A/N: I’m not sure yet, but the perspective will most likely keep cycling through the three, although I make no guarantees on the order chapters/perspectives will go in. This thing just sort of writes itself and I…go with it, but I’ll try to keep it from being the same person three times in a row or something.

 

Oh! Right. Also KakaIru, ‘cuz that’s downright adorable, even though it won’t be much talked about, and is more they’re together forever no matter what and everyone knows it.

 

Summary: A jutsu experiment sends Team 7 into a dark world where Naruto’s been hokage of the ruined Konoha since he was 13, Sasuke murdered Itachi at 9, and Sakura’s trying to kill both of them. What’s going on? And how can they get back to their own world, when they barely know how they got there in the first place? SasuNaru, SakuIno

 

 

Reality in Alteration

 

Revelation 1 - Within the Self

 

 

Sasuke examined the ruined neighborhood with a clinical eye, absorbing minutiae and adding it to the growing conglomerate he categorized as observed information. He’d been doing this for almost three hours now, sticking to the decimated southeast district of Konoha and analyzing it for clues as to what had happened inside this genjutsu to rip the Hidden Leaf Village apart so brilliantly.

 

Whatever it had been, it was big. Really big. And it hadn’t been alone.

 

The prominent tracks alone had to be forty feet wide, and appeared as if the depression had been made from something being dragged down the streets…or possibly slithered down. The second Sasuke was fairly sure were from Gama Bunta himself, although it could have been any other large amphibian. And the third, which were still coated in a decomposing milk that had crystallized in the packed dirt, was undeniably slug.

 

He didn’t know if that was good or bad. Either way, it implied that the sannin had been together in Konoha and fighting all out, full summonings and all.

 

Frowning, he trailed a hand along the slug’s track, watching the strange muddy concoction stick to his fingers. What could have made something like that happen here?

 

Or worse, who?

 

As he contemplated the new information, there was a flicker of unfamiliar chakra behind him. Unfamiliar, but also weak and not one bit hostile. Apprehensive, but nothing else worth noticing.

 

“Go away,” he stated, not even looking behind him.

 

A shift in footing- nervous, then. “But…Hokage-san requested Uchiha-san in his office immediately.” 

 

Sasuke frowned. His?

 

“Did he say what about?”

 

A gulp. “Uhm…I don’t think I should say what he said…”

 

Interesting. “Verbatim’s just fine,” he said, voice impatient as he brought the sludge closer to his eyes, trying to gage it’s age at the same time he pumped what had to be a genin (and barely that) for information about this absolutely CRAZY genjutsu.

 

“He said…he said ‘g-get that red-eyed, sc-caredy cat b-b-bastard in here now.’” Sasuke whipped around, staring at the thirteen-year-old genin, who flinched violently. “I swear that’s what he said word for word…!”

 

A smirk leaked onto his lips.

 

Naruto.

 

“Tell the idiot I’m busy,” Sasuke said, only for the genin to nearly have a heart attack on him. Sasuke rolled his eyes (something he never did when someone could actually see). What sort of idiots was Naruto training nowadays, anyway? The kid was acting like he was a homicidal maniac or something…Sasuke let out a small sigh. “I’ll be there, sooner or later. Now go.”

 

“Yes, sir!” the genin snapped an impressive-looking salute (and since when had that happened?) and flickered off.

 

Sasuke frowned at the ground. There were some very obvious, very scary things going on in this genjutsu…but they had to have done something right for Naruto to be hokage. Not that he’d admit it, of course, especially if the blonde idiot was within one hundred feet…

 

Wait. If Naruto was hokage, where was Tsunade? Or HIS Naruto, for that matter? Was there another Sasuke running around? Another Sakura? And how would he be able to tell the differences?

 

His thoughts flew in fifty different directions, but all of them told Sasuke one thing- this could be very, very bad.

 

Did the others know about this? Did they even need to? Sasuke was admittedly rather intrigued by the option of seeing the differences between hokage-Naruto and dobe-Naruto, if there was one at all. But from the way the stuttering genin sounded, hokage-Naruto probably wasn’t terribly pleased with his own Sasuke at the moment.

 

Giving up on the slug-sludge, he flicked it off his hand and looked at the wreckage once more. For safety alone, he should probably go and tell the others the rather interesting turn in the genjutsu.

 

Naruto was probably used to waiting for him, anyway. He doubted this alter-Sasuke had changed much in that area.

 

As he set off towards Team 7’s tree, he couldn’t help but wonder what this alter-Sasuke was like.

 

From that useless genin’s reactions, he was probably in a pretty high rank (not to mention if Naruto could be hokage, Sasuke HAD to be pretty high in rank, for their rivalry alone), and pretty strict too. The kid had seemed pretty intimidated…no, not intimidated…what had it been?

 

Sasuke frowned at his thoughts as he leapt over an intact portion of the wall and into the deepening forest. And when the thought finally clicked, he stopped mid-jump, barely catching another branch before nearly plummeting to the forest floor.

 

The kid hadn’t been intimidated, he’d been terrified.

 

Shaking the surprise off, he jumped back into motion, mind racing once more.

 

Was it possible for Sasuke to be that truly terrifying? To strike fear into the very people he was (most likely) a defender of?

 

The answer was almost frighteningly honest.

 

Yes.

 

A thousand ways yes.

 

…He probably didn’t want to meet this version of Uchiha Sasuke.

 

Sasuke tried to shake the ice out of his veins as he continued on towards their tree, checking the underbrush and flora for any signs of traps, any hint that someone else had passed by recently.

 

He found it in the form of one Hatake Kakashi slouching in front of him, thirty feet away from Team 7’s tree.

 

“Yo.” The same outfit, the same voice…the same Kakashi, as far as Sasuke could see. Had their old teacher followed them through the genjutsu? It was feasible, of course, but the fact Iruka-sensei-

 

Well, definitely not HIS teachers, then. One look at the Academy teacher answered the question.

 

Iruka-sensei paced at the base of the tree, far paler than the real version of himself (even Kakashi was paler, now that he was actually looking at skin tones), a defeatist set to his shoulders, but all the while keeping Sasuke in the corner of his eye, like a deer watching a predator. And when their eyes met, barely contained pain and caution boiled out at him.

 

“You look different,” Kakashi commented, ever annoyingly nonchalant.

 

“What are you two doing here?” Sasuke asked, ignoring the not-so-subtle hint that the jounin knew something was off.

 

Iruka gaped at him. Kakashi actually blinked.

 

And, not-so-surprisingly, while Sasuke took a moment to be smug about startling his teacher into BLINKING (HA! Take that, dobe!), he was thrown against the tree he stood against, Kakashi’s sharingan out and weighing him down in a violent red.

 

Immediately, his own sharingan burst to the surface, an instinctive response after years of battling Itachi, whether in his mind or the real world.

 

Again, Kakashi blinked. “You have three…”

 

…Great. This evil twin version of himself was also a wimp. No wonder Naruto was hokage, if this Sasuke couldn’t beat his rival down (as his duty demanded) anymore. The idiot’s ego was probably the side of the mountain because of it, too.

 

Warily, his teacher backed off again, staring. “Who are you?”

 

“Uchiha Sasuke,” he said calmly, and then paused. “The strong, not evil one.” It’d work as well as anything, he supposed… “What’s the situation here?”

 

And Iruka laughed, like fifty pounds of stress had just been lifted off him. “We live here, Uchiha-san,” he smiled, and Sasuke tried to ignore how weird it sounded for his old teacher to call him Uchiha-san. “We’re…mediators, of a kind.”

 

“Between who?” And why here? It would only make sense if-

 

“Between you and Naruto, and Sakura.”

 

Well then. That information was interesting and wrong on so many levels. He couldn’t figure out which was more disconcerting- who he was fighting, or who he was allied with.

 

“Naruto doesn’t know you’re here, does he?” Kakashi asked, although it hardly sounded like a question.

 

Sasuke glared. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

And they began a staring contest, both trying to judge what the hell the other was on about as Iruka let the boys’ judgment match continue, choosing to keep watch instead.

 

“Don’t attack!” An all-too-familiar kunoichi’s voice called out hurriedly, barely on top of Iruka’s shout of “Sakura inbound!”

 

Sasuke was immediately fully on guard when her pink head appeared in the area, judging for anything that would differentiate this Sakura from the one he’d entered this genjutsu with. Kakashi now the lesser threat (Sakura hit HARD), his glare shifted to the encroaching medic-nin.

 

“Who are you?” Sasuke stated, and, breath coming quickly, Sakura answered.

 

“I’m Sakura, chuunin, Team 7,” she answered, clearly being cautious about her word choice. “I- WE- came here using a genjutsu scroll from Orochimaru’s collection…”

 

She could have coerced the information from the real Sakura. She could have even done something to read Sasuke’s mind, or maybe even guessed. He didn’t know how different this genjutsu was from the real world-

 

“Haruno-san, WHAT are you wearing?!” Iruka shouted out, taking in Sakura’s outfit. The pink-haired chuunin frowned, looking down at her own outfit.

 

“Nothing new, why?”

 

That sealed it, Sasuke thought, adding a bit of a commendation to Iruka’s almost-subtle differentiation of the two. He’d always known the man was bright.

 

“Sakura,” Sasuke called out, bringing her attention back fully to him (visibly, at least). “What have you found out about the genjutsu?”

 

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but we’re real,” Kakashi called from a nearby tree branch. Iruka nodded.

 

His students blinked up at him, and Sasuke tried to keep from glaring death at Sakura. She’d matured enough to not cry from it, but she’d sulk for hours, and was probably doing that self-guilt thing enough already. If he did it to Naruto, they would just get in a good fight…hm.

 

He frowned. “Where’s Naruto?”