gone. Come to think of it, when did that get cleaned up? Did he just get lucky earlier when he got out of bed to not step in it or …? Had he been that out of it before he hadn't noticed someone cleaning it up?

He gets back into the bed and just sits there for a bit and tries to order his thoughts. Tries to clear his mind, before the Hokage arrives.

He lets his mind wander through his most recent memories, and promptly ahs to fight not te get sick again.

It doesn't take long before the Hokage enters his room, dressed in white robes and a hat and Sasuke immediately knows who this is.

There is no mistake. Even if the man doesn't wear his iconic hat.

This is the Hokage. Leader of this village he lives in. Leader and boss to all shinobi.

The man who send his brother on missions as soon as he graduated at age 6. Who sends children out to fight, and bleed and do his dirty work.

This world is both different and much of the same as before. Because Harry has always been a child soldier. Never had a choice in that. Even in this life he is already enrolled in the shinobi academy. Never mind that he has asked to be enrolled, eager to follow into his big brothers footsteps. A brother, who may very well have gone mad because of said early graduation.

Why else would he have killed everyone? Definitely not to prove his strength. No one proved anything like that by killing elders, civilians and children....

"Do you remember what happened, Sasuke-kun?" The man asks him as he sits down in the chair next to his bed, tearing Sasuke from his thoughts.

Again with the familiarity... He knows who this is, of course, but he's only seen the most powerful man in the village once, at school. He's never talked to him before.

"Everyone is gone." He replies, his voice sounding pretty blank.

The man eyes him warily.

"Your family is dead, yes. Your brother, Itachi, has been labelled a missing Nin."

Sasuke sits there for a moment, speechless, trying to understand what is being said to him, what is being implied with that simple sentence.

"He's still … alive?" he manages to say.

"My dear boy, did you think... No, no Itachi is still alive. On the run, but alive." The Hokage tries to reassure him, for some reason?

Which.. What? That makes no sense?

A reassurance would be to know that the man who killed his entire family is dead. Not.. Whatever this is.

"So… he escaped? But you send people after him right? He killed everyone." Sasek tries to make sense to all this, as the tightness in his chest grows.

"Well, your brother is very powerful..." the Hokage tries again, in that same soothing voice.

"He is a traitor though. You named him missing Nin. Isn't it one of the Anbu's jobs to kill people like that?" Sasuke interrupts him, quite rudely at that.

"Yes, but I'd very much like to know why your brother did what he did." The Hokage nods, as if that makes the most sense.

"So you send people out to capture him?"

"Of course." The man reassured him.

Yet, Sasuke feels like he is being lied to. He stops asking though, feeling like he won't get a straightforward, honest answer.

So, he simply repeats what Itachi had said to him.

"He said it was to test the limit of his abilities." Sasuke says as he closes his eyes.

He can hear, even in his mind, what else Itachi has said to him.

"My foolish brother… If you want to kill me… curse me! Hate me! And live a long and unsightly life… Run away… run away… and cling to your pitiful life. And then some day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me."

"If you want to kill me, despise me, hate me, and live a loathsome life."

It haunts him. Will forever haunt him.

He is shaking again, and he has to fight to keep calm.

The man before him studies him. "Well, you have been in the hospital for the last two weeks. We honestly have been quite worried about you."

He doesn't know what to say to that.

Two weeks.

His brother had tortured him for that long?

It feels a lot longer…

Rage burns inside his chest as he thinks of the brother he loved so much, before.

"The medics did find some anomalies though."

And that focuses his attention like nothing before. "Anomalies?"

"You eyes, for instance? I have never known an Uchiha with anything g but black eyes." The man hums thoughtfully.

Sasuke can hear the unasked question in that sentence, but he pretends not to hear it.

The Hokage sighs, but doesn't insists. "There is also a potential issue with your chakra network."

He takes the same damn chart from before in his hands and actually leafes through the pages.

"Your chakra pathways have changed. We can't tell exactly how, or how this may affect your use of chakra, so the medics want you to be cautious and not use any chakra until you come back next week for a check-up."

And why is the Hokage telling him this, and not said medics?

"You will need to stay the night still, in observation, but you should be good to leave tomorrow, once the compound has been cleaned up a bit."

Excuse you?

"The compound? I have to go back there?" He asks with a small voice, unable to keep the vulnerable tone hidden.

The man winces, looking guilty. "I have talked it over with my council and that does seem like the best solution to us."

He stares at the Hokage, unable to believe this man.

This is Dumbledore and that crap with the Dursleys all over again!

He isn't sure what he'll do yet, but he isn't going to just... Accept this? Is he?

The Hokage leaves and he is left to stew in his thoughts.

Which is never a good idea, no matter who he is.

And it feels strange.

This, being two people at once, and yet still one and the same. It has never happened before. He's never actually remembered being Harry in any life. Not this vividly, at least.

It feels like yesterday, and at the same time like a lifetime ago, that he was waving his wand around.

He knows he is Sasuke now. But he feels like he is more Harry. In a way, he has been Harry way longer than he has been Sasuke.

And in the end, does it really matter? What he calls himself? He doesn't really feel like two people at once. It is not like he has two voices in his mind constantly arguing, or anything.

He stays in the hospital till the next morning, trying to spend most of his time there sleeping because it would get too depressing otherwise.

No one visits him. The same nurse from before brings him food twice a day, and gives him a quick check up every time, but other than that, he doesn't see anyone.

Which brings a lot of questions.

Now, he knows he isn't the most sociable person. He doesn't expect too many people showing up. But no classmates, no teachers, …. Not even his fangirls… which he is happy about, don't get him wrong, but still… (it also shows just how shallow their so-called love for his is.)

No one visits him.

No one.

How depressing is that?

He thinks back, and he actually can't recall ever spending time with anyone that wasn't family, but still...

He is both disappointed and not at the same time.

Still, it is a bit depressing.

No specialist shows up either. He hasn't even seen a medic yet at this point.

Sasuke has been tortured, mentally. And yet no one has shown up to see how he is doing? Except the nameless nurse and the Hokage?

Harry had only realised the benefits of seeing a specialist for all the trauma later in his life.

It just seems strange. For a village so focused on their strength, you'd think they'd take better care of their future soldiers?

Then again, they have no qualms sending him back to the murder scene of his mother and father's death, to go and live there, so maybe he is expecting too much?

He leaves the hospital with a feeling of relief, and he is drowning in his dread at the same time. Alone, again. There is no one to pick him up, no one to walk him home, no one who thought to care for him.

It shouldn't sting like this. He had known no one would be here.

He briefly looks up, jumps out of the way when a patient gets carried inside the hospital in haste.

He freezes. The blood, the screams of pain, the yelling of the professionals around him,…

He has to visibly shake himself out of … whatever is happening to him. 

He takes a deep breath and turns around, towards home.

Yay…

He has never walked slower and he still has no idea what he is going to do.

People are staring at him as he walks past, pointing at him. It is nothing new, sadly. Harry had had to deal with that ever since he turned eleven. It is still new as Sasuke, but he falls back into old habits of ignoring it all quickly.

When he finally arrives at the compound he stops walking inside the gate, fidgeting violently and he can't make himself take one more stap.

The bodies are gone. So is the blood.

Thank Merlin for that.

Part of him wonders where they are. Will he be able to bury them all? Or has that somehow been taken care of.

He makes a mental note to find out later.

He takes a deep breath, and steps forward.

One step, another, and before he knows it, he is properly walking again.