Chapter Text

The rain had been falling for six days straight.

Not the good kind that came with summer storms. No thunder, no wind, just this endless drizzle that got into everything. His cloak, his boots, his bones. Even his thoughts felt damp now.

He pulled the fabric tighter as he climbed the mountain path. The rocks were slick as hell. One wrong step and he'd be tumbling down the mountainside like an idiot. Not exactly the heroic end the last Uchiha deserved.

One week he'd been walking.

Not because he had to. He could've made it here in half the time if he'd really pushed. But moving meant he didn't have to think, and thinking meant facing some pretty ugly truths. Like the fact that he was twenty-four, the only Uchiha left alive, and he had absolutely nothing to show for it except a growing collection of emotional scars.

The war had ended years ago. Everyone had moved on. Konoha was thriving. Even Orochimaru had somehow talked his way back into polite society, which was honestly impressive given his track record with human experimentation.

Everyone had figured out where they belonged. Everyone except Sasuke.

Naruto got married five years ago. Big ceremony, half the village showed up. Sasuke had been invited, of course. Hell, Naruto had asked him to be best man, which was either the sweetest thing ever or the universe's idea of a sick joke. He'd made up some excuse about being on a mission. Complete lie and Naruto knew it, but what was he supposed to say? That watching his best friend marry someone else would probably kill him.

So, he'd hidden in the trees like some creepy stalker and watched Naruto promise to love Hinata forever. Watched him mean every word of it.

They had kids now. Boruto, who was basically Naruto in miniature, all energy and big dreams and zero sense of self-preservation. And Himawari, who laughed whenever her dad picked her up like it was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Every time Sasuke saw them together, this perfect little family, something inside him died a little more.

Sometimes, usually around three in the morning when sleep was being particularly elusive, he'd let himself imagine how things could've been different. If his family hadn't been murdered. If he hadn't spent his teenage years completely consumed by revenge. If he'd been normal enough to want normal things without feeling like he was betraying everyone who'd died.

In that imaginary world, maybe he would've been brave enough to tell Naruto how he really felt. Maybe they could've built something together. Adopted kids, given them the kind of childhood neither of them had gotten.

But that was fantasy. Reality had moved on without him.

Kakashi was still Hokage, though everyone knew he was basically training Naruto for the job. Naruto would take over when he was ready and become everything he'd dreamed of. Village leader, family man, beloved by everyone. His kids would grow up safe and happy, never knowing what it felt like to be the last of anything.

And Sasuke would keep wandering. Taking missions that couldn't officially exist, the kind that sent him to the ass-end of nowhere for months at a time. Shadow Hokage, they called him. Handling the problems too dirty or too dangerous for the village to acknowledge. The irony wasn't lost on him. He'd spent so many years trying to step out of his brother's shadow, only to become one himself. An invisible guardian doing invisible work, protecting people who would never know his name.

Coming back to Konoha only when duty demanded it, watching Naruto's life expand into the light while his own contracted to nothing but empty roads and emptier rooms.

Sakura ran the medical research division now. Worked with Tsunade, saved lives and actually made a real difference. She'd invited him over for dinner after his last mission debrief. Her eyes had been bright with hope, and it made his stomach twist into knots.

Not because he thought she was still hung up on him romantically. Thank God, those days were over. He loved her like a sister, always had. But sitting around her dinner table, pretending to be normal, acting like he could handle domestic life in Konoha... it felt wrong. Like playing house in the village that had killed his family and never even apologized for it. Never honored Itachi as they should, and no one other than Danzo had to pay for their crimes, and only because Sasuke had killed him himself. The village would never have pursued justice on their own. It nauseated him

So, he'd said no as gently as he could. Made up some story about having other plans. Watched her face fall in that way she'd perfected over the years, where she smiled but her eyes went flat.

She deserved someone who could love her properly. Someone whose idea of a good time didn't involve brooding on rooftops for hours.

Even Kakashi seemed happy these days. Actually, enjoyed being Hokage instead of just enduring it. Spent his mornings dealing with village politics and his afternoons training kids who looked at him like he hung the moon.

They'd all learned how to live with their scars.

Sasuke had only learned how to carry his.

The ache of being seven and finding his parents lying dead in their own homes, blood soaking into floors where he'd played as a child. Seventeen years of carrying hate around like a second skeleton. The pain was constant now. The crushing realization that revenge was just an empty cup that would never get filled, no matter how much blood you poured into it. Seventeen years of being the only one left to remember what his family had been like when they were alive.

Every breath reminded him that when he died, two hundred years of Uchiha history died with him.

Some nights, when the loneliness got so bad he could barely breathe, he wondered if that wouldn't be easier for everyone. Easier for him too. Sometimes dying felt like the only way to stop being the last one left.

Sasuke stopped at a bend in the trail. His lungs were burning. The air up here was thin, biting with snow and stone. Below him, the forest stretched out like a green ocean that would swallow any trace he'd ever existed. Above, storm clouds gathered around the peak like a gray crown.

His fingers found the scroll tucked inside his vest. The only thing he'd taken from the Uchiha compound before leaving Konoha. His father's handwriting, neat and careful, describing some place that existed between worlds. A seal that could bring back the dead if you were willing to pay the price.

The cost is the body. The bond is eternal. The key is you.

For months he'd told himself it was probably bullshit. Another dead end in a lifetime full of them. But the loneliness kept getting worse, and he kept coming back to those words. Plus, something had been tugging at him lately. Something his Rinnegan picked up in the spaces between dimensions, like a wound in reality that only his eyes could see.

The key is you.

What if his dad had meant something specific? What if the key wasn't power or knowledge, but just being the last one left? What if all this isolation actually qualified him for something?

He remembered the last real conversation he'd had with Naruto. Hospital roof, sunset making Konoha look like it was made of gold. Naruto had been quiet, which was always a bad sign. Just stood there with his hands in his pockets, staring out at his village.

Hinata had called for him from somewhere below. Dinner was ready. Sasuke watched Naruto's whole face soften at the sound, and it hurt worse than any jutsu ever had.

"Do you ever think about it?" Naruto had asked suddenly, still staring out at the village instead of meeting Sasuke's eyes. "What we could've been if things were different? If you'd settled down here and we'd worked together as best friends instead of always apart."

Sasuke had known exactly what he meant, even if they weren't thinking of the same thing. Could feel all the words they'd never said hanging between them, all the possibilities that had died when Sasuke chose the road over home. For half a second, he'd almost done it. Almost let his truth spill out.

I think about it every damn day. I think about waking up next to you, about kids we could raise together, about not having to carry all this alone.

But Naruto was talking about brotherhood, about the close friendship they'd never had the chance to build. He was content with Hinata, happy with his life. He just wanted his best friend to stick around, to be part of that happiness instead of always disappearing into the shadows.

What could Sasuke offer to that life? A blood-stained name, a future full of missions too dark for Konoha to acknowledge, love that Naruto didn't even want. Naruto deserved to keep his contentment. Deserved to have his best friend without the complication of feelings that would only make everything harder.

So instead, he'd deflected and made some comment about missions and responsibilities. Watched Naruto's face close off with that same disappointment he wore whenever Sasuke chose leaving over staying, duty over friendship.

Sasuke had said no. Again. Because watching Naruto build a family with someone else, someone good and pure who deserved him, was torture he couldn't handle. He'd watched Naruto's shoulders slump before he disappeared down the stairs, heading home to chaos and laughter and all the little moments that made life worth living.

That night, Sasuke had left Konoha without saying goodbye.

It wasn't the first time, but it felt different. Final. Like he'd burned the last bridge and was walking toward something that could only end one way.

The temple appeared out of the mist like something from a fever dream.

It wasn't what he'd expected at all. The scroll had talked about ancient architecture, pillars reaching toward the sky, stones that supposedly sang with power. What he found was a ruin. Still beautiful but completely broken down. Vines had taken over the outer walls, and their leaves had gone black from something he couldn't identify. Half the roof had caved in, leaving holes where you might see stars if the sky wasn't so cloudy.

But it was alive. He could feel it humming beneath his feet, a vibration so low it was more sensation than sound. His chakra responded without his permission, rising to meet whatever energy pulsed within those crumbling walls.

He walked up to the entrance slowly. There were statues on either side of the doorway, or what was left of them. Time had worn away most of their features, leaving just suggestions of faces and hands and maybe wings. But their eyes were still intact. Carved from some dark stone that seemed to eat light, and they tracked his movement in a way that made his skin crawl.

You're being dramatic, he told himself. They're just stones.

But when he stepped through the doorway, the eyes blinked.

Inside was one massive circular room, open to the sky through the holes in the roof. Water dripped steadily from above, keeping time like a slow heartbeat. The floor was covered in intricate patterns that radiated out from a central altar carved from what looked like a single piece of black stone.

The scroll had mentioned symbols, but he hadn't expected them to move. Golden lines flowed across the walls like liquid light, forming shapes that made his head hurt if he looked too long. They pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat, getting brighter as he got closer to the altar.

This stuff was older than the Sharingan. Older than chakra itself. It felt like it belonged to some other world entirely. The symbols kept shifting when he wasn't looking directly at them, rearranging themselves into patterns that made him dizzy. But there was meaning in the movement, purpose in what looked like chaos. Like they were reading him while he was trying to read them.

When he knelt in front of the altar, the stone was warm against his knees. Not sun-warm, but alive-warm. Like kneeling in front of something that breathed.

He put the scroll on the smooth black surface. The paper seemed to melt into the stone, absorbed like water into sand. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then everything shifted.

Not movement exactly. More like reality had been slightly out of focus and someone had just adjusted the lens. The shadows got deeper. The golden symbols flared brighter. And somewhere between one heartbeat and the next, Sasuke felt something huge and hungry turn its attention toward him.

"Well, this is interesting."

The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, vibrating through the stone, through his bones, through the places where his chakra lived. Male, amused, and completely unconcerned with things like physics or mortality.

"I was expecting someone different."

Sasuke stood up slowly, hand moving toward his sword out of habit. "Show yourself."

The laughter that echoed through the chamber wasn't mocking. It was genuinely delighted, like the sound of someone who'd just discovered the perfect punchline to a joke that had been building for centuries. But there was something unhinged about it too, something that spoke of divine power and the kind of isolation that could drive even gods mad. The laughter of someone who'd been alone too long and found the universe's sense of humor both terrible and perfect.

"Oh, this is going to be fun."

The air in front of the altar started shimmering like heat waves. Slowly, a figure took shape from the bottom up. Bare feet on stone, long legs in dark clothes, lean torso that suggested he was stronger than he looked. When the materialization reached his face, Sasuke felt his breath catch.

The guy was otherworldly in a way that seemed deliberately unfair. White hair that caught the golden light like spun silver. Features angled enough to cut glass, chiseled with the kind of precision that spoke of divine craftsmanship. A black blindfold covered his eyes, but somehow Sasuke knew he was being seen, catalogued, weighed and measured. Completely exposed.

There was something in the way he held himself, a tension that hadn't been there a second ago. Like Sasuke's appearance had caught him off guard too.

"Makes two of us," Sasuke said, proud his voice stayed calm and assured.

The man tilted his head, taking in Sasuke's appearance with obvious interest. There was something almost hungry in the way he looked, like he was seeing something he'd been searching for. They were complete opposites, where Sasuke was all elegant lines and angelic features and that ethereal beauty people always stared at, that godlike man was sharp angles and divine perfection.

"Mutual disappointment then?" Gojo said with amusement. "Though I have to say, you're handling this better than most. And you might actually be able to handle seeing me properly." He paused, reaching up to touch the edge of his blindfold. "These eyes of mine tend to be a bit much for mortals."

"What do you mean?"

"These eyes of mine... they tend to overwhelm people. Drive them insane, burn out their minds, that sort of thing." His fingers hesitated at the fabric. "But you... you have the Sharingan. Eyes that have seen horrors most people couldn't imagine. Eyes that process reality itself." Wonder crept into his voice. "I'm curious..."

Before Sasuke could respond, the man pulled away the blindfold.

The eyes that met his were impossible. Not just blue, but the color of infinity itself. Like looking into space between stars, into the math that held reality together. They were beautiful and terrible and godly, and Sasuke felt their weight settle over him like a physical thing.

Blue eyes. But nothing like Naruto's. Not warm like summer sky or bright with impossible dreams. These were the blue of eternity, of power that could reshape worlds. Where Naruto's eyes had always looked toward horizons Sasuke couldn't reach, these looked straight into him, seeing everything he was and wanting it anyway.

But he didn't look away. Couldn't. Both his eyes activated on their own. Sharingan spinning to life in his right eye, crimson and precise, while his Rinnegan awakened in his left, purple rings rippling outward like disturbed water. Instead of his usual clinical analysis, he felt something like recognition. Like his eyes were finally seeing something worth their power, something that existed in the spaces between worlds that only his Rinnegan could perceive.

"Incredible," the man breathed, stepping closer. His divine gaze was fixed on the mismatched display. "Sharingan and Rinnegan. I wondered why the dimensional barriers bent around you so easily. You don't just see reality, do you? You see through it."

"What are you?"

"Gojo Satoru. Former strongest sorcerer in my world, current prisoner of this delightful pocket dimension, and apparently your new business partner." He gestured casually, and suddenly he was holding two steaming cups of tea. Offered one to Sasuke like they were having coffee instead of whatever this was.

Sasuke didn't take the tea. "I came here for resurrection. For my clan."

"I know." Gojo took a sip from his own cup, those impossible eyes watching Sasuke over the rim. "Terrible tea, by the way. You'd think ancient mystical seals would have better hospitality."

"Can you, do it? Bring them back?"

Gojo was quiet for a moment, thinking. When he spoke again, his voice had lost some of its playful edge. "Power? Absolutely. The knowledge to reshape reality, bend life and death? Child's play. But..."

"But?"

"The seal doesn't work that way. It's not some cosmic vending machine where you insert suffering and get miracles. It's a contract. A binding agreement between equals."

Sasuke's jaw clenched. "Equals? That's generous."

"No," Gojo agreed, and there was something almost gentle in his voice. "You're not. You're much more interesting."

The golden symbols on the walls pulsed brighter, and Sasuke felt that weird heat flicker again. Stronger this time, spreading from his core outward like warm honey in his veins.

"What's happening to me?"

Gojo set down his teacup and stepped closer, making a face. "Seriously, this tea is offensive. You'd think ancient cosmic forces would have better taste." He cocked his head, those infinity eyes studying Sasuke with the kind of fascination usually reserved for particularly interesting insects. "The seal is reading you, by the way. Like a really invasive personality quiz that goes straight to your soul. Learning what you are, what you need, what daddy issues you're carrying around. And what it's finding is..." He grinned, genuinely delighted. "Absolutely fascinating."

"Explain."

"Oh, this is good." Gojo started pacing, gesturing wildly like he was giving a lecture to an invisible audience. "So, you came here seeking power to resurrect your dead. Very tragic hero, very 'I must bear this burden alone,' very brooding on clifftops in the rain. Classic stuff, really. Most people who find this place? Total revenge fantasies. They want to burn everything down, make the world pay, become dark lords of destruction, blah blah blah." He waved a hand dismissively. "Boring. Predictable. Usually ends with them getting eaten by their own power because they're too stupid to handle it."

He stopped pacing and fixed Sasuke with that divine stare. "But you? You beautiful, tragic disaster? You came here out of love. Not the fun kind of love, mind you. The absolutely devastating, 'I-would-rather-die-than-let-them-stay-dead' kind of love that makes gods weep and cosmic forces go 'aww, that's adorable and heartbreaking.'" His voice dropped to something almost reverent. "You're not trying to destroy anything. You want to create. To give. To sacrifice yourself so others can exist again. Do you have any idea how rare that is?"

Sasuke felt the truth settle into his bones like ice water. Not because the words were wrong, but because they were so completely right it made him feel exposed down to his soul. If he'd found this place as a teenager, he would've been exactly what Gojo described. Someone seeking power for destruction, willing to trade his body for the ability to burn down everything that had hurt his clan.

He would've approached this altar with murder in his heart and revenge in his hands. He would've demanded power to resurrect his family so they could watch him destroy the village that had orchestrated their massacre. He would've wanted to bring back his parents, his aunts and uncles, everyone who'd died, and then burn Konoha to the ground for what they'd allowed to happen.

But somewhere between revenge and redemption, between hatred and exhaustion, he'd changed. The boy who'd wanted to make the world bleed had become a man who just wanted the silence to end. The need to destroy had turned into a desperate desire to create something, anything, that would prove his family had mattered.

Sasuke's hand moved restlessly to his sword hilt. "You don't know shit about what I want."

"Don't I?" Gojo's smile was razor-edged, but there was something softer underneath. "You want someone to see you. Really see you, not as the last Uchiha or the rogue ninja or the tragic little boy who lost everything. You want to be known. Understood. Claimed."

The word settled over Sasuke like a blanket he hadn't realized he needed. His throat felt tight suddenly, memories surfacing without permission. Naruto's face when he'd announced he was leaving Konoha again. The way Sakura's smile had died when he'd turned down her dinner invitation. The empty rooms of the compound where laughter had died with his clan.

But deeper than that, older memories surfaced. The way he'd always felt like he was wearing a costume that didn't quite fit. The restlessness that had driven him from village to village, mission to mission, always searching for something he couldn't name. The way his body had always felt wrong somehow, like he was living in someone else's skin.

And then, like a door creaking open in his mind, he remembered Sakura's last examination.

Months ago. Routine check after a particularly nasty mission. Her hands had glowed green as she'd run them over his body, and he'd noticed her frown of confusion. She'd been quiet too long, her chakra probing deeper than usual, checking and double-checking her readings.

"Sasuke," she'd said finally, her voice carefully professional, "I'm seeing some anomalies in your chakra system. Unusual patterns I haven't encountered before."

He'd gone tense then. "Anomalies how?"

"Your chakra flow is... different. Not damaged, just altered. Like your body's going through some kind of transition." She'd paused, medical instruments humming as she took more readings. "There are hormonal fluctuations that don't match any normal baseline I've seen. And these energy patterns..." Her brow had furrowed deeper. "It's like something in your system is trying to wake up."

"Wake up?"

"I don't know what else to call it. The readings suggest your body's preparing for some kind of biological change, but I can't identify what type. It's unlike anything in the medical texts." She'd looked genuinely puzzled, the kind of expression she wore when facing a condition she couldn't diagnose. "I'd like to run more comprehensive tests. Full hormonal panel, detailed chakra mapping, maybe even some of the older genetic screenings..."

But he'd already been putting his shirt back on, already making excuses about missions and obligations. The idea that there might be something else hidden inside him, some other way he was fundamentally different from everyone around him, had been too much. He'd left Konoha that same night, and Sakura's worried face had haunted him for weeks.

Now, standing in this ancient temple with a god's attention focused on him like a laser, those memories came flooding back. The tests Sakura had wanted to run. The way she'd looked at him like he was a puzzle missing pieces. The readings that had suggested something trying to wake up in his system.

"That appointment with Sakura," he said suddenly, the words spilling out before he could stop them. "She said my chakra was changing. That something was trying to wake up. But she didn't know what."

Gojo's expression grew serious, but there was something like satisfaction in his eyes. "Of course she didn't. Medical knowledge in your world focuses on chakra and jutsu. But what you're describing..." He stepped closer, and Sasuke caught his scent again. Something that made his newly stirring instincts sing with recognition. "Those were the early signs of a biological awakening that happens maybe once in a generation."

"What kind of awakening?"

"And more than that," Gojo continued, his voice dropping to something almost intimate, "you want to stop being alone. You've been carrying the weight of your entire bloodline since you were seven years old, and you're so tired you can barely stand up. You want someone strong enough to help carry it."

The heat was spreading faster now, and with it came a scent. Ozone and snow and something else entirely. Sasuke's chakra was responding to it, rising and falling in patterns he'd never felt before.

"The seal," he said, voice rough. "What's it doing?"

Gojo's expression grew serious. "It's waking up something that's been sleeping inside you for a very long time. Something your grief and isolation kept buried." He paused. "Tell me, Sasuke, when was the last time you felt safe enough to want something just for yourself?"

The question made something crack inside his chest. Sasuke found himself pressing back against the wall, needing the solid stone to ground him. Images flashed through his mind. Naruto's disappointed face, Sakura's careful smiles, empty rooms where ghosts lived.

"I don't..."

"You do," Gojo said softly. "You came here because you're tired of being strong. Tired of being untouchable. Tired of pretending that independence and suffering are the same thing."

The golden light pulsed again, and this time Sasuke felt it inside him, warmth that settled low in his belly and refused to leave. His breathing grew shallow.

"What did you do to me?"

"Nothing you didn't ask for." Gojo approached slowly, but there was something almost predatory in his grace now. Like a cat that had found the world's most interesting mouse. "The seal responds to truth, Sasuke. Cold, hard, absolutely-can't-hide-from-it truth. And your truth is..." He paused dramatically, clearly enjoying himself. "You're not just the last Uchiha. You're something so much rarer than that. Something that's been sleeping so long, most people have forgotten it exists."

Sasuke's knees felt weak. He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the cold stone floor, staring at nothing. "What are you talking about?"

Oh, this is the best part!" Gojo clapped his hands together like a delighted child. "See, being trapped between dimensions teaches you things that both our worlds have forgotten. Back when the universe was younger and more interesting, certain individuals were special beyond their bloodlines. Your people have traces of it, mine did too, but it's all dormant now, like genetic echoes of something that once mattered."

He leaned forward, eyes bright with the kind of knowledge that came from cosmic imprisonment. "But when you're stuck between realities for who knows how long, when you're stripped down to your very essence... you start to understand what you really are. What I really am." His grin turned a little unhinged. "I became a true alpha in that space between worlds, Sasuke. And you... "

The world started to spin.

"That's impossible," Sasuke whispered.

"Is it though?" Gojo settled more comfortably on the floor, like they were having a casual chat instead of discussing reality-altering genetics. "Think about it. I mean, really think. The way you've never quite fit anywhere, never felt comfortable in groups. Like you were always wearing clothes that didn't quite fit right, you know? The way your chakra has always been just a little too responsive, a little too fluid. Hell, the way you've always been drawn to people with a strong presence."

He started counting on his fingers with theatrical seriousness. "Orochimaru—definitely alpha vibes, very possessive. Itachi—protective alpha energy, though the whole 'murder your family' thing was probably confusing for your instincts. Even Naruto, in his own chaotic way, has that 'I will fight the world for you' alpha thing going on." Gojo grinned even wider. "You were unconsciously seeking alphas, beautiful. But trauma has this nasty way of burying inconvenient truths under about seventeen layers of 'nope, not dealing with that today.'"

Sasuke's throat felt tight. "I would have known. There would've been signs..."

"There were," Gojo said gently. "But you were too busy surviving to recognize them. Tell me, what did you think was happening during that medical examination with Sakura? When she found readings she couldn't explain?"

The memory surfaced again with sudden, terrible clarity. Sakura's confused expression, the way she'd mentioned his body preparing for some kind of biological change, readings that suggested something trying to wake up.

She had no idea what was happening to me," Sasuke said, the pieces clicking together.

Gojo knelt in front of him, close enough that Sasuke could feel his warmth. "But I did. The moment your scent reached me

"Your body was trying to tell you what it needed. Who it needed."

"And that's you?" The words came out shakier than he intended.

Gojo's smile turned radiant, like someone had just handed him the universe's best present. "Oh, Sasuke. Sweet, traumatized, absolutely gorgeous Sasuke." He spread his arms wide in a gesture that was pure theatrical nonsense. "I'm not just any alpha. I'm what you might call the alpha alpha. The strongest sorcerer in my world, with power that could reshape reality and a complete inability to understand why that wasn't enough."

He leaned closer, voice dropping to something more intimate but still carrying that edge of controlled chaos. "See, I spent years—decades, really—wondering why I felt like something was missing. Here I was, literally the most powerful person alive, could do anything I wanted, had students who thought I hung the moon, and yet..." He made a vague gesture at his chest. "Empty. Like there was this Gojo-shaped hole in my soul that no amount of godlike power could fill."

"So you were searching too."

"Without even knowing it!" Gojo laughed, delighted by the revelation. "I thought maybe I just needed better hobbies. Tried collecting vintage sunglasses—didn't work. Considered taking up pottery and was terrible at it. Even thought about getting a pet, but honestly, what kind of pet can handle a god? The logistics alone..." He waved a hand frivolously.

His face changed then, still had that manic edge but something more serious underneath. "But when you triggered that seal, when I caught your scent across dimensions and whatever the hell I was trapped in..." He got quieter. "It was like every light in the universe suddenly turned on at once. My soul practically screamed 'THERE. THAT ONE. THAT'S MINE.'"

He grinned, showing too many teeth. "Bit possessive of me, really. But what can I say? Alpha instincts don't exactly come with an instruction manual on healthy relationship dynamics."

Sasuke stared at him, the truth settling in. "The bond..."

"The bond! Right!" Gojo clapped again, looking way too excited about this. "Okay so here's the thing. That seal? It's not like some magical vending machine where you shove in your sad backstory and get dead people back. Nah, it's completely fucked up in the best way."

He started pacing again, gesturing wildly. "It's a contract! A binding agreement between equals (well, not equals exactly, you're much more fascinating than most people) but between two souls that complement each other perfectly. You called for resurrection, but what your gorgeous, desperate little soul actually summoned was a mate bond."

He spun around to face Sasuke, grinning like a maniac. "The most powerful kind of magic there is! The universe literally looked at your request, looked at me sitting here being a tragic imprisoned god, and went 'Oh, I see what's happening here. These two idiots are meant for each other.'"

"I didn't consent to that." But even as he said it, Sasuke knew it wasn't true. Not really.

"Didn't you though?" Gojo's voice went gentle, but there was still that edge of divine amusement. "You came here knowing the cost would be your body. You offered yourself to an unknown power without reservation, no questions asked, ready to sacrifice everything for love." He learned forward. "That sounds like consent to me. Very dramatic, very romantic consent."

His expression grew more serious, though the chaotic energy never quite left his eyes. "Your soul recognized what it needed and reached across dimensions to find it. And lucky for both of us, what you needed was a god with abandonment issues and a savior complex." He paused. "Actually, when I put it like that, we sound perfect for each other."

Sasuke closed his eyes. The heat was constant now, a low burn that made every nerve ending hypersensitive. He could practically feel Gojo's presence against his skin, invasive and overwhelming, but instead of wanting to get away, he found himself leaning into it

"Or?" he asked.

"Or you accept it. Let the bond form completely. Let me help you understand what you are, what you can become. And in return..."

"In return?"

Gojo's smile was soft and terrible and full of promise. "In return, I give you power beyond imagining. The ability to resurrect your clan not by raising the dead, but through creation. Children born of your line, carrying forward everything your family was meant to be."

Sasuke's eyes snapped open. "Children?"

"Omega genetics are fascinating," Gojo said conversationally. "Especially rare ones like yours. Your bloodline won't just survive. It'll thrive. The Sharingan, the chakra control, the raw potential... all of it passed down through offspring that will reshape the ninja world."

"But that would mean..."

"Accepting me as your alpha. Letting the bond complete itself. Becoming something more than human." Gojo's voice dropped to a whisper. "Becoming mine."

The word resonated through Sasuke’s entire body, and he felt something deep inside him shiver and yearn, a longing so intense it nearly brought tears to his eyes. To belong to someone. To be wanted not for what he could do, but for what he was.

And suddenly, he was somewhere else. Though he was awake and still sitting on the cold stone floor of an ancient temple. The vision that came was so vivid, so real, that for a moment he forgot where he was.

He was in Konoha, but not the Konoha he knew. This one was golden with spring, wind in the trees slow and warm, light streaming through windows like a home he'd never had. There was laughter somewhere behind him. High-pitched, childlike, full of joy.

He turned.

A boy with dark hair and bright eyes ran across a yard, barefoot and laughing, calling out a name he couldn't quite catch. The kid had Sasuke's features but softer somehow, unmarked by tragedy. He was happy.

Sasuke followed the sound, suddenly barefoot himself, grass cool under his feet. The house wasn't the Uchiha compound. It was smaller, simpler and felt alive. He stepped through the open door.

And Naruto was there.

Not the Hokage-in-training weighed down by responsibility, but Naruto as he could've been. Holding a basket of oranges, smiling like he'd been waiting years to do it, surrounded by the warm chaos of domestic life.

The boy came running in, ducking behind Naruto's legs and giggling. "Papa!"

Naruto reached down and ruffled the boy's hair with such natural affection that Sasuke's chest ached. Then Naruto looked up, straight at Sasuke, and smiled.

"Welcome home."

But even as the vision filled him with impossible warmth, Sasuke felt it begin to fade. The child's laughter grew distant. Naruto's smile blurred at the edges. And slowly, reluctantly, he was pulled back to the cold stone of the temple.

"You saw it, didn't you?" Gojo's voice was quiet, understanding. "The life you could've had."

Sasuke's throat was tight. "It wasn't real."

"But was it really fake? This bond doesn't just tie us together, Sasuke. It opens things up. Shows you what could be, what might've been." Gojo's face got serious then. "Maybe that life is still waiting for you. Just not how you imagined it."

"This is insane," Sasuke said weakly.

"Probably," Gojo agreed cheerfully. "But it's also the only chance your bloodline has. And maybe..." His voice gentled again. "Maybe it's the only chance you have to stop hurting."

Sasuke looked up at him. This impossible man with his otherworldly beauty and casual cruelty and surprising kindness, whose godly eyes held depths that spoke of power beyond comprehension. He thought of Naruto, of the life they might've had if things had been different. He thought of his empty compound, his endless wandering, the weight of being the last of everything. He thought of all the pain he'd carried. Not just the massacre, but every day since. The loneliness that had eaten him alive from the inside. The way he'd learned to carry grief like a second skin. The exhaustion of being strong when all he'd ever wanted was to be whole.

"If I agree," he said slowly, "what happens to me?"

Gojo's smile was glowing. "You become everything you were always meant to be. Powerful. Cherished. Loved."

The last word hung in the air between them like a promise.

Sasuke took a shaky breath and nodded.

The moment his consent crystallized in his mind, everything went white.

The seal didn't just activate. It exploded. Golden light everywhere, so bright he couldn't see, couldn't think, could barely breathe. Like someone had compressed infinity into his skull. Sasuke felt something snap into place inside him, some kind of chain or cord that wasn't restrictive but connecting. Like finally being tethered to something solid after floating in space for years.

Gojo was watching him with an intensity that felt like being under a microscope. There was something almost hungry in the way he looked, like Sasuke was doing something impossible and fascinating. Which, honestly, he probably was. Most people would be screaming right now.

But Sasuke just let it happen. What else could he do?

His body started changing. Not like a seizure exactly, more like every cell was rearranging itself. Heat flooded through him, pooling low in his belly in ways that made him want to curl up and hide. Something was happening to his scent glands. He could feel them waking up for the first time. And his chakra... his chakra felt completely different. Like someone had taken his usual precise, electric energy and turned it into something warm and flowing and infinitely more powerful.

The discomfort was strange. Not the kind he was used to, not like getting stabbed or burned or having bones broken. This was deeper. Like someone was taking apart his body and putting it back together the right way for the first time. His whole sense of who he was started shifting, rebuilding itself around this new information.

He wasn't just Sasuke Uchiha anymore. Last of his clan, eternal wanderer, professional brooder. He was a rare omega. Had always been one, apparently, just too fucked up to realize it.

The knowledge settled over him like coming home to a house he'd forgotten he'd ever lived in. Familiar and strange at the same time.

Through it all, Gojo stayed right there with him. Solid and sure when everything else was falling apart. Sasuke could feel him, this steady presence that somehow made the chaos bearable. Like he'd been missing something his whole life and just now figured out what it was.

When the light finally faded, Sasuke found himself lying on the stone floor, gasping. His entire body felt different. Hyperaware and alive in ways he'd never experienced. The world looked brighter, clearer, smelled richer, meant more.

Every breath brought new information. The age of the stones, the mineral content of the water dripping from above, the complex symphony of Gojo's scent that made his newly awakened instincts sing with recognition.

Gojo knelt beside him, no longer keeping his distance. "How do you feel?"

Sasuke tried to speak and found his voice caught somewhere between a whimper and a moan. Everything was too much and not enough at the same time. He needed... something. Someone.

"Alpha," he whispered, and the word felt like coming home.

The sound that came out of him was soft, vulnerable, completely unlike anything an Uchiha was supposed to make. Warmth rushed to his cheeks, embarrassment warring with how right the moment felt. Uchihas didn't make soft, needy sounds. But apparently, this Uchiha did. Apparently, this was who he'd always been underneath all that careful control.

Gojo's smile was fierce and tender and completely satisfied. "There you are," he murmured. "My beautiful omega. My impossible gift."

He helped Sasuke sit up, strong hands gentle but sure. "Your body needs time to adjust. Your instincts are still figuring themselves out. But you're mine now, Sasuke. In every way that matters."

Sasuke leaned into the touch without thinking about it, drawn by something deeper than conscious thought. "What happens now?" The words came out breathier than he intended, tinged with a need he couldn't hide, and he felt another flush of embarrassment at how desperate he sounded.

"Now," Gojo said, gathering him close, "we wait for your heat to start. And then..." His voice dropped to something dark and promising. "Then we make sure the Uchiha bloodline never dies."

Outside the temple, the rain kept falling. But inside, wrapped in his alpha's arms for the first time in his life, Sasuke finally felt warm.

For the first time in years, he wasn't thinking about death or duty or the weight of names carved in stone. He was thinking about tomorrow, about kids who might carry his eyes and Gojo's strength, about a future that stretched beyond revenge and redemption into something that looked almost like happiness.

The bond hummed between them, settling deeper with each breath. And in that ancient place where gods had once walked, something new was beginning.

Chapter 2: What He Left Behind - Preview

Naruto woke up to silence.

For as long as he could remember, there'd been something there. Not physical exactly, but present. The distant but constant awareness that somewhere in the world, Sasuke existed.

It was gone.

Not faded or distant. Just... gone. Like a light that had been burning so long he'd stopped noticing it until someone blew it out.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: What He Left Behind

Naruto woke up to silence.

Which was weird, because silence wasn't really a thing in his life anymore. Between Hinata's soft breathing, the kids making noise down the hall, neighbors starting their day... there was always something. But this felt different. Empty. Like someone had reached into his chest and flicked off a switch.

It took him a second to figure out what was wrong. Everything looked normal enough. Same bedroom ceiling, same shadows on the walls, same sounds drifting up from the street. Hinata was still asleep next to him, one arm thrown across his chest, wedding ring catching the little bit of light coming through the curtains.

Everything was exactly like it should be.

Except for this hollow ache behind his ribs that felt like losing a piece of his soul.

He sat up carefully, trying not to wake Hinata, and pressed his hand to his chest. For as long as he could remember, there'd been something there. Not physical exactly, but real. Like a warm spot, a certainty. The distant but constant awareness that somewhere in the world, Sasuke existed.

It was gone.

Not faded or muffled or distant. Just gone. Like a candle that'd been burning so long he'd stopped noticing it until someone blew it out.

That's when the memories came flooding back. How many times had that connection saved both their asses? During the war, Naruto had felt Sasuke approaching long before he'd actually seen him. That familiar chakra cutting through all the battlefield chaos like a lifeline. And when Naruto got banged up during that diplomatic disaster in the Mist, Sasuke had somehow just known. He'd appeared out of thin air like he'd been called.

It wasn't conscious. More like instinct. The certainty that somewhere out there, the other half of his soul was in trouble.

The bond had been uniquely theirs for years. Not romantic. He had buried those feelings so deep he'd almost convinced himself they'd never existed. But it was deeper than friendship. Deeper than brotherhood even. They were two parts of something that got broken early and never quite figured out how to exist separately.

But loving Sasuke the way he really wanted to... that was never going to happen. There was the village to think about, his dreams of being Hokage and what everyone expected from him. There was Sasuke's past as a traitor and criminal and the political nightmare it would've been. And honestly, Naruto had never been brave enough to risk what they did have by asking for more.

He didn't want Sasuke to walk away from him again because he honestly didn't know if he could handle that.

So he'd taken the easier route. Marriage to someone kind and stable who loved him unconditionally. Kids who'd carry on his legacy and a life that looked exactly like what everyone wanted from a future Hokage. And he'd told himself it was enough. That the quiet contentment he felt with Hinata was the same as the soul-burning connection he'd shared with Sasuke.

But his failure went deeper than just being a coward about his feelings. He'd never fought for justice for Sasuke's clan either. Never pushed the village to acknowledge the massacre, never demanded reparations or even an apology. He never fought to clear Itachi's name. To honor him as the hero who'd saved Konoha from civil war and helped stop Kabuto's Edo Tensei with Sasuke during the war. He was the village hero, the golden boy whose word carried weight. If anyone could've forced Konoha to face what they'd done, to give Itachi the recognition he deserved, it was him.

Instead, he'd hoped Sasuke would just forgive and move on. Hoped their bond would be enough to heal wounds that needed justice.

The truth was uglier than just political convenience. Part of him was terrified that pushing too hard and demanding too much from the village that'd finally accepted him, would make him an outcast again. He'd spent his childhood being hated and feared. The idea of losing his place, his belonging, his home... it paralyzed him. So he stayed quiet about the stuff that mattered, choosing his own security over the justice Sasuke deserved. He told himself when he became Hokage he would change things.

He'd almost believed it too. Until now, when losing that connection made him realize how much of himself he'd buried alongside those inconvenient feelings and uncomfortable truths.

Naruto remembered being twelve, sitting alone in his crappy apartment, and suddenly knowing with absolute certainty that Sasuke was crying somewhere. Found him the next morning at the memorial stone, red-eyed and withdrawn, mourning parents he barely remembered.

He remembered being fifteen and waking from nightmares about snakes and laboratories, only to learn weeks later that Sasuke had escaped Orochimaru's compound that same night.

He remembered being nineteen, standing at his own wedding ceremony, when he'd felt this pulse of pride and loss so deep it stole his breath. It wasn't until months later he learned Sasuke had been watching from the treeline. Had seen Naruto commit to a life they'd never be able to share. Not just because of fear or politics, but because of the fundamental impossibility neither of them could voice. Sasuke could never truly live in Konoha, and Naruto could never leave it. The village that was Naruto's greatest dream would always be Sasuke's nightmare.

Their connection had been his compass, his early warning system, proof that no matter how far apart they were, they belonged to each other.

And now it was gone.

Panic rose in his throat, sharp and immediate. He stumbled out of bed, bare feet hitting the cold floor, and reached out with his chakra. Searching. Feeling for that familiar signature that had been his anchor for so many years.

Nothing.

The connection that'd survived Sasuke's defection, the war, years of separation and stubborn silence, had just ended. Just like that.

"Naruto?" Hinata's voice was soft, concerned. "What's wrong?"

He turned to find her watching with those pale eyes that saw too much. Hair mussed from sleep, but already sitting up, instantly alert to his distress.

"I can't feel him," Naruto said, voice rough with confusion and terror. "Sasuke. I can't... the connection is just gone."

"When did you last sense him?" Hinata asked gently.

"Yesterday. Maybe the day before. It's always there, I don't usually..." Naruto dragged his hands through his hair, trying to think. "I don't actively monitor it, you know? It's just background noise. But when I woke up this morning, it was completely gone."

Hinata was already getting dressed, moving with the efficient grace of someone who'd been a shinobi long before she'd been a wife and mother. "Get dressed. We need to see Kakashi."

The Hokage's office at dawn wasn't a place Naruto wanted to be unless someone was dying.

Kakashi looked up from a pile of reports as Naruto burst through the door without knocking, Hinata close behind. The older man took one look at Naruto's disheveled appearance and the tension radiating from both of them, and his expression immediately went serious.

"What happened?" Kakashi asked, setting down his papers.

"Sasuke," Naruto said without preamble. "The connection between us... it's gone. Not blocked, not distant. Gone."

Kakashi was quiet for a moment, considering. He'd been aware of the bond between his former students for years, had even relied on it during several missions when they needed to locate Sasuke quickly.

"When did you last sense him through the bond?" Kakashi asked.

"I felt the connection up until this morning," Naruto said, pressing his hand to his chest. "But when was his last official check-in?"

Kakashi consulted his mission files. "One week ago. Standard check-in after that reconnaissance mission in Lightning Country. Nothing unusual in his report, but he mentioned wanting to investigate some strange chakra readings he'd heard about."

Naruto's hands clenched into fists. "But I think the bond started fading before that. I just didn't notice because it's always been there."

"Have you tried reaching out through official channels?"

Kakashi was already reaching for his communication device. "Let me have ANBU attempt contact with his tracking seal right now." He spoke quickly into the device, then waited. After a tense minute, he set it down looking serious. "His tracking seal isn't responding. That's... not good."

The ANBU tracking seals were designed to be nearly impossible to remove or block without serious effort or outside interference.

"Send for Sakura and Shikamaru," Kakashi ordered, already reaching for his mission scrolls. "And get me the last confirmed location of Sasuke's chakra signature."

Within an hour, the crisis team was assembled. Shikamaru was already there, coffee and papers everywhere, with that look he got when he could feel a situation turning troublesome. Sakura burst through the door with her medical bag still slung over her shoulder, clearly pulled from her rounds at the hospital. Everyone who usually got dragged into Sasuke emergencies. His old teammates and Shikamaru, who'd somehow become the go-to guy for these situations.

"What's the situation?" Sakura asked without preamble.

"Sasuke's missing," Naruto said. "I realized the bond was cut off this morning, so it must've just happened. His tracking seal isn't responding."

Sakura went pale. "Missing how? Captured? Injured?"

"Unknown," Kakashi replied. "His last reported position was the border region between Lightning and Fire Country. He indicated he was going to investigate reports of unusual chakra signatures in the area."

Shikamaru set down his coffee and pulled out a map. "Define unusual."

"Ancient. Unidentified. Local reports mentioned a temple or shrine that'd been sealed for centuries suddenly becoming active." Kakashi's eye narrowed. "The initial investigation was supposed to be routine."

"And now Sasuke's missing near an ancient, recently active seal," Shikamaru said dryly. "What a drag.

Sakura had gone very still. Color draining from her face, hands trembling slightly where they rested on her medical bag.

"Kakashi-sensei, do you have the specifics of those chakra readings?"

"Why?"

She hesitated, mind racing back to that examination two months ago. She'd been doing a routine check after Sasuke's return from a particularly brutal mission. He'd been exhausted, running on fumes and stubbornness, but that wasn't unusual. What had been unusual were the readings.

His chakra flow had been different. Not damaged, not depleted, but... shifted. The patterns were still recognizably Sasuke's, but underneath the familiar signatures, there'd been another layer. An energy that made her double-check her equipment, run the scan three times and pull up every medical text she could find.

"Because I might have some information that could be relevant. About Sasuke's recent medical examinations."

The room went quiet.

"What kind of information?" Kakashi asked carefully.

Sakura felt guilt churning in her stomach. She'd been researching obsessively since that day, diving into the oldest medical archives, consulting with Tsunade about phenomena that existed more in legend than documented fact. The signs had been there, clear as day if she'd known what to look for.

"The last time I examined Sasuke, roughly two months ago, I found some anomalies in his chakra system. Hormonal fluctuations that didn't match his normal baseline. I wanted to run more comprehensive tests, but he left for a mission before I could complete them."

She could still see his face when she'd mentioned the abnormal readings. The way he'd gone completely still, like prey sensing a predator. The speed with which he'd dressed and made his excuses, claiming urgent mission briefings that probably didn't exist.

She should have pushed harder. Should have insisted. Should have recognized the signs of someone running from a truth they weren't ready to face.

"What kind of anomalies?" Shikamaru leaned forward, analytical mind already working.

"The kind that suggested... biological changes. Rare ones." Sakura's voice was carefully professional, but inside she was screaming. How had she missed it? How had she let him walk away when all the pieces were right there?

"I told him it looked like something in his system was trying to wake up," she continued, the memory painfully clear. "He asked what I meant by 'wake up,' and I... I didn't know how to answer him. I should've pushed harder for those tests."

She ran her hands through her hair again, clearly struggling with what to say next. "I've been researching since then, trying to understand what I was seeing. It's material I studied in the most advanced medical texts during my training with Tsunade. Theoretical knowledge I never expected to encounter in practice. The hormone levels, the chakra pathway alterations, the way his scent..." She trailed off, realizing how that sounded.

The magnitude of what she might've discovered was staggering. If her suspicions were correct, she wasn't looking at a simple delayed presentation. She was looking at an event that happened maybe once in a lifetime. Once in several lifetimes.

"His scent?" Naruto asked, frowning.

"It was subtle. Barely detectable unless you were specifically looking for it. But there was an underlying sweetness that hadn't been there before. I thought it might be a reaction to stress or new medications, but now..."

Now she knew better. Now she understood she'd been looking at the early stages of something that happened maybe once in a generation. A change that could explain why Sasuke had seemed so lost, so desperate in recent months.

"Sakura," Naruto said quietly, "what aren't you telling us?"

She met his gaze, and he saw guilt there. "I think Sasuke was entering a delayed presentation. As an omega."

The silence that followed was deafening.

"Wait, what?" Naruto said, looking around the room like someone would explain. "What's an omega? I mean, I've heard the word but..."

Shikamaru leaned forward, but his expression was puzzled rather than knowing. "From your tone, Sakura, this sounds serious. But I'll admit I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Neither do I," Kakashi added wearily.

"Look, this is going to sound crazy, but I think it's some kind of ancient genetics thing. From way back." Sakura ran her hands through her hair again. "When I was training with Tsunade-sama, she made me study these really old texts. Most of it seemed like myths, honestly. But there were these references to people having dormant traits that could wake up under extreme circumstances."

She paused, trying to organize her thoughts. "Alpha traits, omega traits. The texts made it sound like alphas were naturally protective and dominant. And omegas could bond with people in ways we don't really understand anymore. Form connections that were deeper than anything we see now. And apparently they could have kids in ways that normal biology doesn't allow."

Her voice dropped. "But nobody thought this stuff was real. It was just theoretical. Like studying about dragons or something."

She shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable. "The thing is, if these traits ever did wake up, the old texts suggested it would be incredibly rare. Like, once in multiple generations rare. But we're talking about ancient theories here, not documented cases. We're basically flying blind."

Kakashi leaned back in his chair, and Naruto caught the subtle shift in his posture. This wasn't just their former sensei anymore. This was the Hokage, processing information that could reshape the political landscape of the entire continent.

"The security implications," Kakashi said quietly, "are considerable."

"Security implications?" Naruto's voice was heated. "He's our friend, not a threat."

"A rare omega who was already Naruto's equal in power, now potentially enhanced beyond that through an unknown bond to some kind of god-level entity?" Shikamaru's tone was dry, but his expression was grave. "Plus, the Rinnegan that can manipulate space and time. Naruto, think about what the other villages will do when they realize Sasuke might now be stronger than even you."

Naruto felt something cold settle in his stomach. He thought about all those council meetings he'd sat through as Hokage-in-training, listening to the cold calculations that governed international relations. The way they sometimes talked about him like he was a weapon that just happened to have feelings. Sasuke would be seen the same way, only worse. Ex-criminal, the last Uchiha, and now possibly stronger than the guy they'd always counted on to stop him if things went wrong.

"And that's assuming they could even contain him," Shikamaru added. "The Rinnegan gives him access to dimensional travel. If he wanted to disappear with whatever entity he's bonded to, no prison, no village, no army could stop him. He'd be completely beyond anyone's control."

"You think they'll try to control him."

"They'll panic," Kakashi said seriously.

With good reason," Sakura interjected, flipping through her notes. "I've been researching this nonstop. The old texts are mostly fragments, but what I'm finding isn't reassuring. Ancient civilizations tried to control these bonds, use them for bloodline preservation, strategic advantage. Most people dismiss it as myth, but..." She trailed off. "None of those theoretical cases involved whatever the hell Sasuke might be bonded to.

"If word gets out," Shikamaru continued, "every village will either want to claim him or eliminate him. There's no middle ground with power like this."

"We're not our predecessors," Kakashi said quietly. "But we still have to deal with the world they created."

The room fell silent as the implications sank in. Naruto felt the world tilt sideways. This was exactly what had been done to him his whole life, just with a different justification.

His breathing got shallow, too fast. The walls felt like they were closing in. Every village would be hunting Sasuke. They'd treat him like a weapon, like a thing to be used or destroyed. Just like they'd done to Naruto. Just like...

"Naruto." Sakura's voice cut through his spiral. Her hand was suddenly on his shoulder, steady and warm. "Breathe. In for four, hold for four, out for four."

He followed her instructions automatically, medical training she'd drilled into all of them for panic attacks in the field. The room slowly stopped spinning.

"Better?" she asked quietly.

Naruto nodded, embarrassed but grateful. He couldn't lose it now. Sasuke was counting on him, even if he didn't know it.

"Sorry," he muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead. "It's just... fuck, they're going to hunt him down like he's some kind of monster. And we can't do shit to stop them."

"The truth is, we're speculating based on incomplete knowledge," Kakashi said carefully. "If this is what Sasuke has become, we're dealing with something beyond our current understanding medically, politically and strategically. There are no protocols for this because no one alive has seen it before."

"But I want to be clear," Sakura continued, "this is all theoretical. The medical texts treat this like mythology. I never expected to see actual symptoms of an awakening."

Kakashi nodded seriously. "Which means we're dealing with something our generation has no protocols for. No strategic frameworks, no diplomatic precedents. We're operating without a playbook."

Sakura," Naruto said quietly, "if you didn't know what was happening to him, he probably didn't either. Think about it, you're a medical expert and this stuff seems like a myth to you. What are the chances Sasuke would've figured it out on his own?"

Sakura's expression softened slightly, some of the guilt easing from her features.

"Then we don't let word get out," Naruto said, his voice steadier now.

"And if we can't get him back?" Kakashi asked. "What if whatever he's bound to decides to use him against us? Think about it, the last Uchiha, powered up by some ancient god. He's got plenty of reasons to hate the shinobi world."

Naruto wanted to argue. Wanted to say Sasuke would never hurt innocent people. But he remembered teenage Sasuke who'd almost leveled Konoha just to get revenge. The avenger who'd been ready to kill every Kage in existence before Naruto managed to talk him down.

If Sasuke got backed into a corner again, if he thought they'd never let him be...

"That's exactly why we need to get to him fast," Naruto said. "Before this turns into some huge political mess."

"Only works if he actually wants to come back," Shikamaru said quietly.

That shut everyone up for a second. Naruto didn't want to think about that possibility.

"You really didn't tell anyone about those tests?" he asked Sakura.

"I wasn't sure about anything. The results were all over the place, and he took off before I could run more tests." Sakura sounded defensive, but her hands were still shaking a little. "I talked to Tsunade-sama about what I was seeing, but we both agreed I needed more data before reporting anything official. Besides, even if I'd been completely sure, patient confidentiality and all that."

"Unless it posed a threat to village security," Kakashi said quietly.

The implication hung in the air like a threat.

"If Sasuke was entering omega presentation," Shikamaru said slowly, "and he encountered an ancient seal designed to respond to specific chakra signatures..."

"It could've bound him," Sakura finished. "Especially if the seal was designed to respond to rare or powerful chakra types."

Naruto pushed back from the table, chakra flaring with his distress. "So we go get him. Now."

"It's not that simple," Kakashi said. "If he's bound to an ancient seal, approaching carelessly could make things worse. We need more information."

While he's trapped somewhere, possibly hurt, possibly..." Naruto couldn't bring himself to say the word. Like speaking it might make it real.

"Or possibly exactly where he wants to be," Shikamaru interrupted.

The words made his stomach drop. Naruto spun to face him, eyes blazing. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Shikamaru's expression was carefully neutral. "Think about it, Naruto. Sasuke's been isolated for years. Carrying the weight of his entire bloodline. If he encountered a force that offered him a solution to that burden..."

"You think he went willingly."

"I think Sasuke has never done anything by accident in his entire life."

That stung, mostly because it was true. Shikamaru was right. Sasuke didn't just wander into trouble. He walked in with his eyes wide open, knowing exactly what he was getting into.

"Then we go after him anyway," Naruto said, voice raw. "Whatever he's gotten himself into, whatever deal he's made, he doesn't have to face it alone."

"The question," Kakashi said, "is whether we can reach him at all."

They set out within the hour.

The hike to Sasuke's last known location got weird fast. They started on normal forest trails, the kind they'd run a million times during training. But the deeper they went, the more wrong everything felt. The trees got bigger, darker, their branches tangling overhead until you could barely see sky. Even the air tasted off, like metal and lightning, making Naruto's teeth hurt

"Anyone else feeling this?" Sakura asked after they'd been traveling for two hours. Her voice was quieter than usual, like speaking too loudly might draw unwanted attention.

"The strangeness?" Shikamaru nodded, consulting his compass with a frown. "Magnetic field's off. We're walking in a straight line according to this, but the shadows suggest we've been curving east for the last mile."

Naruto felt it too, this crawling sensation under his skin that made his chakra restless and reactive. Every shadow seemed too deep, every sound too distant or too close. Even the quality of light was wrong, filtered through energy that shouldn't exist in their world.

"It's getting stronger the closer we get," Kakashi observed. "Whatever's at the center of this, it's affecting reality for miles around."

They traveled in formation, but not their usual one. Without discussing it, they'd arranged themselves so no one was ever completely alone, never more than arm's reach from backup. Old habits from the war, when they'd learned to trust their instincts about supernatural threats.

"Tell me more about these classified archives," Shikamaru said as they navigated around a tree that was definitely larger than it'd been when they'd approached it.

Kakashi was quiet for a moment. "Most of it's theoretical. References to sealed sites where ancient powers were imprisoned rather than destroyed. The reports always mention the same things: reality distortion in the surrounding area, complete failure of normal chakra techniques, and..." He paused.

"And what?" Naruto prompted.

"And the fact that anyone who entered these sites either never came out or came out changed in fundamental ways."

Sakura shivered. "Changed how?"

"Stronger. More dangerous. And completely loyal to whatever power they'd encountered inside."

The implications hung heavy in the air. If Sasuke was inside one of these sites, if he was being influenced or controlled by something ancient and alien...

"He's still himself," Naruto said firmly, but even he could hear the doubt creeping into his voice.

"We hope so," Kakashi replied quietly. "The question is whether whatever's in there will let him stay that way."

As if summoned by their conversation, the temple appeared ahead through the trees. Even from a distance, Naruto could feel the wrongness of it. The air around the structure shimmered with residual chakra, and the very stones seemed to pulse with an alien rhythm.

"There," Sakura said, pointing ahead through the trees.

The temple rose from the mountainside like a wound in the world. Naruto's skin crawled with the sensation of being watched, though he could see no signs of life. His chakra, usually so responsive and eager, felt sluggish and confused.

"That's definitely not natural," Shikamaru observed.

They approached carefully; senses alert for any sign of danger. The closer they got, the more oppressive the atmosphere became.

"The chakra signature," Sakura breathed, pulling out a small device. "It's... incredible. And completely unlike anything I've ever encountered."

"Because it's not from our world," Kakashi said seriously, staring up at the temple's broken facade. "I've seen references to places like this in the most classified archives. Sealed sites where ancient powers were bound."

"And now the seal's broken," Naruto said.

"Not broken," Kakashi corrected. "Activated. By someone with the right key."

They reached the temple's entrance and stopped. The doorway was blocked by a barrier of pure energy, golden light that hurt to look at directly. Naruto reached out tentatively and jerked his hand back as the barrier flared, repelling him with enough force to send him stumbling backward.

"Sasuke's in there," he said with absolute certainty. The absence in his chest had localized, pointing toward the temple like a compass needle pointing north.

"Can we break through?" Sakura asked, already pulling out her chakra measurement devices.

Kakashi placed his hand near the barrier, not quite touching. "This isn't just chakra. It's something much older. Energy that responds to specific genetic markers or spiritual signatures."

"What kind of genetic markers?" Shikamaru asked, his strategic mind already working through the implications. "His bloodline? The Sharingan?"

"Most likely," Kakashi replied grimly. "The barrier isn't meant to keep people out. It's meant to keep specific people in."

Shikamaru went very still, pieces clicking together in his head. "Wait. If the seal responds to genetic markers, and Sasuke has these rare omega genetics that Sakura described..." He looked around the group. "What if it's not responding to him being Uchiha? What if it's responding to him being omega?"

Sakura's face went pale. "Oh god. If the seal was designed to detect and bind people with those specific biological traits..."

Naruto felt his heart sink. "You're saying it's designed to trap omegas?"

"I think the original seal was meant to imprison something powerful," Kakashi said carefully. "But now that it's been activated, the barrier seems to be keeping Sasuke and whatever he bonded with locked inside together." He didn't finish the darker implication, but they all understood.

Sakura's devices were beeping frantically, overwhelmed by readings that shouldn't be possible. "The energy signature is off the charts. And it's not just powerful, it's... complex. Like there are multiple sources interacting with each other."

"The seal and Sasuke," Shikamaru said.

"Maybe more than that." Sakura frowned at her readings. "There's definitely a human chakra signature in there, but it's... changing. Evolving. Turning into something I've never seen before."

Naruto pressed his palm flat against the barrier, ignoring the way it burned. The energy was warm, almost alive, and deep underneath he could sense something that felt like Sasuke. But different. Muted somehow, like hearing a familiar voice through water.

"He's not in pain," he said with sudden certainty. "Whatever's happening to him, he's not fighting it."

The words hung in the air like an accusation. Because if Sasuke wasn't fighting, if he was accepting whatever transformation was taking place...

"Maybe that's worse," Sakura whispered.

They stood in silence for a moment; each lost in their own thoughts. The temple pulsed around them, its golden light growing brighter as if responding to their presence. Or mocking it.

"There has to be a way," Naruto said finally.

"Maybe," Kakashi replied. "But not one we're going to find today. We need to understand what we're dealing with before we risk making things worse."

"Worse how?" But even as Naruto asked the question, he thought he knew the answer.

Kakashi's face was bleak. "Ancient seals don't just bind power, Naruto. They transform it. If Sasuke's inside that barrier, if he's been bound to whatever power was sealed here, then when he comes out..."

He didn't finish the sentence, but Naruto understood.

When Sasuke came out, if he came out, he might not be the same person who went in.

And they might not be able to trust him anymore.

They set up camp on a ridge overlooking the temple. Close enough to keep watch, far enough to avoid the worst of whatever was affecting the area. As night fell, the temple started glowing brighter, the golden light pulsing steady like a heartbeat.

"I should've seen it," Sakura said quietly, staring down at the temple. "The signs were there. If I'd pushed for those additional tests, if I'd understood what was happening to him..."

"You couldn't have known," Naruto said, but his voice lacked conviction.

"Sakura," Kakashi said firmly, "you can't blame yourself for missing something that exists more in legend than medical reality. You noticed anomalies and wanted to investigate further. That's exactly what a good medic should do."

"Could I though? All those years, all the missions, all the times he pulled away when we got too close... I always thought it was just Sasuke being Sasuke. But what if it was more than that? What if he was fighting a battle we couldn't see?"

"Sakura," Naruto said quietly, "if you didn't know what was happening to him, he probably didn't either. Think about it - you're a medical expert and this stuff seemed like myths to you. What are the chances Sasuke would've figured it out on his own?"

Shikamaru looked up from the tactical notes he'd been scribbling. "The question isn't what we missed. It's what we do now."

"We get him back," Naruto said firmly.

"And if he doesn't want to come back?"

"Then at least we'll know he's making that choice freely," Shikamaru said quietly. "And not under supernatural influence."

The question hung in the air like smoke. Naruto wanted to deny it, to insist that Sasuke would never choose to stay trapped, would never abandon his duty to Konoha and his friends.

But deep down, in the part of his mind that knew Sasuke better than anyone else in the world, he wondered.

What if this was what Sasuke had been searching for all along? Not power, but an end to the loneliness that'd consumed him since he was seven years old? What if whatever was in that temple offered him a future Naruto and the others never could?

"Then we make sure he knows he has other options," Naruto said finally.

Kakashi nodded approvingly. "First, we need more information. Shikamaru, I want you to research everything you can find about ancient seals and binding contracts. Sakura, dig deeper into omega presentations and what might make someone vulnerable to supernatural influence."

"And me?" Naruto asked.

"You stay close to the temple. Monitor any changes. And..." Kakashi's expression softened slightly, "try to reach him through whatever connection you still have. Even if the bond's broken, you two have always been able to find each other."

The others had crashed hours ago, but Naruto couldn't sleep. He sat there staring at that damn temple, watching the golden light continue to pulse like a heartbeat.

Sasuke was in there somewhere. Probably dealing with whatever he'd gotten himself into completely alone, like always.

Well, not this time.

Naruto didn't know what kind of deal Sasuke had made or what he'd bound himself to, but he wasn't letting his best friend handle it alone even if he wanted to. He'd done that too many times already, held back when he wanted to step up. He’d played it safe when Sasuke needed someone to go all in.

He'd find a way through that barrier. Period.

They'd been through too much together. Sasuke leaving, the war, all those years of barely talking to each other. Their connection had survived all of that and more and some ancient god or whatever it was thought it could just cut them off now?

Yeah, right.

He wasn't giving up on Sasuke. Not happening.

But as he sat there in the dark, something weird happened. The light seemed to... shift. For a second, it felt like something was looking back at him. Not Sasuke. Something else. Something big and amused, like this was all just a game to it.

The golden glow actually flickered, almost like it was winking at him.

Naruto's skin crawled.

Whatever was in there with Sasuke knew they were out here. And worse, it thought their whole rescue mission was amusing.

Chapter 3 Preview:

Two days trapped in the temple, and Sasuke's body was doing things he didn't understand.

His chakra kept reaching out on its own, trying to connect when he'd spent his whole life keeping people away. Every breath brought Gojo's scent, making heat spread through him in ways that left him confused as hell.

"I thought if I was strong enough, I could protect them from anything," Gojo said quietly, those impossible eyes full of old pain. "But strength like that just isolates you."

Outside the barrier, Naruto's chakra kept hitting the golden light, desperate to get through. But inside, hearing about Gojo's lost students and broken world, Sasuke started to get it. What it was like to finally be understood by someone who'd been carrying the same impossible weight.

For the first time in seventeen years, bringing back the dead mattered less than creating something new.

Maybe it was time to let them rest.

Maybe it was time to start living.

Chapter Text

Sasuke woke up shivering and disoriented to the sound of his own labored breathing.

This was weird, because usually he was a quiet sleeper. Years of being a rogue ninja had taught him to sleep light and silent. But this was different. Ragged, uneven breaths that echoed in the vast chamber. Like the temple itself was eavesdropping on his distress.

Nearly two days since the bond formed and his omega nature had awakened. Or what seemed like two days, anyway. Time moved strangely in this place. Unnerving and unreliable.

The changes were everywhere now, getting worse by the hour. His skin had become hypersensitive, every draft a slow caress he hadn't asked for. His hearing had sharpened to superhuman levels. He could distinguish between water drops falling from different sections of the ceiling. Could detect the almost inaudible hum of the temple's power thrumming through ancient stone.

And underneath it all, Gojo's scent was everywhere. Invading every breath, wrapping around him until he couldn't tell where the air ended and Gojo began. Clean and winter-sharp, but with undertones that made something deep in his gut clench. Warmth gathered low in his belly, insistent and unfamiliar. His skin was burning up from the inside out, nothing to do with actual fever. Sweat started gathering at the base of his neck despite the cool air.

And the worst part? His pulse was racing. For absolutely no reason except the smell of an alpha. His body was getting turned on by scent alone, which was both humiliating and completely out of his control.

His body reacted like this was exactly what it had been waiting for. Like every cell was waking up and going Oh, finally, there you are.

Now the past few months made sense. Why he'd been so restless. Why he'd taken mission after mission, pushing himself harder and further from Konoha. His body had been trying to tell him something was coming. The constant ache under his skin, the way nothing felt right anymore. All building to this moment.

His body had decided to betray him completely. Responding to instincts buried so deep he'd forgotten they existed. The fire stirring inside wasn't just physical either. Something deeper was awakening, an emptiness that demanded to be filled. Made him want to seek out touch, warmth, someone stronger than him. Made him want to submit in ways that terrified him.

The cost is the body.

His father's words from the scroll hit different now. This was what Fugaku had meant. Not death or destruction, but this complete loss of autonomy. His body wasn't entirely his anymore. It belonged to the bond now, to whatever was rewriting his chakra pathways from the inside out.

Then his chakra shifted, and something in him jerked with it. His breath caught when it started moving. Not precise or controlled like before. It flowed fluid and alive, sliding through him like water through cracked stone. Restless and reaching, as if it had a will of its own that had nothing to do with his intentions.

He tried to center it and pull back, but it didn't respond the way it used to. Instead, it pulsed low and deep, seeking connection he'd spent years avoiding. Not under his skin but inside him, in places he'd never been aware of before. Reaching toward something he couldn't see or name. It already understood what it wanted, and he didn't.

The loss of control was suffocating. Eighteen years of discipline, of being the one thing he could count on, and now his own chakra moved like a stranger wearing his body. His most fundamental tool, the thing that made him who he was, no longer answered to him. It answered to something else. Someone else.

"Good morning."

Sasuke's head snapped up to find Gojo sitting cross-legged on the altar steps, exactly where he'd been the night before. Those impossible blue eyes were uncovered and piercing, tracking his every movement with divine intensity. Still startling, seeing them without any barrier. The weight of that gaze was like being observed by something that existed on a completely different level of reality.

And yeah, it was doing things to his body that he absolutely wasn't going to think about right now.

"How long was I unconscious?" His voice came out rougher than intended. Irritable with sleep and whatever was happening to his traitorous body.

"A few hours. Could be longer." Gojo's casual shrug somehow managed to convey both indifference and complete confidence. "Time's fairly negotiable when you're fundamentally rewriting your existence."

Perfect. Exactly what he needed to hear. Sasuke pushed himself up against the wall, bitterness leaking through despite his best efforts. "It's like everything I understood about my own body was complete bullshit. Fantastic."

Gojo studied him for a moment, those divine eyes taking in every detail of his disheveled state.

"Your understanding wasn't bullshit," he said finally. His voice carried unexpected gentleness. "Just incomplete. Your body's finally remembering what it was always supposed to be."

Sasuke tried to stand up and immediately regretted it. His legs buckled under him, nausea and dizziness hitting as the room spun. He stumbled into the wall, catching himself with one hand.

This was ridiculous. He'd dragged himself through fights that should've ended him. Stayed on his feet through chakra exhaustion and blood loss that would've dropped anyone else. But this wasn't damage or fatigue. This was his own body turning against him.

"Easy now," Gojo said, rising with a fluid grace that made Sasuke even more aware of his own unsteadiness. "The first few days are always the worst. Your entire chakra system is rebuilding itself from the ground up."

"Days?" The word cracked coming out. "How many days?" He was already at his limit.

"For what you're going through? Could be weeks." Gojo's expression grew more serious, less playful. "We're not dealing with a standard awakening. Your power levels, your control, the sheer concentrated trauma you've been carrying... it's all compounding the process. Making everything more intense."

Weeks. Was he serious. Sasuke closed his eyes, tried to find some center in the chaos his life had become. Of course it would be weeks. Because when had anything in his life ever been simple? Normal people got normal problems. He got dimensional gods and omega awakenings.

He reached for his chakra, attempted something simple. A basic chidori, muscle memory from childhood.

It crackled and sparked before becoming something that breathed instead of struck. Like his chakra had forgotten how to be a weapon.

His frustration spiked and he tried again. A fireball this time, something he'd been doing since he was six. The chakra gathered willingly enough, but instead of heat and combustion, it produced gentle warmth like sunlight against skin.

One more attempt. Sharingan activation, the most basic technique in his arsenal. But even that moved differently. Instead of the focused, precise energy that powered his bloodline, his chakra pulsed... welcoming. Like it wanted to embrace rather than dissect.

"What did you do to me?" The question came out raw, almost a shout. His Sharingan flared to life in his right eye, different but still deadly. His hands shook as he tried technique after technique, each one failing in the same impossible way. "Perfect. 18 years mastering my chakra and now it's having an identity crisis. Just my luck."

His voice turned bitter, edged with the kind of dark humor that came from a lifetime of cosmic jokes at his expense. "I am Sasuke Uchiha. You don't get to take my power from me. Fix it right now, or I'll find a way to make you regret it."

Gojo's expression lit up with genuine delight. "Oh, there's that Uchiha fire in all its glory! I was wondering when that would show up. Very dramatic, very 'I will end you where you stand.' Classic stuff, really."

Sasuke's rage burned itself out as quickly as it had flared. Left only defeat in its wake. His Sharingan flickered and died.

"Stop fighting it," Gojo said gently, moving closer. "You're trying to force your chakra into patterns it's outgrown."

"Then how is it supposed to work?" Raw desperation bled through his careful control.

Getting pissed off was apparently the wrong move. His chakra flared in response, but instead of the aggressive burst he expected, it reached outward like searching fingers. For one disorienting moment he could sense Gojo everywhere—his warmth, his power, the steady beat of his pulse. Like the alpha was somehow inside his skin, touching places that had nothing to do with physical contact. Fire shot through him at the intimacy of it, arousal mixing with spiritual connection in ways that left him breathless.

His body responded without permission, skin flushing hot, pulse stuttering. The connection was so intimate it bordered on obscene, like being touched in places no one had ever reached before. He could taste Gojo's satisfaction, feel the alpha's growing hunger, and worst of all, his omega instincts purred in response.

Sasuke jerked back, severing the connection, but his hands trembled. "What was that?"

"Your omega nature asserting itself," Gojo said, and there was something almost predatory in his satisfaction. "Omega chakra doesn't function like normal energy. It's designed for connection, not isolation."

The reminder of what he was sent another flush through him. Made his pulse stutter. Two days since he'd learned the truth, and his body was still adjusting to the reality of it.

"Show me," Gojo said, stepping close enough that Sasuke could feel the heat radiating from his body. "Try the technique again, but don't force it." His voice dropped lower, more intimate. "Let the chakra decide what it wants to become."

Every instinct screamed at him to refuse. To maintain some shred of dignity. But understanding was stronger than his pride, and he needed to grasp what was happening to his body.

He reached out again, gathered energy in his palm, but this time he made no attempt to shape it into familiar forms.

The chakra bloomed in his palm, iridescent purple-blue and strangely beautiful. It didn't crackle with electricity or burn with flame. Instead, it hummed with deeper power, resonating with the temple stones, with the air itself, with Gojo's presence.

"There," Gojo said, and unmistakable satisfaction colored his voice. "That's what you're becoming. Not weaker. Something infinitely more."

Sasuke stared at the light in his palm, mesmerized despite his best efforts to remain analytical. "What is this?"

"Omega chakra in its purest form," Gojo replied, moving close enough that their shoulders almost touched. Sasuke's chakra responded immediately, reaching toward the alpha like a plant seeking sunlight. "It's about connection, creation, drawing power from bonds rather than isolation. It's why the seal recognized you. Why I chose you."

The purple-blue light flickered and died as Sasuke's concentration wavered. Gojo was staring at him with naked fascination, like he'd witnessed something impossible.

"You keep saying you chose me. But I came here first. I had my father's scroll, activated the seal myself."

"Your father's scroll?" Gojo's expression sharpened with interest. "Now that's fascinating. Tell me, how exactly did Fugaku Uchiha come to possess information about a seal that existed between dimensions?"

Sasuke's expression dropped. He'd never given any thought to why his father would have that information. Never questioned how Fugaku had come to write about a place that supposedly existed beyond their world. The scroll had been hidden in a secret compartment behind the main shrine, one of the few parts of the compound that hadn't been completely destroyed. Sasuke had only found it by accident during one of his searches through the ruins, and he'd assumed it was just another piece of forgotten Uchiha history.

But now...

"You think that was coincidence?" Gojo's smile carried heat beneath its amusement. "That you happened to find the one ancient seal in the world that would respond to your specific chakra signature. Your Rinnegan didn't guide you across dimensional barriers by accident."

The truth crashed into him like ice water, drowning everything he thought he understood. His father had known. Somehow, impossibly, Fugaku had sensed what Sasuke was, what he might become, and left him a path forward. Not toward revenge or resurrection, but toward something else entirely.

"He knew," Sasuke said, the words barely audible. "My father knew what I was."

The pieces clicked together with devastating clarity. His father had known. Somehow, impossibly, Fugaku had sensed what Sasuke was, what he would become, and left him a path forward. Not toward revenge or resurrection, but toward this, toward accepting his true nature and finding someone who could understand it.

Every conversation made sense now. Every moment of disappointment in his father's eyes, every time Fugaku had looked at him with something almost like sorrow. He'd been seeing the future, understanding that his youngest son would need more than the world they'd built could offer. And Itachi, had he known too? Is that why he'd protected him from everything, no matter the cost? The thought left Sasuke hollow and aching.

He barely had time to collect himself before Gojo spoke again, his voice cutting through the silence.

"I called out across dimensions," Gojo admitted without shame. "To anyone who might hear. Anyone with the right combination of power and need and genetic potential." His expression grew more serious. "I was angry, bitter, wanted someone strong enough to break me free so I could settle some scores with the bastards who'd trapped me between worlds."

He paused, studying Sasuke with those incredible eyes. "But the universe has a sense of humor. Instead of sending me a weapon for revenge, it sent me something I didn't even know I was missing. You."

"So this was all manipulation."

"It was an invitation," Gojo corrected, his tone patient but unyielding. "One you could have refused at any point. You could have walked away after reading the scroll. Could have left after seeing the cost. Could have rejected the bond even after it began forming."

"But I didn't."

"No," Gojo said softly, close enough now that Sasuke could sense his breath against his skin. "You didn't. Because part of you recognized what this could be. Not the specifics, but the possibility of connection. The chance to stop carrying everything alone."

Sasuke wanted to argue, but the bond pulsed between them, warm and undeniable. He could sense Gojo's certainty bleeding through their connection, mixing with his own emotions until the boundaries blurred.

The bond was building again, that slow burn intensifying with each hour. His skin felt too tight, oversensitive to every shift in temperature, every movement of air. The approaching heat cycle was making him vulnerable in ways that terrified him, stripping away his defenses layer by layer. Soon he wouldn't be able to hide what he was becoming. Wouldn't be able to pretend he was still in control.

Perfect timing for an existential crisis. Really hitting all his life goals here.

"I need air," he said, panic clawing up his throat. The walls were closing in, his chest tight with the desperate need to run before he completely fell apart. "I need to get the hell out of here."

"You can't."

"What do you mean, I can't?" No one, not even a God, told Sasuke what to do. His voice carried the deadly quiet that usually preceded violence.

"The bond is still settling. If you leave the seal's influence before the process completes, it will tear itself apart. And take you with it."

Panic flooded his body, immediate and overwhelming. The walls started closing in, the air too thin. His vision tunneled, black spots dancing at the edges. He was heading straight into a panic attack, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"How long?" he choked out with whatever air he could manage. "Because I really can't do this."

Gojo was moving before Sasuke even realized he'd spoken, crossing the space between them in a single fluid motion. Strong hands settled on his shoulders, grounding him with warm, solid contact.

"Breathe," Gojo said quietly, his voice steady and commanding. "In through your nose, out through your mouth. Follow my rhythm." He demonstrated, his chest rising and falling in a slow, deliberate pattern. "Your body knows how to do this. Trust it."

Sasuke tried to follow the guidance, his breathing slowly evening out as Gojo's presence anchored him. The alpha's scent wrapped around him, no longer overwhelming but somehow soothing. His panic began to recede, replaced by embarrassment at his complete loss of control.

"As long as your awakening takes," Gojo said gently, his hands still steady on Sasuke's shoulders. "Like I mentioned earlier, it could take days or weeks." His expression held something possessive, but also protective. "I understand it's difficult. Being trapped, losing control of something as fundamental as your own chakra, having yourself this exposed. But fighting the process will only make it worse."

After his breathing slowed and the panic subsided, Sasuke looked Gojo straight in the eyes. Those impossible blue depths seemed to see everything, stripping away pretense until he felt completely bare.

"So let me get this straight." Sasuke's voice was deadly quiet, the way it got right before he incinerated something. "You lured me here, turned my body into something I don't recognize, and now I'm your prisoner. And you expect me to be grateful?"

"You're telling me I'm just supposed to accept it? That my body isn't mine anymore?"

"Your body is still yours," Gojo said, reaching out to cup Sasuke's face with careful fingers. The touch sent divine fire straight down his spine, made his breath catch and his pulse stutter. Warmth bloomed under his skin wherever they connected, his body craving more contact even as his mind recoiled from the intensity. "It's much more than it was before." His thumb brushed across Sasuke's cheekbone with deliberate tenderness. "More connected. More responsive. More alive."

To prove his point, Sasuke's chakra flared again, reaching toward Gojo without conscious direction. The sensation was intimately invasive, his very essence trying to merge with the other man. Fire shot through him at the contact, arousal mixing with the spiritual connection in ways that left him breathless and mortified. His skin was growing more sensitive by the hour, every nerve ending reacting to the alpha's presence. The bond pulsed between them, alive and hungry for more.

"Make it stop," he whispered, though part of him didn't want it to stop. Part of him wanted to lean into that connection, let it consume him entirely.

"I can't. This is what you are now, Sasuke. The sooner you accept it, the sooner you can learn to work with it instead of against it."

Sasuke turned away, pressed his forehead against the cool stone. The constant awareness of Gojo's presence was overwhelming. Like having another heartbeat echoing in his chest. Every breath brought that winter-clean scent, made his newly awakened instincts sing with recognition and want. His body responded without permission—pulse quickening, skin flushing, a low burn building in his belly that he didn't understand but couldn't ignore.

He was acutely aware of everything now. The temperature of the air, the texture of his clothes against his skin, the sound of Gojo's breathing. His own scent was changing too, growing sweeter, more appealing to alpha senses. He could see it in the way Gojo's nostrils flared slightly, the way those divine eyes tracked his every movement with growing hunger.

He was losing himself piece by piece, and the terrifying part was how right it felt. Years of careful control. Of building walls and maintaining distance, and it was all crumbling because of some cosmic joke. Every defense he'd built, every barrier he'd constructed to keep people out, was dissolving under the relentless pressure of the bond and his body's demands.

"Of course this would happen to me," he muttered, voice thick with exhaustion and something that might have been despair. "The last Uchiha, and I can't even be a normal omega. Had to be the rarest thing that exists." His control was slipping away hour by hour, and soon there would be nothing left to hide behind.

"Tell me about your world," he said suddenly, desperate for distraction. "How you ended up here."

He sensed Gojo's surprise ripple through their bond.

"My world," Gojo said, and some of his casual confidence slipped, revealing something rawer underneath. "Different from yours. We had cursed energy instead of chakra. Power born from negative emotions, from fear and hatred and despair."

"Sounds pleasant."

"It wasn't." Pain bled through Gojo's voice, and through the bond, Sasuke could sense the edges of that old grief. "I was the strongest. So strong that most curses couldn't even approach me. I used to boast that I could defeat anyone, even claimed I could kill Sukuna though I knew it would be difficult." His voice turned bitter. "Bit of a character flaw, really. But that kind of strength comes with a price. It isolates you. Makes you responsible for everything and everyone."

The words resonated through Sasuke with uncomfortable familiarity. Itachi had carried that same burden. That crushing weight of being the strongest. Making impossible choices to protect others.

The isolation that came with power. The way strength became its own prison.

"I had students," Gojo continued, his voice softening with unmistakable fondness. "Seven of them, across two year groups. Yuta Okkotsu, who shared distant family blood and carried curses heavier than anyone should bear. The second years, Maki, Toge, Panda, who I taught to fight their own battles but who faced the final crisis alone while I was sealed away."

His voice grew quieter, more personal. "And then the first years. Yuji Itadori, pink hair and a heart that dwarfed his sense of self-preservation. He was the vessel for the King of Curses, Sukuna, and somehow stayed himself through absolute hell. He's actually like your Naruto in many ways, both vessels carrying something that should have destroyed them, both rays of sunshine who refused to let the darkness win. Megumi Fushiguro, dark and analytical, reminded me of you actually. Could summon shikigami that would have impressed your clan. And Nobara Kugisaki, fierce and stubborn, would have challenged anyone who suggested she couldn't handle herself in a fight."

The warmth in his voice was unmistakable, and something twisted and ached in Sasuke's chest at the obvious depth of his affection for them. Nobara sounds like Sakura, he thought with a pang. Three students who meant everything to him. Like Team 7 had once meant everything to all of them.

"They meant everything to me," Gojo said. "I thought, no, I knew I was strong enough to protect them from anything. Taught them to fight, to survive, to find joy even in a world full of monsters. They were brilliant, all of them. Powerful beyond their years. They trusted me to keep them safe."

"But I always had to hold back with them. Always had to be their teacher first, their protector second, never just... myself." His expression flickered between fond and slightly unhinged. "Don't get me wrong, they got to see plenty of my chaotic tendencies. I do love to play, after all." A grin tugged at his lips, equal parts divine and manic. "But there were still parts I had to keep controlled, measured. Parts that were a little too intense, a little too desperate for connection." His gaze found Sasuke. "I'd forgotten what it was like to be wanted completely, without reservation. Not since Geto, not since I lost the person who understood the weight I carried."

Geto, Sasuke thought, filing the name away. The pain in Gojo's voice when he said it suggested there was a whole story there, one he'd ask about later. When he could think past the warmth building in his body.

The words sent fire curling low in Sasuke's belly. There was something in the way Gojo looked at him, something hungry and possessive that made his omega instincts respond with recognition.

"What happened to them?"

Gojo was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice was hollow. "I was sealed. Trapped in a place called the Prison Realm while my students faced the worst crisis our world had ever seen. Alone."

Through the bond, Sasuke could sense the weight of his grief like a physical presence. It pressed against his consciousness, overwhelming in its intensity.

"When my students finally freed me, I learned what my absence had cost them. Yuji had died and been resurrected multiple times, carrying the guilt of every life lost while Sukuna used his body. Nobara... her fate remained uncertain. Dead or alive, I couldn't save her either way. And Megumi..."

Gojo's voice cracked.

"Megumi lost his sister while I was trapped. Lost his will to live. When the final battle came, when everything I'd failed to prevent reached its climax, Sukuna took possession of his body. I had to fight Sukuna wearing the face of the boy I'd sworn to protect."

Something cold settled in Sasuke's stomach. The pain bleeding through their bond was almost unbearable. "And that's how you ended up here?"

"Fighting someone you love, even when they're not themselves anymore, even when you realize you have to stop them..." Gojo's hands clenched slowly. "It breaks something inside you that never heals properly. When it was over, when the dust settled, I was empty. The strongest sorcerer in the world, and I'd failed at the only thing that actually mattered."

"But you survived."

"Barely. And not for long." Gojo's smile was bitter, edged with old pain. "The boundaries between worlds were already weakening from all the cursed energy released during the final battle. When I died, instead of moving on properly, the dimensions caught me between them. Trapped in a space that touches all realities but belongs to none."

Sasuke was quiet for a moment, his chest aching in empathy. He understood that kind of loss intimately. The parallel between their stories was too obvious to ignore. Both of them had lost everything they'd tried to protect. Both had been left alone with their failures.

"How long were you trapped?"

"Time doesn't function the same way between worlds. Years, perhaps. Centuries, possibly. Long enough to lose my sanity and find it again. Long enough to stop hoping anyone would remember me, much less miss me." Gojo looked at him directly. "Until you came along."

"Until I came along."

"With your pain and your power and your desperate need to not be the last of everything," Gojo agreed softly.

They sat in silence for a moment, the weight of shared understanding settling between them.

The bond hummed softly, a constant awareness that was both comforting and deeply unsettling. Sasuke could sense Gojo's emotions echoing his own. Grief for lost students, regret for failures, and underneath it all, cautious hope that this time might be different. But there was something else too, something that made his inexperience seem less like weakness and more like an offering.

It was the most intimate thing he'd ever experienced, and he'd never consented to it. But there was more to consider. The way Gojo had looked at him when he'd revealed those impossible eyes, the wonder in his voice when he'd realized Sasuke could meet his gaze without flinching. How long had it been since anyone could look directly into those divine depths? How long had Gojo been forced to hide what he truly was, even from the people he cared about?

The thought made something warm unfurl in his chest. For all his power, for all his divine nature, Gojo had been isolated. Perhaps more so than Sasuke.

"I can sense what you're experiencing," Sasuke said suddenly.

"And I can sense you," Gojo replied, moving closer until there was barely any space between them. Sasuke could feel the heat of his body, smell that intoxicating winter scent that made his newly awakened instincts purr. "Your confusion, your fear, your anger at being trapped. But also..." His voice dropped to something almost intimate. "Your relief."

Sasuke wanted to deny it, but the bond made lies impossible. He was relieved. For the first time in his adult life, the crushing weight of isolation had lifted. The constant ache of being the only one left, the sole guardian of his clan's memory, had eased into something bearable.

"I don't understand what's happening to me," he admitted.

"You're learning to be connected to someone," Gojo said simply. "It's terrifying when you've spent years building walls to keep everyone out."

The words cut straight to his core. Sasuke had spent so long protecting himself from further loss that he'd forgotten what it was like to truly share space with another person. Now, with the bond linking them so completely, every emotion amplified, every thought seemed to echo between them.

"It's too much," he whispered.

"At first," Gojo agreed, reaching out to brush a strand of hair from Sasuke's face. The touch sent tremors through him, made his skin react to every point of contact. "But you'll learn to manage it. To let the connection exist without drowning in it."

"And if I can't?"

Gojo's expression grew serious. "Then the bond will consume us both. But I don't think that will happen."

"Why not?"

"Because you're stronger than you realize. And because..." Gojo hesitated, his gaze dropping to Sasuke's lips before meeting his eyes again. "Because I think part of you has been waiting for this your entire life."

The words sent tremors through him. Fire rather than cold. The bond pulsed between them, warm and undeniable, and he sensed Gojo's certainty like his own understanding.

Perhaps he had been waiting. All those years of isolation had been preparation. All the carefully maintained distance from everyone who tried to get close. Building toward this moment. For a connection so complete that hiding became meaningless.

"Do you regret it?" Sasuke asked. "Being bound like this?"

Gojo considered the question seriously. "I regret failing them. I regret not being strong enough when it mattered most. But this?" He gestured between them, encompassing the bond that hummed with growing intensity. "No. This seems like a second chance."

Warmth spread through his chest, having nothing to do with the omega awakening and everything to do with being understood by someone who had carried similar burdens.

"I used to dream about them," he found himself saying. "My clan. Not the massacre, but before. When I was small and thought the world was safe. I'd dream about bringing them back, about filling those empty rooms with laughter again."

"And now?"

"Now I'm not sure what I want anymore." The admission was dangerous, acknowledging a crucial shift in everything he'd built his identity around. For so long, his purpose had been singular. Revenge, then atonement, then the impossible dream of resurrection. But sitting here in this ancient temple, his body changing into something he barely recognized, those old certainties were crumbling.

"The truth is, resurrection in Konoha would be bringing them back to the place of their murder," he said sadly. "To a village that has never acknowledged what was done to them, never apologized, never offered justice. What kind of life would that be for them? What kind of peace?" His voice turned bitter with dark humor. "Hey, welcome back to life, family. Hope you don't mind that we're still living next door to the people who ordered your deaths."

The words tasted like blasphemy, but also like relief. For years, he'd carried the weight of bringing his family back, but he'd never questioned whether that was truly what they would want.

"And then there's..." He couldn't finish.

"The other part," Gojo said gently. "What you've been burying."

The truth was, he'd always wanted something else. Someone else. But how could he admit that when wanting had only ever brought pain? He'd loved Naruto with a desperation that had nearly destroyed them both, but he'd never been able to offer anything good in return. Only darkness, only danger, only the certainty that loving him would drag Naruto down from the heights he was meant to reach.

And even if they'd somehow overcome their personal fears, there was the impossible geography of their situation. Naruto belonged to Konoha in ways Sasuke never could, and Sasuke could never belong to a place built on his family's graves.

So he'd learned to bury that want so deep it barely existed. Tell himself that watching Naruto achieve his dreams from a distance was sufficient. But now, with the bond singing between him and Gojo, with his body awakening to possibilities he'd never allowed himself to consider, those buried emotions pressed dangerously close to the surface.

"The bond opens you up," Gojo said softly. "Makes you consider possibilities you never allowed yourself to imagine."

"Such as?"

"Such as the future doesn't have to mirror the past. Resurrection isn't about bringing back what was lost but creating something entirely new."

The words sent tremors through him. Fire rather than cold. "You're talking about children."

"I'm talking about choice," Gojo corrected, his voice gentle but intense. "About the difference between carrying the dead and nurturing the living."

Sasuke's hand moved unconsciously to his stomach, where the bond mark pulsed warm beneath his skin. The approaching cycle was making him overly sensitive to every sensation, every possibility. His skin felt feverish, too warm for the cool temple air. Even the lightest touch from Gojo's fingers sent sparks racing down his spine. Made him crave more contact even as it overwhelmed him.

His body temperature was rising steadily. He could sense changes in his scent that made the alpha's eyes darken with hunger. The idea of carrying life instead of death, of creating rather than avenging, was so foreign he could barely process it through the haze of approaching need.

"I don't understand how to be anything other than what I am," he whispered.

"Then learn," Gojo said simply, cupping his face again with careful fingers. "You have time. We have time."

The temple seemed to pulse around them, responding to the deepening connection between its two occupants. Golden light flickered across the walls, and Sasuke sensed the bond stretch and settle, growing stronger with each shared breath. His body temperature was rising, the heat cycle approaching with unstoppable momentum.

As sleep began to pull at the edges of his consciousness again, his mind drifted into something that wasn't quite dreams and wasn't quite visions.

He saw the Uchiha compound, but not as it had been in his childhood. This version was alive with voices and laughter, children running through courtyards empty for decades. But the faces weren't familiar. These weren't his dead relatives returned to life. These were new people, carrying his bloodline forward into an unknown future.

He saw himself older, silver threading through his dark hair, holding a child with his eyes and Gojo's angled features. The child looked up at him with complete trust, calling him "Papa" in a voice that made his chest ache with deep longing.

The visions shifted and blurred, showing him possibilities he'd never allowed himself to imagine. A life where the Uchiha name didn't end with him. Where creation mattered more than revenge. Where love could be stronger than duty.

In the dreams, his transformation didn't seem like a loss of control but like coming home to himself. His omega nature wasn't a weakness to be hidden but a strength to be celebrated. The bond with Gojo wasn't a trap but a choice, freely made and gladly accepted.

When he stirred briefly in the early hours, he'd curved against Gojo's side, seeking the warmth and security his awakening instincts craved. For a moment, panic flared. When had he moved? When had he allowed himself to be so vulnerable? His body was betraying him even in sleep, following omega instincts he was still learning to understand.

But the bond pulsed with Gojo's contentment, his protective satisfaction at having his omega close and safe. Strong arms tightened around him, a hand stroking through his hair with gentle possessiveness. The alpha's scent wrapped around him like a blanket, and Sasuke found himself relaxing back into sleep despite every logical protest. His body was preparing for what was coming, drawing comfort from his alpha's presence as the burn built slowly but inevitably in his core.

For the first time since he'd been seven years old, he was completely secure.

Outside, he understood, his friends were searching for him. Naruto would be frantic, Sakura worried, Kakashi strategizing. Part of him wanted to call out to them, to somehow signal that he was alive and unharmed.

But a larger part, a part that was growing stronger by the hour, wanted to stay exactly where he was.

In the growing light of dawn beyond the temple walls, movement stirred. Familiar chakra signatures approached the barrier, testing its edges. There, Naruto's chakra, bright and desperate and achingly familiar. It pressed against the barrier, searching for any crack, any weakness to slip through.

Something piercing twisted in Sasuke's gut, pain that had nothing to do with his transformation. Naruto had come for him, as he always had. But this time, there was no bridge between them that words or stubbornness could rebuild. The barrier that separated them now was made of more than space and energy. It was made of choices, of bonds that couldn't be undone, of the underlying truth that Sasuke had finally found someone who wanted to keep him.

The irony was devastating. Naruto was finally here, finally fighting to reach him, and it was too late.

They wouldn't give up easily, he understood. Naruto never did.

The question was whether Sasuke would want them to succeed.

He sensed Gojo stirring beside him, divine consciousness touching the edges of Sasuke's awareness through their bond. Amusement rippled through the connection, warm and slightly unhinged, the satisfaction of a god who found mortal determination both touching and futile.

"They're persistent," Gojo murmured against his hair, voice rough with sleep.

"They always have been."

"And how does that make you feel?"

Sasuke was quiet for a long moment, considering. A week ago, he would have said grateful. Loved. Part of something bigger than himself, even from a distance.

Now, wrapped in warmth and security he'd never experienced, connected to someone who saw all his darkness and wanted it anyway, he experienced...

"Sadness," he said finally. "For what they think they're fighting for."

"The you that no longer exists?"

"The me that never really existed in the first place."

Gojo's arms tightened around him, the gesture both protective and possessive. "The bond changes you, but it doesn't erase you. You're still Sasuke Uchiha. Still brilliant and stubborn and absolutely devastating when you put your mind to something." A pause, and his voice grew softer, almost reverent. "Still the most beautiful omega I've ever seen, even if that ethereal prettiness of yours is going to drive me completely insane." His tone held fond amusement. "You're more yourself now than you've ever been allowed to be."

Outside, Naruto's chakra flared against the barrier again, desperate and determined. Sasuke sensed the familiar pull of that bright, impossible energy, the desire to respond, to comfort, to bridge whatever gap had opened between them.

But the bond hummed stronger, warmer, more real than any connection he'd ever experienced. And for the first time in his life, he didn't need to chase after someone else's light.

He had his own now.

The last thing he heard before sleep claimed him was Gojo's voice, soft and certain in the golden light of the temple.

"Rest, omega. Tomorrow, we'll begin teaching you what you've become."

His body was already preparing for what would come next. The burn building in his core, the growing sensitivity, the way his omega instincts were slowly but surely taking over. Soon, there would be no pretending, no hiding, no control left at all.

And for the first time since he'd entered the temple, Sasuke smiled.

Chapter 4 Preview: "Convergence"

Multiple villages converge on the temple site as reality distortion spreads beyond any single nation's ability to contain. When coordinated international forces attempt to breach the barrier, they discover that some seals aren't meant to keep people out—they're meant to keep gods in. Inside the temple, as external threats mount, Sasuke's approaching heat cycle makes him vulnerable just as the world outside turns hostile.

Chapter Text

Part I: Beyond the Threshold

The fourth morning brought more than sunrise to the temple grounds. It brought an army.

Naruto jerked awake to voices that didn't belong. Hard consonants from Stone Country. That clipped efficiency Cloud operatives were famous for. His head snapped up from where he'd been dozing against a tree. Drool probably still on his chin.

"Oh, shit."

What spread out in front of him made his stomach drop. Their little Team 7 camp from last night was now surrounded by maybe four dozen shinobi from God knew how many villages. What had been a simple perimeter was now something that looked suspiciously like siege preparations.

Actual siege preparations. Supply lines and strategic positioning and everything.

Kakashi was already awake, naturally. Standing in what appeared to be tense conversation with three figures that made Naruto want to crawl back into his sleeping roll.

Darui lounged there with that casual confidence he'd always had. Making everything sound like mild curiosity instead of threats. Kurotsuchi stood beside him in her earth-stained robes. Those calculating eyes taking in every detail like she was already planning their graves.

But it was the third figure that really made his heart sink.

Gaara stood apart from the others. Arms crossed. He looked like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world. As Kazekage and Konoha's closest ally, his presence here meant this whole clusterfuck had gone from local crisis to something requiring international diplomacy.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it," Naruto muttered. If even Gaara was here, they were completely fucked.

"How long?" Sakura appeared at his elbow. Medical bag already over her shoulder. Her voice stayed steady. But he could see the tension in how she held herself. Like she was ready to start punching people.

"Long enough to set up a command post," Shikamaru said. He emerged from his sleeping roll with the alertness of someone who'd been awake way longer than he'd been letting on. "I count fifty-two total. Cloud, Stone, Mist, Sand. Probably others using transformation jutsu."

Something cold settled in Naruto's gut. "They're not here to help rescue him, are they?"

"When have multiple Kage ever shown up anywhere with good intentions?" Shikamaru's tone was dry as old bones. "This went from rescue mission to international incident sometime around midnight."

They approached the expanded perimeter carefully. Every step was being watched and judged. The golden barrier around the temple kept pulsing steadily. Completely unchanged despite all the hostile attention suddenly focused on it.

"Naruto," Gaara called out as they got closer. Same quiet authority his voice had always carried. But something different in his expression. Something that looked almost like regret. "We need to talk."

"About what?" Naruto shot back. Though he was pretty sure he already understood the answer and didn't like it one bit.

"About the reality that your missing teammate has apparently bonded with something powerful enough to warp reality across three countries," Darui said without any sugar-coating. "And what that means for everyone's safety."

"How do you even know it's Sasuke?" Sakura demanded. "We haven't sent any official reports."

"Didn't need to," Kurotsuchi replied matter-of-factly. "Shadow Hokage goes missing, reality distortion appears, Team 7 mobilizes for unauthorized rescue mission. The math's pretty simple."

"Plus, we've been monitoring the chakra signature," one of the Cloud ANBU added helpfully. "Sharingan and Rinnegan energy patterns are distinctive as hell. Especially when something supernatural is amplifying them."

Naruto experienced betrayal at how casually they discussed tracking Sasuke's power signature. "You've been spying on him."

"We've been monitoring a potential threat," Darui corrected. Like there was some meaningful distinction.

"He's not a threat." Naruto stepped forward. Hands clenching into fists. "He's the hero of the Fourth War. He's saved this world more times than most of you have had hot meals. He deserves better than this bullshit."

"Hero or not," Kurotsuchi said coldly, "war criminals don't get unlimited passes for good behavior. Especially not when they're potentially bonding with unknown supernatural entities."

He blinked, a cold stillness settling in his gaze, War criminal. After everything Sasuke had done, everything he'd sacrificed, they still saw him as the teenager who'd attacked the Five Kage Summit. Not the man who'd helped save the world.

"That's not fair," Sakura said. Her anger was starting to show. "He's done everything you've asked of him. Served as Shadow Hokage for years. Completed every mission. Never given anyone reason to doubt his loyalty."

"Loyalty to what?" It was a new voice. Quiet and clinical. One of the Mist contingent stepped forward. Naruto recognized the distinctive features of their current leadership. Chojuro had grown into his role as Sixth Mizukage. But he still carried that analytical approach that made everything sound like a research question. "Because from our perspective, it appears his loyalty has shifted to something that isn't bound by human politics or village alliances."

The accusation hung in the air like poison gas. Because honestly? None of them understood what Sasuke's priorities were anymore. The bond that had once connected him to Naruto was gone. Severed so completely that Naruto experienced its absence like losing a limb.

The silence where Sasuke's presence used to be was devastating. Naruto had lived with that constant, subtle awareness of his best friend for so long that its absence made him feel like going blind. He'd wake up each morning reaching for a connection that wasn't there anymore. Like muscle memory for something that had been cut away. The withdrawal was physical, emotional, spiritual. Made him incomplete in ways he couldn't put into words.

"We don't know what we're dealing with," Gaara said quietly. Gentler than the others but no less serious. "And that makes everyone nervous."

"Including you?" Naruto asked. Unable to keep the hurt out of his voice.

Gaara met his eyes steadily. "I'm here because I owe you both my life and my sanity. But I'm also here because whatever's happening inside that temple represents a significant shift in the global power balance." His expression grew quieter, more personal. "I once became something the world feared too. I know what it costs."

"He's not a chess piece," Naruto said fiercely. "He's a person."

"Is he?" one of the ANBU asked quietly. "Because our intelligence suggests whoever entered that temple three days ago isn't quite the same person who's inside it now."

Before Naruto could tell them exactly what he thought of their intelligence, Kakashi stepped between them. His presence commanded immediate attention. Which was probably the point.

"Enough speculation," he said calmly. "What do we actually know?"

"We know the reality distortion is expanding," Kurotsuchi said. Consulting a scroll covered in what looked like technical gibberish. "What started as a localized phenomenon centered on the temple is now affecting an area roughly two kilometers in diameter. And growing."

"How fast?" Shikamaru asked. Because of course he'd want specifics.

"Seventy meters per day as of this morning. Rate's accelerating." She looked up from her notes. "At current expansion speed, it'll reach major civilian populations within two weeks."

The ramifications of that statement sank in like lead weights. A localized supernatural event was one thing. A spreading zone of reality distortion that could affect innocent people was an entirely different kind of crisis.

"Any theories on what's causing the expansion?" Kakashi asked.

A new voice answered from behind them. "Best working theory is some kind of bonding process."

They turned to find a woman approaching with the confident stride of someone used to being the smartest person in the room. She wore Stone's forehead protector but carried herself more like a researcher than a combat operative.

"Dr. Yamamoto," Kurotsuchi said by way of introduction. "Our leading expert on supernatural phenomena and dimensional disturbances."

"What bonding process?" Sakura asked immediately. Her medical instincts kicking in.

"The one creating the expanding reality field," Dr. Yamamoto replied. Setting down a case full of monitoring equipment. "We're detecting two distinct energy signatures inside the barrier. One matches established Uchiha clan patterns. The other is completely unknown. The way they're interacting suggests some kind of spiritual or metaphysical bonding."

"Bonding between what?" Naruto asked. Though he was starting to suspect he didn't want to hear the answer.

"Unknown alpha entity and human subject," Dr. Yamamoto said like she was discussing the weather. "The unknown signature suggests something with god-level power reserves and distinctly alpha characteristics. The human signature suggests someone undergoing significant biological changes."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "Alpha characteristics? You're certain?"

"The energy patterns are unmistakable. Protective dominance, territorial behavior, the kind of raw power that demands submission from lesser beings." Dr. Yamamoto consulted her notes. "Classical indicators of a true alpha entity. Rare, but documented in historical texts."

"What kind of biological changes?" Sakura asked. But Naruto could see from her expression that she already knew.

"Hormonal fluctuations. Chakra system restructuring. Neurological adaptations consistent with enhanced sensory processing." Dr. Yamamoto consulted her notes without any apparent concern for the political bomb she was about to drop. "Classical indicators of supernatural mate bonding."

The words dropped into silence.

"Mate bonding?" Darui asked quietly.

"Extremely rare occurrence," Dr. Yamamoto continued. Apparently unbothered by the political implications of what she was revealing. "Ancient texts reference maybe one or two cases in recorded history across all villages. And they were recorded as triggered by contact with supernatural alpha entities. Always results in permanent bonding."

"How do you know all this?" Sakura asked suddenly. Her eyes narrowing. "What aren't you telling us?"

Dr. Yamamoto glanced at the assembled forces before answering. "Because your teammate's chakra signature has been broadcasting his status for the past twelve hours. He's presenting as omega."

Complete silence followed.

"That's impossible," one of the Cloud operatives said finally. "Omega presentations are myths. Ancient stories."

"So were gods walking among mortals," Dr. Yamamoto replied dryly. "Yet here we are."

Naruto's mind raced. Trying to process the implications. Sasuke was inside that temple undergoing some kind of supernatural transformation. Bonding with something powerful enough to warp reality across multiple countries. And based on the expansion rate, the process was speeding up.

"We need to make contact," he said firmly. "Find out what he wants. What he's planning. What his intentions are."

"Assuming he's still capable of rational communication," one of the Mist operatives said quietly.

"He is," Naruto said with more confidence than he possessed. Because the devastating truth was he had no idea. The connection that had once let him sense Sasuke's emotional state was gone. Cut off so completely it made him hollow and disoriented. For the first time in years, he was completely alone in his own head.

"We need to consider all possibilities," Darui said diplomatically. "Including the possibility that the individual inside is no longer operating under human motivations."

"His name is Sasuke," Naruto said dangerously. His chakra beginning to respond to his emotional state. "And he's my best friend. Not 'the individual,' not 'the subject.' Sasuke."

The temperature in the clearing seemed to drop as Naruto's power pressed outward. Not threatening exactly, but unmistakably present. A reminder that the savior of the shinobi world, the one who'd ended the Fourth War and united the villages, wasn't someone to dismiss lightly.

"Easy, Naruto," Gaara said quietly. His own chakra stirring in response. "We're all on the same side here."

"Are we?" Naruto asked. His voice carrying undertones that made several operatives take involuntary steps backward. "Because it sounds like you're planning to treat my best friend like a lab rat or a weapons platform."

"We're planning to assess the threat level and respond accordingly," one of the ANBU said carefully. "If the entity proves controllable and the subject proves compliant, containment and study. If not..." The masked figure shrugged. "There are protocols for uncontrolled supernatural entities."

"Protocols," Naruto repeated softly. Suddenly the clearing seemed much smaller. His chakra flared hotter. Carrying hints of Nine-Tails fury. "You mean execution."

"If necessary," the ANBU confirmed.

Silence dropped like a blade.

Naruto took a step forward. His chakra pressing outward in waves that made the grass at his feet wither slightly. Around him, he could sense his teammates shifting position. Preparing for potential conflict.

"Try it," he said quietly. His voice carrying the weight of someone who'd faced down gods and won. "I fucking dare you. You know what? I've saved this world more times than I can count. United villages that had been at war for generations. Brought peace to places that had forgotten what it looked like. And I did it all because I believe in something you apparently don't understand."

He stepped forward. His chakra blazing brighter. "I believe people matter more than politics. That friendship matters more than fear. That someone who's given everything for this world deserves better than being treated like a lab experiment the moment he finds something that makes him happy."

The clearing had gone completely silent. Every eye fixed on the young man who'd once convinced the Five Kage to work together through nothing but passionate conviction.

"You want to know what Sasuke is?" Naruto continued. His voice growing stronger. "He's the guy who chose to save the world instead of destroying it when he had every reason to watch it burn. He's someone who's spent years protecting people who never thanked him. Serving a village that still sees him as a threat. Carrying burdens that would have broken anyone else."

He gestured toward the temple. "And if he's finally found someone who sees his worth, someone who chooses him instead of tolerating him, then I'm happy for him. Even if it means losing him."

"Naruto," Sakura said quietly. This time her voice carried admiration instead of warning.

A message blazed across the barrier in elegant golden script:

"You really do love him, don't you? How sweet. It's rare to see someone defend Sasuke like that. Almost as rare as someone choosing him for himself instead of what he can do for them. Lucky for him, he found both."

Naruto went very still. The words hung in the air like an accusation, laying bare what he'd tried so hard to keep hidden. Of course, the entity knew. Of course, it had seen right through every careful wall he'd built around those feelings. The worst part wasn't being exposed. It was the truth embedded in those golden letters. He did love Sasuke. Had always loved him. But he'd never chosen him the way the entity was describing. Never seen him as separate from duty and bonds and the greater good.

He'd loved Sasuke as part of saving the world. Not as someone worth saving just for himself.

The realization sat in his chest like a weight he couldn't swallow.

Sakura's hand found his immediately, fingers interlacing in silent support. She'd always known, hadn't she? Had probably been waiting for him to figure it out himself.

"Naruto," Kakashi said quietly. Not pity in his voice, just understanding. "You did good. He needed to hear that."

"Yeah," Naruto managed. His throat felt tight. "Yeah, he did."

Around them, he could sense the shift in the political atmosphere. Glances exchanged between the assembled Kage. Quiet murmurs about emotional compromise and objective decision-making. They were already questioning whether his feelings would affect his judgment about Sasuke.

Maybe they should be.

"Now then. Threat assessment? I'm not A threat, I'm THE threat. There's a difference. It's like comparing a house cat to a tiger."

The message dissolved, replaced immediately by:

"Also, containment protocols? How adorable. I broke out of a divine prison designed by ancient sorcerers. Your little chakra nets are going to do what exactly?"

But the barrier wasn't finished. It erupted with golden light. Brilliant, blinding light that turned the world white for several seconds. When their vision cleared, the energy pattern had changed completely.

The steady pulse was gone. Replaced by something that seemed distinctly unfriendly. Like a sleeping dragon that had been rudely awakened and wasn't pleased about it.

More messages blazed across the barrier, but these carried a fury that made the earlier mockery seem playful by comparison:

"And now you're threatening my divine omega? How terribly rude."

The message hung in the air for several seconds before dissolving. Another followed immediately:

"Didn't your mothers teach you better manners?"

"What the hell?" Shikamaru demanded. His shadows already stretching outward in defensive patterns.

Sakura was staring at her instruments in shock. But her expression quickly shifted from scientific fascination to fierce protectiveness. "The chakra inside spiked. Massively. Like something triggered a defensive response." She looked up at the gathered forces with narrowed eyes. "And honestly, if someone was discussing my elimination protocols, I'd be pretty defensive too."

"The entity appears to have a sense of humor," Kakashi observed dryly. His visible eye crinkling slightly. "And excellent hearing. I'm guessing whoever's in there wasn't particularly impressed by our diplomatic approach."

A third message appeared in the barrier's golden light:

"Oh, and you missed the fun part. I wrote 'Property of Management' across your perimeter in letters made of pure energy. It really drives home the point about who's in charge here."

The message dissolved, replaced by another:

"Fifty-two shinobi to handle one omega? Either I'm incredibly dangerous or you're incredibly insecure. I'm hoping it's both."

Several of the Cloud ANBU looked around nervously. Like they expected to see glowing letters mocking them personally.

Then:

"Well, it is Sasuke we're talking about."

Gojo's voice seemed to float from the barrier itself. Carrying obvious amusement.

"Our presence triggered this?" Gaara asked quietly.

"No," Kakashi said grimly, studying the barrier's new configuration with experienced eyes. "Our hostility. The barrier responded to our conflict. It's protective, and it considers threats to Sasuke as threats to itself."

They all turned to look at the temple. For a moment, Naruto could have sworn he sensed something looking back. Not Sasuke exactly, but something vast and ancient and absolutely devoted to protecting whatever it had claimed.

"Message received," Darui said carefully. "Whatever's in there doesn't appreciate us discussing termination protocols."

Dr. Yamamoto was frantically taking readings. Her equipment beeping with increasingly urgent patterns. "Energy output tripled. And the expansion rate... it's accelerating again. We're now looking at over a hundred meters per day."

Golden letters appeared along the barrier's edge, visible to everyone outside:

"Oh, the reality distortion is expanding. Good. Maybe now you'll take the hint that you're dealing with forces slightly beyond your pay grade."

"Because we threatened him," Naruto realized. The pieces clicking together. "The more danger Sasuke perceives, the stronger the bond becomes. The stronger the bond becomes, the more reality warps around them."

"Self-reinforcing protective mechanism," Dr. Yamamoto confirmed. "The alpha entity appears to be responding to external threats by strengthening its claim on the omega."

"Which means," Kurotsuchi said slowly, "any attempt to separate them or harm either party could result in catastrophic expansion of the distortion field."

"Great," one of the Mist operatives muttered. "So, our options are leave them alone and hope they don't decide to remake the world in their image, or risk triggering an apocalypse by trying to intervene."

"There's a third option," Gaara said quietly.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"We ask them what they want," he continued. "Directly. Honestly. As equals instead of as a threat assessment."

"The barrier won't let us through," Kakashi pointed out.

"It let Naruto get close," Shikamaru observed. "Maybe it would allow communication if the approach was genuinely peaceful."

One of the ANBU stepped closer to the barrier. Hand raised to test its properties. The moment his chakra touched the golden light, it flared angrily. A pulse of energy sent him staggering backward.

"Interesting," he said. Straightening his mask. "It's not keeping people out. It's keeping specific people out."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"Try approaching it," Dr. Yamamoto suggested to Naruto. "Slowly. Non-aggressively."

Against his better judgment, Naruto stepped toward the barrier. Unlike when the ANBU had touched it, the golden light remained steady. Almost welcoming. He could sense warmth radiating from it. Underneath that warmth, the faintest trace of something heartbreakingly familiar.

Not the soul bond they'd once shared, but an echo of it. A ghost of connection that made his chest ache with loss.

"It recognizes you," Shikamaru observed.

"It recognizes his connection to the omega," Dr. Yamamoto corrected. "Emotional bonds leave psychic impressions. Even severed ones."

The clinical way she discussed their severed connection made Naruto want to punch something. But before he could voice his frustration, the barrier pulsed in a familiar pattern.

Three short pulses, followed by two long ones, followed by three short again.

"That's him," Naruto breathed. Recognition flooding through him. "That's Sasuke's thinking pattern. He used to tap like that when we were kids, and he was working through a problem."

The barrier pulsed again. Same rhythm. Three short, two long, three short.

"He's trying to communicate," Sakura said with growing excitement. "He knows we're here, and he's trying to tell us something."

"Or the entity is mimicking his patterns to manipulate our response," one of the Mist shinobi said coldly.

But Naruto was already moving closer to the barrier. His heart hammering against his ribs. "Sasuke? Sasuke, if you can hear me..."

The barrier flared. Not aggressively but almost eagerly. For one moment, Naruto sensed the ghost of their old connection. Warm and familiar and achingly present. Not the full bond they'd once shared, but something. Proof that wherever Sasuke was, whatever he was becoming, some part of him was still trying to reach out.

Another message appeared in golden script:

"Sasuke is safe. Still himself. Just... becoming something more than you ever imagined."

Then it was gone. Leaving Naruto standing alone before a wall of golden light that offered no real answers and no comfort.

"He's still in there," Naruto said quietly. As much to convince himself as anyone else. "Still Sasuke."

Behind him, he could hear the Kage organizing their people. Discussing containment protocols and research priorities. The political machinery was already in motion. Transforming his best friend into a problem to be solved or a resource to be managed.

"We need our own people on this," Kakashi said quietly. His voice taking on the tactical edge that had made him legendary. "If they're bringing specialists, we need to match their expertise. This isn't about Sasuke anymore. It's about ensuring Konoha maintains influence over how this situation develops."

"Tsunade would know more about rare presentations," Sakura said immediately. Fierce determination in her voice. "And if these idiots think they're going to treat Sasuke like a research subject without proper medical oversight, they're about to learn why I have the strongest punch in the Five Nations."

"Sai should be here for security assessment," Kakashi continued. Already mentally organizing his forces. "Maybe Ino too, for mental connectivity and intelligence gathering. Ibiki for psychological evaluation. Yamato for chakra analysis. The more Konoha experts we have involved, the more we can protect his interests."

But even as they planned, Naruto could see the writing on the wall. Too many villages were involved now. Too many competing interests. Whatever happened next wouldn't be decided by friendship or loyalty or what was best for Sasuke.

It would be decided by politics and fear and the same forces that had shaped every tragedy in Sasuke's life.

"We're going to lose him," he said quietly. Not sure if he was talking to his teammates or himself.

"No," Sakura said firmly. Moving to stand beside him. "We're not losing him. We're going to figure this out."

"How?" Naruto asked. Gesturing toward the assembled force surrounding them. "We can't get through the barrier. We can't communicate properly. And the shinobi world is treating this like an international crisis."

"We do what we always do," Kakashi said. Joining them at the barrier's edge. "We adapt. We learn. We find another way."

The barrier pulsed gently. As if approving of their determination. For a moment, Naruto allowed himself to hope that wherever Sasuke was, whatever he was becoming, he was still fighting to maintain some connection to them.

Even if that connection was nothing more than tapped messages through an impenetrable wall.

Part II: The Seal Strengthens

Sasuke woke to voices beyond the temple walls. Everything had changed.

Not the familiar cadences of his teammates. Though he could pick out Naruto's distinctive emotional intensity even through layers of stone and supernatural barriers. No, these were new voices. Official voices. Multiple Kage and their authority figures.

They were discussing "situations" and "appropriate responses" and "threat assessments" with the casual efficiency of people planning someone else's execution. His execution to be exact.

His Rinnegan pulsed with sudden awareness. He could sense the moment the revelation hit the assembled shinobi like a thunderclap. The shock, the fear, the immediate shift from curiosity to threat assessment.

Of course. Because when had his timing ever been anything but spectacularly inconvenient, curse mark during the Chunin exams, Missing-nin status during wartime and now omega presentation during international crisis. His life had a real talent for dramatic irony.

Politics had found him. And brought an army.

"You're awake," Gojo observed from his position near the altar. He'd been there when Sasuke went to sleep. There when he woke up. Like some kind of impossibly attractive guardian statue. "Sleep well?"

"Until the political circus started setting up camp outside," Sasuke replied. Then immediately winced as his own voice seemed too loud in the chamber. Everything was amplified now. Too bright, too loud, too much sensation flooding his system all at once.

"Oh, you mean our uninvited audience?" Gojo asked with obvious delight. "They've been having the most fascinating debates about containment protocols. Very educational. I'm learning so much about how mortals plan to capture gods." His grin was absolutely wicked. "Spoiler alert: they can't."

Despite everything, Sasuke found himself smiling. "You're enjoying this."

"Immensely," Gojo confirmed without shame. "Do you know how long it's been since I've had the opportunity to mock authority figures who can't actually do anything about it? This is the best entertainment I've had in decades."

Sitting up was still a mistake. The world tilted sideways for a moment. Colors bleeding too vivid at the edges of his vision. He had to grip the stone floor to keep from swaying. His body seemed wrong. Touchy and uncoordinated. Like his nervous system was being rewired in real time.

Which, considering what was happening to him, was probably exactly what was occurring.

"Easy," Gojo said. Moving to steady him with hands that burned against his skin. The touch sent electricity racing up Sasuke's spine. Making him gasp at the intensity. "The transformation's accelerating. Your system's trying to process a lot of changes at once."

Gojo's hands lingered longer than strictly necessary. Fingers splayed across Sasuke's ribs where his heartbeat was hammering visibly. The alpha's scent grew stronger, richer. Sasuke felt his body respond with embarrassing enthusiasm. Heat pooled low in his belly. He had to bite back a sound that would have been mortifying.

But instead of the panic he expected, there was something else. Something that felt almost like anticipation. The idea of losing control, of surrendering to these new instincts, was terrifying. But underneath the fear was something he'd never expected to feel.

Genuine excitement.

It clicked in an instant. He wasn't just struggling against the loss of control. Part of him, some deep instinctive part that was awakening alongside his omega nature, wanted to let go. Wanted to see what would happen if he stopped fighting and started trusting.

The thought should have horrified him. Instead, it sent another wave of heat through his system.

Sasuke tried to focus on the alpha's words. But his mind kept drifting. Thoughts becoming scattered and hard to hold onto. Not just because of the approaching heat, but because every sensation felt new. Enhanced. Like he was experiencing the world through entirely different senses.

"How many?" he managed to ask.

"Last count? About fifty-two. Cloud, Stone, Mist, Sand. Probably others using concealment techniques." Gojo's tone was casual. But there was something predatory underneath it. Dangerous awareness that reminded Sasuke he was dealing with something much more powerful than anyone could imagine. "I may have sent them a few messages to clarify the situation."

"Messages?"

"Oh, you missed the fun part. I wrote 'Property of Management' across their perimeter in letters made of pure energy. Really drove the point home about who's in charge here." Gojo's grin was absolutely wicked. "The Cloud ANBU looked like they were about to have collective heart attacks. Your disappearance has attracted considerable attention, it seems."

"Fantastic." Sasuke struggled to his feet. Immediately regretting it as another wave of disorientation washed over him. His chakra was behaving strangely. Reaching outward toward the barrier's edge. Seeking the sources of hostility beyond the temple walls. "Any chance they'll get bored and go home?"

"What do you think?"

"I think we're officially fucked." Sasuke moved toward the temple's main chamber, where he could sense the barrier's energy more clearly. But walking in a straight line was harder than it should have been. His body responding to stimuli he couldn't identify. "They're not going to let this go. Rare omega bonded to an unknown supernatural Alpha entity? That's either a strategic asset or an existential threat. Neither option ends well for me."

"Dramatic. How very you."

"Realistic." Sasuke had to stop walking for a moment. Leaning against the wall as his body betrayed him with another surge of heat building low in his core. But this time, instead of just embarrassment, he felt something else. A curious desire to see where this would lead. To stop fighting the sensations and start embracing them. "They're scared. Scared people do stupid things. And I can't exactly strategize properly when my brain keeps trying to focus on how good you smell and how much I want you instead of the reality that we're surrounded by people planning our deaths."

He let out a bitter laugh. "Shadow Hokage reduced to 'cannot focus because my alpha smells incredible and my omega biology is going haywire.' Really living up to the Uchiha legacy there."

But even as he said it, there was less venom in the self-recrimination than usual. Because the truth was, focusing on Gojo's scent wasn't entirely unpleasant. It was warm and safe and made him want to move closer instead of maintaining his usual careful distance from everyone.

And maybe, just maybe, that wasn't something to fight against.

"Twenty-four years of celibacy and my body decides NOW is the perfect time to develop urgent biological needs," he muttered. "With fifty-two hostile shinobi outside and reality unraveling. Typical."

The admission was embarrassing. But there was no point in pretending. His body was preparing for something primal and urgent. That preparation was affecting his ability to think clearly. Every time Gojo moved closer, Sasuke's pulse spiked. Every breath of the alpha's scent made his skin seem tighter. Made him want to lean into that warmth and strength until he forgot about everything else.

And increasingly, the idea of forgetting didn't seem like such a terrible thing.

"Your body knows what it needs," Gojo said softly. His voice rougher than before. Sasuke could see the tension in the alpha's jaw. The careful way he was keeping his distance even while wanting to close it. "Even if your mind hasn't caught up yet."

"And what does it need?" Sasuke asked. Though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

Gojo's eyes darkened. "To trust someone completely. To let go of the control you've been clinging to since you were seven years old. To discover what it feels like to be wanted for yourself instead of what you can do for other people."

The words hit deeper than they should have. Because that was exactly what he'd been doing, wasn't it? Controlling every aspect of his existence to avoid the pain of abandonment. The pain of being seen as a tool instead of a person.

But Gojo's scent was getting stronger, more intoxicating. And with each breath, Sasuke found himself caring less about maintaining perfect control and more about discovering what would happen if he simply... didn't.

"They know about the omega thing," he said. Pushing away from the wall and trying to focus on immediate concerns. Though his movements were becoming unconsciously graceful in ways they'd never been before. More fluid. More instinctively appealing. "I can sense them discussing it. How did they figure it out so quickly?"

"Chakra signatures, probably. Your energy patterns have changed significantly since the bonding began." Gojo moved closer. Sasuke felt his body respond immediately. Skin becoming more sensitive, breathing quickening. But this time he didn't try to hide the reaction. "Sharingan and Rinnegan combined with omega hormones would create a pretty distinctive reading."

"And they're treating it like a science experiment."

"Most people would. It's safer than treating it like what it actually is."

"Which is?"

"Two people finding something worth protecting in each other," Gojo said quietly. "Two people who've been failed by every system they were supposed to be able to trust."

The bond pulsed between them. Carrying more than words. Sasuke could sense Gojo's protectiveness, his determination, his carefully controlled desire that was growing harder to contain by the hour.

But he could also sense something else. His own response to that desire. Not fear or resistance, but an answering hunger that was becoming impossible to ignore.

Without quite realizing it, he found himself moving around the chamber. His hands worked without his conscious direction. Rearranging the scattered fabric and pillows they'd been using into something more organized. More comfortable. More... protective.

It wasn't until Gojo went completely still that Sasuke realized what he was doing.

He was nesting.

The realization should have mortified him. Instead, it sent a thrill of anticipation down his spine. His omega instincts were taking control, preparing for what was coming. And for the first time in his life, the idea of surrendering to instinct felt like freedom instead of weakness.

"Is this... okay?" Sasuke asked quietly, suddenly uncertain. He'd never done this before. Had no idea if he was doing it right.

Gojo's expression went soft with something that looked almost like wonder. "It's perfect," he said gently. Without a word, he moved to the edge of the space and picked up a silk pillow that had fallen slightly outside Sasuke's arrangement. Instead of handing it over, he waited. Patient. Letting Sasuke decide where it belonged.

When Sasuke gestured to a spot near the center, Gojo placed it exactly where indicated. His movements careful and respectful. Like he understood this was Sasuke's creation, and he was just honored to help.

"You have good instincts," Gojo murmured, settling back to give Sasuke space to continue. "Trust them."

The simple acceptance, the lack of judgment or mockery, made something tight in Sasuke's chest finally relax. For once, his body's needs weren't something to be ashamed of or controlled. They were just... natural. Right.

As he settled back into the completed nest, he noticed Gojo watching him with an intensity that made his pulse quicken.

"Your scent's changing," Gojo said quietly. His voice strained with the effort of maintaining control. "Keeps getting stronger."

"How can you tell?" Sasuke asked. Though he could sense the answer in the way the alpha's chakra was responding to his presence.

"Because being trusted to help with something so personal, so instinctive... it's taking everything I have not to just wrap myself around you and never let go," Gojo said with brutal honesty. "Because every instinct I have is screaming at me to protect you while you prepare. Because you smell like home and safety and everything I've been searching for across dimensions."

The raw confession sent heat flaring through Sasuke's system. Not embarrassment this time, but pure desire. The idea that his changing scent was affecting the alpha so strongly was... intoxicating.

"Wonderful," Sasuke muttered. But there was no real annoyance in it anymore. "So, I'm basically broadcasting 'approaching heat' to any alphas out there."

"Good thing I'm the only one," Gojo said with obvious satisfaction.

The possessiveness in those words should have been alarming. Instead, Sasuke found it oddly comforting. After a lifetime of being wanted for his power, his bloodline, his political value, the idea of being wanted for himself, of having that want be mutual and exclusive, was... appealing.

More than appealing. Exciting.

"And what happens when the heat actually hits?"

"We complete the bond," Gojo said simply. "Spiritually, physically, permanently. After that, we're mated in every sense that matters."

"No pressure or anything."

"There's always pressure." Gojo moved closer. Sasuke could smell his scent more clearly now. Clean and crisp like winter air, but with undertones that made his breath catch and his pulse quicken. "The question is whether you trust me enough to let go of control."

When Gojo spoke, Sasuke caught a glimpse of something hungry in those blue eyes before it was carefully banked. The alpha was fighting his own instincts. Holding back for Sasuke's sake. Somehow that restraint was even more attractive than raw desire would have been.

Control. There was that word again. Sasuke had built his entire life around maintaining control over his circumstances, his emotions, his destiny. The idea of surrendering that to someone else, even temporarily, had always been terrifying.

But standing in the temple, surrounded by the nest he'd unconsciously created, breathing in the scent of someone who wanted him for himself rather than what he could provide... surrender was starting to feel less like defeat and more like choice.

As he moved around the temple, arranging the last few pillows, his Rinnegan began to pulse with sudden intensity. Something about their conversation, about the possibility of escape, was triggering his dimensional sight. When he really looked at their surroundings with both eyes active, he began to see something he'd missed before.

The temple around them wasn't quite... solid. Not in the way normal buildings were. It existed in layers. Anchored to this reality but extending into spaces between spaces. Dimensional threads held it here. But those threads could be moved, redirected.

"This place," he said slowly. His voice rough with approaching heat and growing realization. "It's not really here, is it? Not completely."

Gojo's smile was pure satisfaction. "The seal that trapped me was designed to create a pocket of stable reality. A divine prison, if you will. But prisons work both ways. I've had a very long time to study the architecture."

The implications sent a thrill through Sasuke that had nothing to do with his approaching heat. "We could move it."

"With the right power combination, yes. Dimensional manipulation isn't exactly my specialty but combined with your abilities..." Gojo's eyes were bright with possibility.

"We could leave. Actually leave. Go somewhere they can't follow."

"If that's what you want."

Outside, the voices were growing more agitated. Sasuke could make out what sounded like the beginning of a formal strategy session. Complete with references to containment protocols and escalation procedures.

Earlier, Sasuke had tried to communicate, tapping against the barrier in the old pattern they'd used as children. Three short, two long, three short. Naruto would have recognized it. But he'd also sensed the moment Gojo's message had hit his former teammate. The shock and pain and devastating realization that had rippled through Naruto's chakra. Sasuke understood now why their bond had felt so... incomplete. Naruto had loved him, yes. But always as part of something larger. Never just for himself.

It should have hurt more than it did. Instead, it felt like finally understanding why he'd always experienced something missing in their connection. Why he'd never quite been able to believe that he was enough on his own.

"They're planning something," he observed. Though focusing on the details was becoming increasingly difficult.

"Let them plan." Gojo's tone was dismissive. But his eyes held a dangerous edge. "They're thinking in terms of human-scale problems. They have no idea what they're actually dealing with."

"And what are they dealing with?"

Gojo moved closer. Sasuke felt his body respond immediately. But this time he didn't fight it. Didn't try to hide the way his breathing quickened or the way he unconsciously leaned into the alpha's presence.

"Two people who've lost everything they cared about and found something worth protecting in each other," Gojo said softly. His hand coming up to cup Sasuke's face with careful reverence. "Two people who are tired of being told what they can and can't have. What they can and can't be."

"And what can we be?" Sasuke asked. Though he was pretty sure he already understood the answer.

"Anything we want," Gojo said simply. "Anything at all."

The barrier around them pulsed brighter. Responding to their shared determination. Despite the chaos outside, despite the approaching heat cycle that was making rational thought increasingly difficult, despite the international crisis building around them, Sasuke felt something that wasn't fear or confusion or desperate hope.

He felt free.

Not because of his bloodline or his techniques or his political position. Free because he was choosing this. Because he was choosing Gojo. Choosing the bond. Choosing a future that belonged to them rather than to the villages that had spent years deciding his fate without consulting him.

And if that future required letting go of the control he'd clung to since childhood... well, maybe it was time to discover what lay on the other side of surrender.

Chapter 5 Teaser: The Point of No Return

The first kiss changes everything. When barriers fall and heat builds, some moments demand absolute privacy. As political forces close in with containment protocols and elimination orders, Sasuke discovers that letting go of control might be the most powerful choice he's ever made.

Sometimes the most dangerous thing isn't an army outside your door.

Sometimes it's finally trusting someone completely.

Chapter Text

Dawn filtered through the temple walls, and Sasuke woke to discover they'd gravitated toward each other in sleep.

Gojo's arm was wrapped around his waist like he'd been claimed in the night. The alpha's scent hit his lungs with every breath, winter-sharp and addictive. The nest he'd built last night without thinking had gotten elaborate while he slept. Silk pillows and fabric arranged in patterns that spoke to some buried instinct he barely understood.

"Morning," Gojo said quietly. Sasuke heard the restraint there. The careful control that was clearly costing him more every hour.

"How long've you been awake?" Sasuke asked. He already recognized the answer from the tension radiating through their bond.

"A while. Your scent's been changing all night." Gojo's thumb traced lazy circles on Sasuke's hip. That simple touch sent heat shooting down his spine. "Your heat's just about here."

Outside the temple walls, Sasuke could sense all those forces. Now, two hundred shinobi and their leaders. Kage and elite jounin, ANBU operatives and village specialists. And more coming by the hour. Every single one radiating hostility and fear. Their chakra signatures pressed against the barrier, and it weighed on him. Triggered omega instincts that screamed for alpha protection in ways that made his jaw clench, even while his body responded.

Since when do I need protection? The thought pissed him off. I'm Sasuke fucking Uchiha for Gods sake. I don't need protection. They need protection from me. And since when do I want someone else claim me? What the fuck.

But underneath all that defiance, something else stirred. The part of him that remembered being seven and never good enough. Never strong enough. Too weak. Itachi's voice still echoed in his head sometimes, even knowing the twisted love behind those words. Never quite measuring up. Never being good enough for someone to choose him for himself.

Seventeen years of that bullshit, and his omega biology was finally offering him someone who might actually want to stay.

"They're planning something," he said. He tried to focus on politics instead of the way Gojo's touch was making his skin electric.

"Let them plan." Gojo's voice carried that divine arrogance, but underneath it was something hungrier. More possessive. "They can strategize all they want. Won't change what's happening between us."

What was happening between them. The bond that grew stronger by the hour. The attraction that was becoming impossible to ignore. The approaching heat that would complete their mating whether the outside world approved or not.

Sasuke turned in Gojo's arms. Finally met those devastating blue eyes. The alpha's pupils were dilated, his control hanging by a thread. Between them, the air crackled with tension and want and the promise of something inevitable.

"Gojo," Sasuke started, then stopped. What came next seemed too important for words.

Instead, he leaned closer.

Their first kiss was tentative. Questioning. Sasuke's lips against Gojo's like a whispered invitation. Soft, uncertain. Seventeen years of carefully constructed walls made even this simple contact overwhelming.

Gojo tasted like winter mornings and something that completely short-circuited Sasuke's brain. Crisp and clean and addictive in ways that had zero to do with biology and everything to do with want. His lips were ridiculously soft for a god who'd been sealed for centuries.

Of course, the ancient god has perfect lips, Sasuke thought distantly. Because my life wasn't complicated enough already.

The alpha's scent this close was completely overwhelming. Not the winter-sharp pheromones that made his pulse race, but something uniquely Gojo that spoke of infinite skies and the kind of power that could reshape reality because it wanted to. It wrapped around him like he was being claimed. triggered every buried omega response he'd never acknowledged, even while his mind tried to stay logical.

When Gojo touched his face, it was so gentle. Like he was handling something cracked and precious, something worth saving. The touch was warm. Human warm, not the cold perfection he'd expected from divinity. It was real and solid. Focused. Like he was the center of the universe.

The second kiss was desperate. Gojo kissed like he was drowning, and Sasuke was the only air left in the world, and he'd been starving for it for centuries. His hands tangled in dark hair, pulling him closer to deepen the kiss. When Sasuke's lips parted on a gasp, he took the invitation as permission to worship, his tongue sliding in, slow and hot, and Sasuke actually moaned into it, helpless.

Fuck. Gojo was losing it as Sasuke's taste hit his senses. It was complex and layered and absolutely right. Like dark honey with this edge of something that was pure him. Something that screamed fire and steel and all these hidden depths that Gojo hadn't even known he was searching for. Like he'd spent lifetimes looking and finally found it, right here.

Sasuke made this tiny, wrecked sound into his mouth. It was needy, soft and totally unintentional. Seventeen years of pretending he didn't need anyone, of thinking he was unworthy, untouchable, never allowed have this, and now here he was. Gojo's thumb tracing his cheek like he was priceless. Lips moving on his with that slow, patient hunger that turned his knees to water and made his whole body melt.

Christ, when did I become someone who makes desperate noises? Sasuke thought hazily. Next, I'll be purring like a house cat.

A sharp chakra flare from beyond the barrier made him tense for just a moment, but Satoru's hand tightened on his waist, pulling him closer with possessive certainty that said the outside world could wait.

Great. I'm officially a walking international incident, he thought grimly. At this rate I'll have started World War Five just by getting a boyfriend.

But Satoru's mouth against his made it hard to care about international politics right now.

"Is this okay?" Gojo murmured against his mouth. The consideration in that question, even now, even with alpha instincts clearly demanding he take what was being offered, made Sasuke's chest tight with something he couldn't name.

"More than okay," Sasuke breathed. He pulled him closer with hands that shook slightly. "Don't you dare stop."

The third kiss was exploration. Gojo's hands moved with deliberate slowness, like he was trying to memorize Sasuke's face through touch alone. Traced the elegant line of his jaw with fingertips that lingered, learning every detail, every patch of skin that heated under his attention. Threaded through dark hair that was absurdly soft, nails scraping gently against his scalp in a way that made Sasuke's eyes flutter closed.

Every touch was reverent, worshipful. Like he was handling something sacred that might shatter if he wasn't careful enough. But there was fire beneath the gentleness. The controlled intensity of a man barely restraining himself from devouring what he wanted most. The kind of restraint that whispered I could ruin you, but I won't. Not yet.

For Sasuke, every caress was a revelation. This wasn't clinical or violent or politically motivated. This was pure want, someone seeking to bring him pleasure and connection with no agenda, no games. It was almost absurd how alive his skin felt under Gojo's hands. Nerve endings he'd forgotten existed suddenly screaming for more contact, more pressure, more of the gentle exploration he'd never admitted to craving.

Since when do I have this many nerve endings? he thought distantly, fighting not to arch into the touch like some desperate thing. And since when do any of them work for anything besides pain? Apparently, my body's been holding out on me for seventeen years.

When Gojo's lips moved from his mouth to trail along his jaw, Sasuke's head dropped back with a gasp he couldn't suppress. The alpha's mouth was hot against his throat; tongue flicking out to taste salt and want and desperation before teeth grazed gently over his pulse point. Each touch lit him up from the inside, made his skin electric to every brush of fingers and lips, practically sparking under the attention.

Gojo's scent was everywhere now. Filling his lungs, sending his omega nature into overdrive with want. Each breath brought new waves of winter-crisp pheromones that made his skin tingle and his pulse race, made him want to bare his throat and submit in ways that would have horrified him a week ago. It was terrifying and addictive all at once.

"You smell incredible," Gojo whispered against his throat, voice rough with barely controlled want. The breath against his skin sent shivers down his spine. "Like home. Like everything I didn't realize I was missing."

And you smell like you could tear apart reality to keep me safe, Sasuke didn't say. Like you could make the whole world disappear and I'd thank you for it.

Gojo's hand slipped beneath the edge of Sasuke's shirt. Fingertips traced the angular ridges of his ribs with careful pressure, calloused thumbs brushing over skin that had forgotten how to expect gentleness. Touch-starved nerve endings woke up under the attention, goosebumps spreading everywhere, muscles jumping under each new contact like his body couldn't quite believe this was pleasure, not threat.

When Satoru's palm flattened against his ribs, tracking the frantic beat of his heart, Sasuke couldn't suppress the soft sound that escaped his throat. The alpha's other hand found the sharp line of his hip bone, thumb tracing the hollow inside it in a way that made liquid fire race through his veins and his breathing turn ragged.

Sasuke had forgotten how good simple contact could be. Had forgotten that his body was capable of anything except pain and tension and the constant readiness for violence. Now Satoru's mouth was hot against his throat, tongue flicking out to taste the salt on his skin before lips moved lower to press open-mouthed kisses to his collarbone. Every touch made him discover he had a body worth exploring, worth worshipping. Made him remember he was more than just a weapon wrapped in skin.

"Gojo," Sasuke whispered. The name came out more breathless than he'd intended.

"Satoru," Gojo corrected softly. His palm flat against Sasuke's ribs, tracking the rapid beat of his heart. "My name is Satoru."

Satoru. Given name. Intimate. Something shared between them that had nothing to do with divine titles or political complications or the growing crisis beyond the temple walls.

"Satoru," Sasuke repeated. Testing the shape of it on his tongue. The alpha shuddered like his name in Sasuke's voice was a physical caress. Like hearing it was worth more than worship.

"So responsive," Satoru murmured against his throat, lips following the path his fingers had traced. "I'm going to make you remember every touch, every sensation I give you."

The contact sent a shiver down Sasuke's spine that he couldn't suppress. Satoru's eyes darkened with satisfaction, like cataloging Sasuke's responses was its own form of worship.

Responsive. Right. Sasuke thought, fighting not to arch into every touch like he was starving for it. That's one way to put 'desperately touch-starved omega discovers he actually has nerve endings.' Who knew they worked for good things?

Seventeen years of believing himself fundamentally untouchable, and now this. Now hands that traced his collarbones like they were discovering hidden treasure. Now lips that pressed soft kisses to his throat while fingers explored the angular planes of his shoulder blades. Each touch was a shock to his system. Not painful, but overwhelming in its pleasure. Every caress made him want more, made him want to surrender completely and let Satoru take him right here in this sacred space. But some thread of rational thought still held him back, reminded him they were surrounded by political chaos and needed to be careful. The wanting was almost unbearable.

A soft sound escaped his throat without permission, almost like a purr, and he felt his face burn with embarrassment.

Satoru went absolutely still. When Sasuke dared to look up, those divine eyes were wide with wonder and something that looked suspiciously like pride.

"Did you just...?" Satoru's voice was rough with amazement. "Fuck, that's the most beautiful sound I've ever heard." His thumb traced Sasuke's lower lip with reverent gentleness. "I made you purr."

The embarrassment burned hotter, but so did something else. Something warm and precious at being treasured like this.

Great. Seventeen years of being the dangerous last Uchiha and I'm purring like a house cat. My reputation is officially dead.

"I'd forgotten," Sasuke admitted quietly, his voice rougher than he'd intended. "What it was like to be touched without someone wanting to fix me, use me, or prove a point."

The words hung between them, heavier than he'd meant them to be. Sasuke's jaw clenched, that familiar defensive wall trying to snap back into place.

"Actually, scratch that," he said, aiming for casual and missing by miles. "Hard to forget something you've never really had." His laugh came out bitter, self-deprecating. "Professional virgin here. What a shock, right? The last Uchiha, too emotionally constipated for anyone to want long-term."

The admission tasted like ash in his mouth, but once he'd started, he couldn't seem to stop. People had wanted him, sure. Karin's obsessive devotion, Sakura's persistent affection. But they'd wanted the idea of him, the tragic lone Uchiha, the beautiful broken thing they could fix. None of them had ever wanted the real him. The one who woke up screaming. Who carried seventeen years of too weak echoing in his head, his father's disappointed face, his brother's twisted love.

"Naruto never wanted me that way," he said quietly, the words scraping his throat raw. "No one ever has."

Shit. He hadn't meant to say that much. Hadn't meant to show that particular wound.

But Satoru had gone very, very still. His hands stilled their gentle exploration, blue eyes searching Sasuke's face with an intensity that made him want to look away.

"His loss," Satoru said simply, voice carrying that particular brand of divine arrogance that somehow made everything sound like fact rather than opinion. "Clearly Naruto has no taste and even less sense. What kind of idiot looks at you and doesn't want to worship every inch of that gorgeous face and body?" The casual confidence in his voice, like disinterest in Sasuke was obviously a character flaw rather than evidence of inadequacy, made something tight in Sasuke's chest loosen slightly. "And what kind of fool doesn't want the real you? The man behind all those walls and masks. The magnificent disaster who makes sarcastic comments about his own emotional revelations. Because that's who I see, and that's who I want."

The words found every carefully hidden wound and somehow made them feel less like flaws. Sasuke had to look away, overwhelmed by the casual certainty in Satoru's voice. Like being wanted for his flaws instead of despite them was the most natural thing in the world.

"You've never...?" Satoru continued, voice carrying wonder, not disgust. Not pity. "Anyone?"

Sasuke's throat ached. "Hard to build relationships when your brother tortured you, your father never thought you were good enough, and everyone you care about either dies or leaves." The words came out harsh, defensive. Meant to hurt before he could be hurt. "Plus, there was that whole 'revenge mission' thing. Not exactly conducive to romance."

The fear clawed at his chest now, cold and familiar. Because this was the part where people decided he was too much work. Too damaged. Too...

"Sasuke." Satoru's voice was soft, reverent. His hands came up to frame Sasuke's face with infinite gentleness. "Look at me."

Reluctantly, Sasuke met his eyes. Expected to see disappointment. Rejection. The same expression Naruto got when he looked at him sometimes. Fond but distant, like a friend helping a broken thing.

Instead, he saw something that made his breath catch.

Hunger. Wonder. Possession. Like Sasuke had given him the most precious gift imaginable.

"You're telling me," Satoru said slowly, his thumbs tracing Sasuke's cheekbones, "that no one has ever touched you like this? No one has ever made you gasp. No one has ever worshipped this beautiful face and body the way they deserve?"

Sasuke's face burned hot. "I wouldn't know good touch from bad, so... low bar to clear."

Satoru's expression grew fierce. "Then I'm going to be your first everything," he said, voice dropping to something dark and promising that made heat pool low in Sasuke's belly. "First to make you mine."

The words hit deeper than physical touch. Sasuke had to close his eyes for a moment, processing the absolute certainty in that voice, the way it made his whole body respond with a rush of want so intense it was almost painful. Like being chosen was inevitable rather than some impossible dream.

When he opened them again, Satoru was watching him with infinite patience. But something else flickered in those blue depths, surprise, wonder, and unmistakable hunger. Because Sasuke's Rinnegan had begun to pulse with soft purple light, responding to the emotional intensity, to the bond deepening between them.

"Your eye," Satoru breathed, reaching up to trace the concentric rings with reverent fingertips. "It's beautiful. And it's seeing something, isn't it?"

The kiss that followed was different. Slower. More deliberate. Satoru's mouth moved against his like he was savoring every second, every taste, every soft sound Sasuke made. His hands mapped skin with careful reverence, fingertips tracing the line of Sasuke's throat, the elegant angle of his collarbone, the sensitive hollow below his ear that made him shiver and press closer with desperate need.

Sasuke could only nod, lost in the feeling of warm lips pressing open-mouthed kisses to his pulse point, teeth grazing gently over skin that had never known gentle attention. Satoru's hands slipped beneath his shirt properly now, palms flat against his ribs, thumbs brushing under his nipples in a way that made him gasp and arch into the touch. Heat crawled under his skin like fire ants, making everything too tight, too much, not nearly enough. He could feel himself hardening, his breathing becoming uneven as Satoru's mouth worked against his throat with deliberate intent.

"I'm going to learn every sound you make," Satoru promised, voice rough with want. "Every place that makes you melt. Every way to bring you pleasure." His mouth found that spot where neck met shoulder, sucking gently in a way that made Sasuke's knees buckle. "And I'm going to make sure you never doubt again that you're wanted. That you're chosen. That you're exactly who I've been waiting for."

Satoru's expression grew fierce. "There's no agenda here," he said. Voice carrying that divine arrogance but tempered with something infinitely tender. "Nothing except me wanting to learn every sound you make, every place that makes you gasp, every way I can bring you pleasure."

As if to prove the point, his fingers found that sensitive spot again. Applied just enough pressure to make Sasuke's breath catch and his hips jerk involuntarily toward the touch. The alpha was learning his body with the same focus he probably brought to reality manipulation. The attention was overwhelming and addictive and everything Sasuke had never realized he wanted.

Outside the temple, he could sense the assembled forces growing more agitated by the minute. Their chakra signatures pressing against the barriers. Whatever they were planning, it was building toward a confrontation that would force choices none of them were ready to make.

"And did you find it?" Sasuke asked quietly. Echoing their earlier conversation.

Satoru's smile was radiant and hungry and full of promises. "I found everything I didn't even know I was looking for."

Before Sasuke could respond, before he could process the absolute certainty in those words, Satoru was kissing him again. Slower this time. Thorough. With the kind of careful attention that made Sasuke forget everything that wasn't the taste of winter air and divine power and hands that touched him like he was something precious.

Satoru's tongue slipped past his lips, exploring with deliberate patience that made Sasuke's knees weak and his hands desperate for purchase. Every stroke sent heat shooting through his system like lightning. The alpha's hands were everywhere now, tracing the line of his spine, mapping the curve of his waist, fingers finding the hem of his shirt and sliding underneath to explore warm skin with increasing urgency.

The barrier hummed ominously outside, voices rising in what sounded like heated debate, but Sasuke pressed closer anyway, desperate for more contact, his own hands fisting in Satoru's clothes as breathing became increasingly difficult. Whatever was happening out there could wait. Nothing mattered except the way Satoru was systematically taking him apart with nothing but touch and want.

The alpha's scent was intoxicating this close. Winter mornings and starlight, but underneath that, something that tasted like freedom. Like standing at the edge of forever and choosing to jump. It wrapped around Sasuke like a protective barrier. made something primal in him settle and hunger simultaneously. He could sense his own scent changing in response. Becoming richer, more inviting. That cedar and smoke signature deepening into something that called to his chosen alpha with biological certainty that bypassed conscious thought entirely.

Mine, Satoru's alpha instincts roared. Through their growing bond, Sasuke could sense the fierce possessiveness and tender protection that thought carried. Mine to touch, mine to please, mine to keep safe from everything that wants to hurt him.

Yours, Sasuke found himself thinking back. The word should have terrified him. Instead, it was like coming home. Yours to claim, yours to choose, yours to stand with against whatever comes.

Heat flared through Sasuke like wildfire catching tinder. Not the omega heat he'd been fighting, but something that felt like coming alive for the first time. More fundamental. The bond between them flared to life, carrying sensation and emotion and the devastating realization that this was what he'd been missing his entire life.

This recognition. Like two halves of the same impossible equation finally solving themselves. This understanding of being chosen not for power or bloodline or political value, but for himself. For the man who made sarcastic comments about his own emotional revelations and fought the urge to purr under gentle hands.

The approaching heat cycle thrummed under his skin now. No longer something to be suppressed but something inevitable. His body was now prepared for claiming, balanced on the edge of complete surrender with biological certainty that made rational thought increasingly difficult. Each touch from Satoru sent waves of need through his system. Omega biology demanded more contact, more scent, more of everything this alpha was willing to give.

Seventeen years of thinking I was broken, he thought hazily as Satoru's thumb traced patterns on his ribs. Turns out I needed the right person to break me apart.

When they finally came up for air, both of them breathing hard, Satoru pressed his forehead against Sasuke's. His hands were still mapping skin. Gentle and possessive and totally focused on Sasuke's responses. The alpha's pupils were blown so wide there was barely any blue left, his control hanging by threads, but his touch stayed careful. Reverent.

Sasuke could feel the evidence of Satoru's arousal pressed against his hip, could feel his own body hum with tension and want. They were both trembling with restraint, caught between wanting to tear each other's clothes off and knowing they needed to maintain some semblance of control with political chaos raging outside. The air between them was highly charged with want and the promise of everything they couldn't quite have yet.

They stayed like that for a long moment, breathing hard, trying to regain some equilibrium while their bodies screamed for more. Finally, Sasuke became aware that his Rinnegan was still pulsing softly, responding to something in their surroundings.

"Your Rinnegan," Satoru said softly, noticing his distraction. Still tracing those purple rings with gentle fingers. "It's been showing you things, hasn't it? The way this place exists between spaces. The dimensional threads holding it here."

Sasuke blinked, his vision shifting as he really looked at their surroundings for the first time since the kissing started. "This place... it's not really anchored to one reality, is it?"

Satoru's grin was pure satisfaction. "I wondered when you'd put it together completely. You've been sensing the dimensional instability for days, but understanding the full scope..." He gestured to the temple around them. "That takes focus you haven't exactly had with everything else going on."

The smugness in that voice should have been irritating. Instead, Sasuke found it oddly charming. Apparently bonding with an ancient god came with a side effect of finding divine arrogance attractive.

Add that to the list of things that would have horrified me a week ago. Right after 'purring at inappropriate moments' and 'wanting someone to claim me against the world.'

"Explain," he said. His Rinnegan was already showing him pieces of the truth.

Sasuke could see it now through his Rinnegan. The temple existed like a song sung in multiple keys, anchored here but harmonizing with realities that hummed just beyond perception. Anchored in multiple realities simultaneously. It was architectural impossibility made manifest through divine power and ancient sorcery. Each thread of dimensional energy pulsed with potential. Waiting for the right combination of power to reshape them entirely.

"The seal that trapped me was designed to create a pocket of stable reality," Gojo explained. He moved to stand behind Sasuke. His hands settled on Sasuke's shoulders. Even that simple contact sent electricity down his spine. "A divine prison, if you will. But prisons work both ways."

"You've been studying the architecture," he realized.

"I've had a very long time to understand exactly how my cage was built." Gojo's hands moved to his waist. Pulled him back against the alpha's chest. The contact made Sasuke's breath catch. Heat and want making it difficult to focus on dimensional theory. "And how it might be... relocated."

The implications sent a thrill through Sasuke that had nothing to do with approaching heat. "We could move it."

"With the right power combination, yes. Your Rinnegan can see the dimensional threads. My divine energy can manipulate them. Together..."

Together, they could take their sanctuary anywhere they wanted. Away from political pressure and military threats and the constant weight of two hundred people trying to decide their fate.

A particularly loud shout from beyond the barrier made them both look toward the entrance. The forces outside were getting more agitated by the hour, their chakra signatures pressing against the dimensional walls like a storm waiting to break.

"Where would we go?" Sasuke asked, already recognizing the answer.

"Somewhere private. Somewhere we can focus on more important things than international incidents."

More important things. Like the heat he couldn't hold back anymore. Like the bond that needed completion without external interference. Like discovering what lay on the other side of surrender.

"When?" he asked, already recognizing he couldn't wait much longer. The heat was building faster now, making rational thought increasingly difficult.

"Now," Satoru said firmly, his own control clearly fraying at the edges. "Right fucking now. I'm done sharing you with their political bullshit."

As if summoned by their mutual frustration, alarms began blaring outside the temple. The chakra signatures beyond the barrier spiked with sudden urgency.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Sasuke snarled, heat and irritation making him snappish. "Can't they give us five minutes without..." He paused, a wicked thought crossing his mind. "You know what? I could use Almighty Push and blast them all into next week."

"Tempting, but you've already started World War Five just by getting a boyfriend. Maybe we don't escalate to full terrorism." His grin turned absolutely feral. "Let's have fun with them instead and give them a parting gift."

With a casual wave of his hand, golden light began writing a message across the sky above the temple. Letters massive enough to be seen for miles, while the assembled forces below scrambled to understand what was happening:

NOTICE: MANAGEMENT REQUESTS PRIVACY FOR IMPORTANT NEGOTIATIONS

"Satoru," Sasuke said, torn between exasperation and laughter as more alarms started blaring and chakra signatures spiked with panic. "Important negotiations?"

"What? It's technically true," Satoru replied with mock innocence. "We're negotiating the terms of your surrender."

The message shifted:

UPDATE: NEGOTIATIONS PROCEEDING SMOOTHLY: DO NOT INTERRUPT

"You're going to give them heart attacks," Sasuke said, but he was grinning now despite himself.

"Good. Maybe they'll learn not to interrupt when gods are busy claiming each other." Satoru's hands found Sasuke's waist, pulling him close as reality began to shimmer around them. Their combined chakra started to flare. Sasuke's deep purple mixing with Satoru's brilliant blue to create something entirely new. "Ready to disappear and scandalize an entire coalition?"

Through their bond, Sasuke could sense two hundred chakra signatures spiking with panic. Whatever they were detecting on their instruments was probably causing heart attacks.

"Should we tell them we're fine?" he asked.

"Where's the fun in that?" Satoru's grin was pure mischief. "Let them sweat."

Outside, Sasuke could sense the absolute chaos erupting as their instruments went haywire and the dimensional fabric started unraveling. The shinobi and their leaders suddenly realizing they were dealing with entities beyond any containment protocol they'd ever conceived.

"Let's get out of here before I lose what's left of my patience," Sasuke breathed against Satoru's lips. "And before I stop caring about collateral damage."

Satoru's smile was pure sin. "Hold on tight. This is going to be fun. And probably traumatize half the shinobi world."

In the hastily erected command center half a mile from the barrier, chaos erupted as their instruments went completely haywire.

"What the hell is happening?" Darui demanded. His usual calm cracking as he studied readings that made no sense. The Raikage's pragmatic approach to crisis management wasn't equipped for supernatural phenomena.

Dr. Yamamoto stared at her scanner in disbelief. "The dimensional stability around the temple... it's fluctuating wildly. Like something's preparing to tear holes in reality itself."

"Preparing to what?" Chojuro leaned over the readings. His analytical mind struggling to process the implications. As Mizukage, he'd dealt with unusual chakra phenomena before, but nothing on this scale.

"Dimensional travel. They're not trapped in there anymore. They're planning to leave."

The implications crashed over the assembled leadership like a tsunami. Because if the temple could move between dimensions, if Sasuke and whatever he'd bonded with could simply vanish into spaces between worlds, then every containment protocol they'd discussed became meaningless.

"Damn it." Darui's strategic mind was already calculating the ramifications of entities that existed beyond conventional understanding. "If they can just vanish between dimensions, every protocol we've discussed becomes useless."

"Worse than useless," Kakashi said quietly, pieces clicking together. "We're not just dealing with dimensional travel. If Sasuke's bonded with something that can manipulate reality on a fundamental level..."

"Then we're dealing with entities that exist beyond our ability to contain or control," Shikamaru finished. His strategic assessment growing grimmer by the moment.

Before anyone could respond, the tent flaps opened to admit a group that made several people reach for weapons. Tsunade entered with the kind of purposeful stride that meant she'd been traveling hard to get here. Ino and Sai followed in full ANBU gear.

"Someone want to explain why most of the Kage and their advisors are assembled around what appears to be a structurally impossible building that's currently shimmering like a mirage?" Tsunade demanded. Her medical expertise already focused on the energy readings.

"Sasuke," Naruto said bitterly. His voice carrying frustration and mounting anger at the loss of their connection. "When isn't it Sasuke?" The single name would explain everything to someone who'd been there through all of his struggles.

Ino's mental abilities were already reaching toward the temple. Trying to sense what lay beyond the barrier. "There are two distinct consciousness signatures in there, but they're... intertwined. Like they're sharing mental space."

"Sharing how?" Sai asked with clinical interest. His ROOT training made him approach unusual phenomena with detached analysis.

"Like they're bonded on a level that goes beyond anything in our psychological frameworks," Ino replied. Strain clear in her voice as she tried to process what she was sensing. "It's not emotional connection. They're becoming something unified."

Before anyone could respond to that disturbing revelation, new chakra signatures appeared on the perimeter. Three familiar presences that made Naruto's heart skip with recognition and dread.

"Team Taka," he breathed.

Sure enough, Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo were approaching the command center with the kind of casual confidence that suggested they'd been traveling hard to get here.

"So," Suigetsu drawled as they entered the tent, taking in the assembled international forces with obvious amusement. "Looks like our boy Sasuke's finally gone and done something properly dramatic. Someone want to fill us in on the specifics?"

"We came as soon as we heard the reports," Jugo said more seriously. "Dimensional distortions, reality manipulation, impossible chakra readings. All centered around a location Sasuke was investigating. We assumed he'd found something significant."

"Significant," Gaara said quietly from where he'd been observing, his voice carrying that particular weight that made everyone listen. "That's one word for it. Though I suspect we're dealing with something far beyond our usual understanding of power."

"Sasuke," Karin said bluntly. Her sensor abilities already focused on the temple. Her face went pale as she processed what she was detecting. "He's in there, and his chakra... it's completely different. Stronger, but also intertwined with something else. Like two signatures becoming one."

"The readings are off the charts," Darui said grimly. His practical mind trying to categorize threats and responses. "Whatever's in there with him is beyond anything we've seen."

"Something powerful enough to make my sensors scream warnings," Karin replied. Unconsciously taking a step back from the temple's direction. "Something that shouldn't exist according to any biological framework we understand."

Jugo stepped forward. His calm presence a stark contrast to the growing panic. "You're all talking about containment and control like Sasuke doesn't have a choice in this. He's not some victim being manipulated. When has Sasuke ever done anything he didn't want to do?"

"His choice, yes," Chojuro said bluntly, his analytical approach cutting through emotional considerations. "But when that choice could destabilize reality itself, individual agency becomes a luxury we can't afford."

As if summoned by the escalating tension, two more figures appeared at the tent entrance. Orochimaru's distinctive pale features and Yamato's wooden restraints drew weapons from half the assembled shinobi before anyone recognized them.

"Now this is fascinating," Orochimaru said. His golden eyes fixed on the temple with obvious scientific delight. "Sasuke-kun has always been full of surprises, but this... this exceeds even my wildest hypotheses."

"Orochimaru," Naruto growled. His protective instincts flaring. "What are you doing here?"

"Following where the wind takes me, as always," Orochimaru replied with that familiar predatory smile. "And currently, the wind carries the scent of unprecedented biological transformation. When reports reached me of impossible chakra readings and dimensional distortions centered around my former test subject, I simply had to investigate."

The reminder of past experiments made Sasuke's former teammates tense. But Yamato stepped forward with professional calm.

"We're here under Hokage authorization," he said. Indicating the wooden restraints that bound the Sannin. "Kakashi-sensei approved limited research assistance in exchange for Orochimaru's cooperation and expertise."

"You WHAT?!" Naruto exploded, rounding on Kakashi with betrayal written across his face. "You let HIM come here? After everything he did to Sasuke?!"

Kakashi met his student's furious gaze calmly. "Orochimaru might be able to offer unique insights due to his... previous testing of Sasuke during his teenage years," he said quietly. "If we're dealing with biological transformation that could kill him, we need someone who understands his physiology."

"I don't care if he's the world's leading expert on..."

"Naruto." Kakashi's voice carried the weight of command. "This isn't about forgiveness. It's about keeping Sasuke alive."

"Expertise in what?" Sakura demanded. Her medical training making her both curious and horrified about what Orochimaru might understand.

"In how someone with normal biological presentation could undergo such a dramatic transformation without dying from the strain," Orochimaru replied. His scientific excitement barely contained. "The readings I'm detecting suggest changes that go far beyond normal chakra fluctuation. This is genetic awakening on a scale that should be biologically impossible."

Tsunade stepped closer to the readings. Her legendary medical knowledge processing the implications. "Genetic awakening of what?"

"Rare biological presentations," Dr. Yamamoto said quietly. Her medical training allowing her to recognize what others couldn't. "Ancient genetic traits that haven't been active for generations. What our ancestors might have called alpha and omega dynamics."

"You're saying Sasuke is..." Ino trailed off. Her mental abilities providing context that made the words difficult to speak.

"Presenting as what the old texts called omega," Tsunade said grimly. "Something that hasn't occurred naturally in centuries. We're witnessing a genetic awakening that should be impossible." She was one of the few with enough medical knowledge to understand the implications. "And bonded to something that registers as the most powerful alpha signature any of us have ever encountered."

Before anyone could fully process the ramifications, massive golden letters began appearing in the sky above them. Words that could be read for miles, written in divine light that made their instruments shriek in protest:

DO NOT DISTURB: MANAGEMENT IS BUSY

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Darui muttered, staring up at the sky in disbelief.

The message dissolved, replaced immediately by:

GONE FISHING

HONEYMOON IN PROGRESS

YOUR POLITICAL CRISIS IS CUTE BUT WE HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO

"Are they... taunting us?" Chojuro asked faintly, his analytical mind struggling to process divine entities with a sense of humor.

"I think they're flirting," Suigetsu said with obvious delight. "Finally someone's getting the stick out of Sasuke's ass. About damn time he found someone who can match his drama levels."

"This is rapidly spiraling beyond any containment protocol we've ever conceived," Kurotsuchi said dryly, her practical nature cutting through the absurdity. "We're dealing with entities that think international crises are comedy material."

"HONEYMOON?!" Naruto exploded, his voice cracking. "They're getting MARRIED?!"

"Magnificent," Orochimaru said with obvious delight, golden eyes fixed on the swirling chakra with scientific delight. "Such delicious chaos. I do so love a good transformation scene."

Before anyone could respond, the temple began to glow.

Not the steady golden light they'd grown accustomed to, but something entirely new. Swirling bands of deep purple mixed with brilliant blue, more variations than the eye could see, building in intensity until they suddenly burst outward in what could only be described as fireworks. Streams of light exploded across the sky like the most beautiful celebration anyone had ever seen, patterns that spoke of two souls becoming one, energy that was ancient and powerful and somehow joyful. The display was so breathtaking that even in the midst of political crisis, everyone stopped to stare.

"What the hell is that?" Darui breathed, staring at the light show.

"Two distinct chakra signatures merging," Karin whispered, her sensor abilities overwhelmed. "They're... they're becoming something unified."

Then the temple began to fade. Not vanishing exactly, but becoming translucent. Insubstantial. The energy readings on their instruments went haywire as dimensional distortions spread outward from the structure.

"They're leaving," Dr. Yamamoto whispered, watching her scanner display impossible readings.

"We have to stop them," Naruto said desperately, his voice raw. "We have to..."

"Stop them how?" Sakura snapped back, her own emotions finally spilling over. "By fighting Sasuke? By fighting a god? By dragging him back when he may have finally found something that makes him happy? Something that might actually want him back?"

"Good for who?" Sakura asked quietly, something pointed in her voice.

Naruto's hands clenched into fists. "For... for us. For everyone who cares about him. Every time we get close, every time he lets us in even a little bit, he disappears." His voice cracked. "After the war, things were finally getting better. He was coming around more, staying for dinner sometimes, actually talking to us instead of mission reports. And then this."

"Naruto," Kakashi said gently, trying to redirect before this went further.

"No, I..." Naruto's voice broke completely. "I thought... I thought maybe he was finally ready to be happy. Here. With us. With..." He couldn't finish the sentence, but the weight of unspoken words hung heavy in the air.

"With you," Sakura finished softly, understanding flooding her expression. "You thought he might finally be ready to be happy with you."

The silence that followed was brutal. What had been exposed earlier was devastating enough. The conditional nature of Naruto's love laid bare. Now Sakura was digging deeper into the unfairness of it all, and doing it in front of everyone who mattered politically.

She took a shaky breath, years of watching this painful triangle finally boiling over. "And you know what, Naruto? You made your choice. You picked Hinata. You married her, had children with her. You can't have both. It's not fair to either of them. You can't keep Sasuke hanging on as your 'what if' while you're building a family with someone else."

Her voice softened slightly, but the truth in it was devastating. "I learned to let him go because I realized loving someone sometimes means wanting what's best for them, even when it's not you. Maybe it's time you learned that too."

The words slammed into him like a lightning strike. Naruto staggered back, face white with shock and shame.

"That's not... I didn't..." But the protest died on his lips because they all recognized it was true.

"You did," Sakura said more gently, her voice heavy with sadness for all of them. "And maybe that's why he may have finally found the courage to run toward something instead of away from it. Because maybe he has finally found someone who has chosen him completely."

"And they just... announced their intentions to the entire shinobi world," Kakashi said slowly, a note of what might have been admiration in his voice.

As they watched, the temple became completely transparent, then disappeared entirely. The only evidence it had ever existed was a massive crater where the structure had been. Easily a hundred meters across and perfectly circular, as if reality itself had been scooped out. The lingering traces of chakra that made their instruments screech in protest swirled around the crater's edges, and those golden letters still blazed across the sky for all two hundred assembled shinobi to see.

The letters that now read: THANKS FOR THE WEDDING GUESTS! THE MANAGEMENT

"Well," Chojuro said after a long moment, staring down into the impossibly deep crater. "That's... one hell of a calling card."

"They erased a chunk of the landscape," Darui muttered, his strategic mind trying to process the casual display of power. "Like it never existed."

In a pocket of dimensional space that existed between heartbeats and possibilities, the temple rematerialized in perfect silence.

Sasuke gasped as reality settled around them. His Rinnegan still tracking the dimensional threads they'd followed to get here. The experience of moving between worlds was unlike anything he'd ever experienced. Like being turned inside out and reassembled, but in the most incredible way possible.

"Where are we?" he asked, voice breathless from the transition and the way Satoru's hands had never moved from his waist during the journey.

"Nowhere special," Satoru replied, though his smile suggested otherwise. His arms tightened around Sasuke possessively. "A quiet corner of existence where no one can bother us for a while. No political coalitions, no military threats, no interruptions."

The temple looked exactly the same, but something about the quality of light was different. Softer. More intimate. Like the space itself was responding to their need for privacy. The air was thick with possibility, charged with the kind of energy that came from having infinite time and absolute solitude.

"As long as we want," Satoru said, backing him slowly toward the nest of silk and pillows. "Time moves differently here. We could spend days exploring each other, and only hours would pass in your world."

The implications sent a shiver through Sasuke that had everything to do with want and nothing to do with fear. Days without any interruptions. Days to learn what it actually meant to belong to someone completely.

"The heat's starting," Sasuke whispered, already pulling at Satoru's shirt with shaking hands. His whole body was thrumming with need, skin too tight, every nerve ending screaming for more contact. The way Satoru was looking at him, breathing uneven, barely controlled hunger written across his features, made something deep in his belly clench with want.

"I know," Satoru replied, catching his hands and bringing them to his lips to press gentle kisses to his knuckles. His own breathing was uneven, barely controlled desire clear in his voice. "Are you ready to let go? To let me worship every inch of you until you forget everything except my name?"

Seventeen years of careful control. A lifetime of barriers built to keep the world out. Seventeen years of believing he was fundamentally broken, unworthy of being chosen.

All of it was about to shatter against something bigger than fear or politics or the weight of being the last.

"Yes," Sasuke breathed, and surrendered to the fire in his blood. His hands fisted in Satoru's shirt, pulling him closer with desperate need, bodies pressing together with barely restrained hunger. "Make me yours. Now. Please."

Chapter 6 Teaser: Heat and Heart

In the space between worlds, time moves differently. Days can seem like forever when every moment is filled with discovery, desire, and the deep satisfaction of finally being chosen. As Sasuke's heat peaks and Gojo's rut begins, they'll learn what it means to be completed by another soul. Some bonds are worth surrendering everything for.

Some love is worth the fire.

Chapter Text

He had never dared to ask for forever until now.

"Make me yours. Now. Please."

The words scorched his lips, and heat blazed through him in a rush that stole his breath and left him collapsing into Satoru's arms. His body spasmed with need so raw it ached in his bones, lightning rushing his system trembling like the heat inside was searching for release. His brain usually so quick to analyze was useless now, short-circuiting, blank. The way his body seemed to have its own agenda, the way omega instincts he'd never experienced were suddenly barking orders his mind couldn't decode. What the hell? My body's acting like it has a manual I've never read. But even his internal commentary was fading into white noise.

Satoru caught him without thinking, voice catching against his ear. "That's it," he said, kissing Sasuke's knuckles before pulling him closer. "Let go. Let me in."

No control left, no space for his usual overthinking. Just raw want. Years of defenses dissolving under biology he'd never felt before.

"Fuck," Sasuke gasped, catching himself on silk pillows as another wave hit. The fever climbed higher with every breath, every thought burned away by Satoru's scent.

"Sasuke." Satoru's voice had gone rough, unfamiliar. His scent was shifting too, heavier now, threaded with something that made Sasuke's instincts sit up and take notice. "Your heat... it's triggering my rut."

For a second Sasuke froze, but his body had other ideas. His pulse jumped, fever spiking higher, lightning rushing his system demanding to be touched. The raw honesty in Satoru's voice, the way he was shaking with the effort of holding back, sent a shiver through him that had nothing to do with fear.

The air between them felt charged, Satoru's scent layered with power barely contained. His body knew what it was even if his mind had no words, instincts reaching for something he'd never understood before. And somewhere in the divine intensity rolling off his alpha, Sasuke caught something else, a flicker of uncertainty that felt almost human. Like for all his godly power, Satoru was just as overwhelmed by what was happening between them.

Great. Years of emotional constipation and now I'm a walking furnace who can't think straight. Even his usual overthinking was being drowned out by biology screaming for him to be claimed.

When Satoru pressed their foreheads together, gentleness cut through the storm. "Mine," he whispered, like the word itself could anchor them through whatever was coming.

"That's... how it works, isn't it?" Sasuke managed, his voice already wrecked in ways that would've mortified him yesterday. "Means we're compatible. That you want me."

Because Satoru's composure was cracking, divine restraint giving way to something human and urgent. His fists clenched tight, body wound against instinct. But when Sasuke saw the hunger in his eyes, felt the pull of his scent, he couldn't stop what came next.

"Means we belong together," he said, rough and shaky.

Satoru's fists slowly opened. He cupped Sasuke's face with trembling hands, voice breaking with hunger and something softer. "We always have."

The words sank straight into him, scattering what little composure he had left. Rational thought slipped like water through his fingers, leaving only heat and the desperate need to be touched, claimed, filled until the ache finally eased.

Satoru moved closer, and Sasuke's instincts practically purred. The alpha's pheromones pressed heavy around him, answered by his own scent spilling into the air, humiliating in how eager it was. His face flushed even through the haze.

"I need..." Sasuke started, then faltered. The ache tearing through him had no shape, no language, only instincts screaming for his alpha. His body already knew what his mouth couldn't say, shaking with need to be touched, filled, claimed.

"I know," Gojo said, voice rougher than before, threaded with alpha command that made Sasuke's knees weak. "And I need to give it to you. Need to take you, leave my mark on you, make sure everyone knows you’re mine."

He should have been alarmed by the possessive edge. Instead, heat flared low and urgent in his belly.

"Tell me," Gojo said, settling beside him in the nest, every movement straining with restraint. "Tell me what you want."

The gentleness, even now, cracked something open in Sasuke's chest.

"You," he whispered, throat raw. "I want you. Everything you are."

Satoru's pupils widened. His hands framed Sasuke's face with careful gentleness. "Are you sure?" he asked quietly, though Sasuke could see what it cost him to hold back when his rut was demanding he take. "Because once I claim you, there's no going back. You'll be mine completely, and I'll be yours."

Forever should have terrified him. Instead, it settled something desperate in the pit of his stomach.

"I've never been sure of anything in my life," Sasuke said, leaning into those hands. "Except this. Except you."

Satoru's smile was brilliant and hungry and full of promises. "Then let me take care of you."

The kiss was nothing like before. Desperate now, fueled by biology and certainty. Sasuke melted into it with a helpless sound that would have mortified him if he had any pride left.

Satoru's hands moved to his shirt, fumbling with buttons, too eager to be careful. Each brush of knuckles against overheated skin sent heat straight to his cock, made him arch into the touch without any dignity left to lose.

Gojo's mouth found his jaw, voice low and aching. "I could spend eternity learning the ways you fall apart for me."

Those words landed deeper than any praise, carrying weight that had nothing to do with looks and everything to do with belonging. Like he was exactly what Gojo had been searching for, the answer to instincts that would accept nothing less.

"I'm not worth that," Sasuke managed, though his voice broke as Satoru's mouth found that spot below his ear. "More like a disaster with abandonment issues and a brother complex."

He meant it as deflection, but Gojo pulled back, eyes fierce with certainty. "You're worth more than you'll ever know. I want you. Every scar, every jagged piece, every wall you've built to survive."

Sasuke's throat went tight. People always wanted the image. The prodigy, the heir, the weapon. Never the reality.

Gojo's gaze softened. "I choose the real you."

"Even the part where I have no idea what I'm doing?" The words slipped out before he could stop them, carried on a wave of heat-induced honesty that bypassed his usual filters.

Gojo stilled. When Sasuke dared to look up, those blue eyes held something like reverence, but his voice carried something darker. "Especially that. You don't have to prove anything with me. Don't have to build your walls or think your untouchable. Just be here. Just be mine. That's all I want."

Sasuke let out a shaky breath, almost laughing at himself. "Embarrassing. My heat's turned me into someone who needs constant reassurance. God, I can't stop asking if you really want me." His voice went quiet. "I sound like an idiot."

Gojo's answering smile was equal parts tender and smug. "Not an idiot. Kind of adorable. You want to hear I want you?" He kissed Sasuke's forehead, lingered there, then whispered, "Then listen closely, because I'll keep saying it until it finally sinks in. I want you, Sasuke. Always."

Then his grin turned wicked, his tone cracked heat. "But I want more than to say it. I want to hear you beg for me. Not just for words, but for my hands, my mouth, my cock, everything I am. I want you to prove you need me as much as I need you. Say it. Beg me for it."

The command curled around Sasuke like wildfire, stoking the ache already tearing through him. Because that was the truth he couldn't hide. He wanted to be wanted, but he also wanted to prove he was choosing Satoru with the same hunger, the same desperation, the same consuming need to belong.

"I don't know how to give this back," Sasuke admitted, his voice rough. "Don't know how to be someone's omega, how to be claimed, how to beg." He gestured helplessly at the space between them, at his own body that felt like it belonged to someone else.

"You don’t have to know now," Gojo said, easing the shirt from his shoulders like it was precious. "But you will. I’ll take you apart until the only thing left on your lips is my name. You’ll beg without even thinking about it."

His tightness spiked in the pit of his stomach, embarrassment and want tangled together. He wanted to scoff, to roll his eyes and call it arrogance, but the truth was already burning through him. His body was trembling with need, his pride cracking under the weight of it. The thought of begging should have humiliated him. Instead, it made his chest tighten with anticipation.

His voice came out rough, stripped of its usual armor. "Then claim me completely, Alpha."

That single word nearly brought him to his knees. Gojo stilled, every muscle locking tight as if Sasuke had just yanked the leash off instincts he'd been holding back by force. His rut surged, intense and undeniable, flooding the room with his scent until the air itself felt heavy. For a heartbeat he could only stare, pupils blown wide, chest rising fast against Sasuke's.

Then his control cracked into a smile, hungry and reverent all at once. "You have no idea what that does to me," he said, voice low and trembling with restraint. His thumb stroked across Sasuke's cheekbone, tender even as his body shuddered with the urge to take. "Say it again, and I'll show you exactly what it means to belong to your Alpha."

He didn't wait for the words. When the last of Sasuke's shirt fell away, he drew a sharp breath, but this time he didn't hesitate. His hands roamed immediately, palms and mouth mapping scars not with pity but with hunger. "Fuck," he muttered against Sasuke's skin, his words rasped possession. "I'm the luckiest bastard alive. Every scar, every flaw, every inch of you—mine."

His mouth followed the words, pressing open-mouthed kisses to skin that had never known gentleness, each mark claimed with heat instead of pity. No one had ever touched him like this before. All his life, hands had measured him as a weapon, weighed him as an heir, pitied him as something fragile to mourn. Gojo’s touch was different: hunger making every scar proof of survival, every ridge something worth worshiping.

Each touch ripped a gasp from him; his fingers dug into Satoru’s shoulders, clinging for balance. The raw need in his body left no room for shame, only the overwhelming knowledge that Gojo wasn't flinching away from what he was. He was choosing it. Choosing him.

Sasuke would've thrown a sarcastic jab if not for the way those hands slid lower, brushing over the outline of his arousal through fabric. His mind blanked completely.

"Touch me,” he forced out, raw and unsteady." "Please, Satoru."

"I am touching you," Gojo teased, deliberately skirting where Sasuke needed him most.

"You know what I mean," Sasuke gasped, hips lifting shamelessly as skilled fingers traced patterns on his thighs. "Just... fuck, touch me already."

"But you're so gorgeous when you want something," Gojo drawled, finally working his pants down with agonizing slowness. "Like you don't even realize how much I want to give it all to you."

The first touch of skin against skin made Sasuke cry out, back arching as pleasure shot through him like lightning. Gojo's hand wrapped around him with perfect pressure, thumb teasing over the head until stars burst behind his eyes.

"God, look at you," Gojo said, his his tone cracked want. "So hard for me already. So ready to fall completely apart."

Gojo's free hand caught Sasuke's wrist and guided it down until his own fingers brushed against heated skin. Sasuke stiffened at the contact, eyes wide, but Gojo held him there, steady and unyielding.

"Yours too," he murmured, his voice carried reverence command. "Touch yourself. Show me what you’ve denied yourself all these years."

His tightness curling through his whole body, embarrassment and want tangled together. "I never…"

"I know," Gojo cut in softly, his hand covering Sasuke’s to guide the rhythm. "But you can. You should. You deserve to feel this."

The slick glide of his own hand was foreign, almost unbearable, years of restraint breaking apart with every stroke. It wasn’t humiliation so much as grief, the raw ache of realizing how long he had starved himself of this. His hips jerked helplessly into their joined hands, the edge rising fast.

"Perfect," Gojo said, eyes dark with reverence. "Don’t hold back. Touch yourself and keep your eyes on me. I want to see your face when you let go."

Sasuke’s hand closed fully around himself, the grip shaky, unfamiliar. He pumped once, twice, then again, the movement jerky at first before instinct took over. Each stroke sent heat tearing through him, broken whimpers spilling from his lips no matter how hard he tried to bite them back.

Gojo leaned close, watching every flicker of pleasure on his face. "That’s it," he murmured, voice low and commanding. "Stroke yourself. Let me hear you. Let me see what no one else has ever seen. You’re so unreal when you come undone."

The words scorched through him, adding fuel to the fire. Sasuke’s body trembled, whimpers escaping in quick succession as his strokes grew faster, the inevitability of it making his chest heave. His eyes stayed locked on Gojo’s, blue burning into black, the weight of being watched only pushing him harder.

He was right there, on the edge, his body tightening with the promise of release.

And then Gojo’s hand closed over his, stopping the rhythm. The loss hit like a slap, his body jerking in protest, anger flaring intense and hot. His eyes flew open, ready to snarl, ready to demand.

But before he could speak, heat engulfed him. Wet, hot, and relentless. Gojo’s had taken his cock deep in his mouth and the shock stole his voice, rage dissolving instantly into raw sensation. His own hand fell uselessly to the sheets as his back arched hard off the pillows.

No one should want me like this, the thought flared, jagged and ashamed. So why does it feel so good? The shame only twisted tighter when he saw the hunger in Gojo’s eyes, as if this was exactly what he craved.

Gojo hummed around him, tongue working with merciless precision, and the vibration tore a cry from his throat. The suction, the wet pull of his mouth, was nothing he had ever imagined. Every flick of his tongue lit him up, left him shaking, clutching at white hair like it was the only thing keeping him tethered.

Sasuke’s body went taut, thighs trembling, every whimper sharper than the last. The edge was rushing up too fast, his chest heaving as he clutched at Gojo’s hair like he might fall apart any second.

Gojo pulled back just long enough to rasp, his words rasped hunger, "Not yet. You’re too close. I want to savor this. I want you undone slowly."

"Satoru, please," Sasuke gasped, his voice breaking on the edge.

"I know," Gojo said, his tone dark with promise. "And I will. But not until I’ve had my fill of you."

Then his mouth was on him again, slower this time, tongue dragging along the underside, lips sealing around him with deliberate, devastating care. He alternated between deep pulls and teasing flicks, each shift wringing more desperate sounds from Sasuke’s throat.

The pressure built mercilessly, lightning rushing his system sparking, his chest heaving as the climax built too fast to stop.

"Please," Sasuke choked, raw and unguarded. "I can’t… hold it."

"Then don't," Gojo commanded, eyes blazing up at him. "Come for me now. Let me taste you coming apart."

The permission, the raw authority in that voice, shattered what was left of his control. Sasuke came with a broken cry, body convulsing as waves of pleasure swept through him in rolling surges. Gojo took everything, working him through each shudder with relentless skill, not stopping until Sasuke was shaking from overstimulation, utterly spent.

When he finally pulled away, his smile was pure predatory satisfaction, lips swollen and slick. "Perfect," he rasped, pressing possessive kisses to Sasuke's hipbone as the omega tried to remember how to breathe. "So beautiful when you come for me. Sweetest thing I've ever tasted." Sweet. The one thing I can’t stand, and somehow, he makes it fit.

But even through the haze of release, Sasuke couldn’t stop the shock of it from sinking in. He had never felt anything like that, never known his body could come apart like that. And that was only Gojo’s mouth, only his tongue and command pulling him apart. The thought of what it would be like when he was truly taken, when Gojo was inside him, when nothing was hidden, when he was fully seen and claimed.

His body clenched, already stirring again. He’d thought release might ease the fire, but it only twisted tighter, left him hungrier, desperate for more.

Gojo’s eyes caught the renewed tension in his body, the way his hips shifted restlessly as if even now he needed more. A wicked grin tugged at his lips, tempered by something softer in his gaze.

"Insatiable," he murmured, his voice carried reverence hunger. "My greedy omega." The words weren’t scolding but drenched in adoration, a growl of awe at the hunger Sasuke couldn’t hide. His mouth dipped lower, closing around a nipple, teeth grazing just enough to make Sasuke gasp. "Don’t worry. I’m going to give you everything you need. Going to fill you so completely you’ll never doubt who you belong to."

As if to prove the point, he stripped out of his own clothes quickly, revealing godly perfection that made Sasuke's mouth water with want. When he settled back between Sasuke's legs, the heat of skin against skin sent fresh waves of need coursing through his system.

"Look at me," Gojo said softly, waiting until Sasuke met his eyes. "I need you to tell me if anything feels wrong, if you need me to stop. Can you do that for me?"

The gentleness in that request, even now when his rut was clearly driving him toward his own release, made Sasuke's chest ache with emotion. "I can do that," he whispered. "But Satoru... I don't want you to stop. I want everything you can give me."

"Everything," Gojo repeated, his voice carried reverence promise. "I'll give you everything, gorgeous. But first..." His hands moved between Sasuke's legs, fingers tracing patterns that made him shiver. "First I need to make sure you're ready for me."

Gojo was already working him open, but Sasuke’s body betrayed him in ways he hadn’t expected. Slick spilled out with every stretch of Gojo’s fingers, dripping down his thighs, making the preparation far too easy. He should have felt humiliated, but the sensation was intoxicating.  Warmth pooling and spreading until all he could do was shiver at how eager he seemed to be. This is what omega heat does? How did I never know? Why does my body act like it’s been waiting for this all along?

Gojo’s fingers slid out, and before Sasuke could catch his breath, he lifted them to his lips. His tongue flicked over the shine coating them, tasting him. The groan that rumbled from his chest made Sasuke’s face flame hotter than fire, and a strangled sound tore out of Sasuke’s throat. A half gasp, half whimper before he could bite it back.

He’s tasting me. The thought crashed through him, mixed with shame and something far more dangerous. He can’t… God, he shouldn’t… so why does it make me feel like this? His body tightened, clenching down around nothing, every part of him alive with sensation betraying him with lust.

“God, Sasuke,” Gojo murmured, his voice thick with awe. “Even the way you get ready for me is perfect."

Sasuke’s tightness curling deep inside him, mortification and want colliding, and a helpless sound broke from his throat when those fingers pressed back inside, stretching him with steady care.

"It’s normal,” Gojo said softly, though his voice was frayed with restraint. "Your body knows what it needs. And right now, it’s begging for me.” His fingers curled, hitting a spot that made Sasuke’s toes dig hard into the sheets.

A whimper slipped out before Sasuke could stop it. His hips rocked down, desperate for more.

"You’re incredible,” Gojo whispered, drinking in every reaction. "So eager. You drive me crazy when you let yourself feel.”

The words went straight to his head, making the ache intensify. His body was wound so tight, every new push unraveling him further. "Satoru," he gasped, awe breaking through his voice. "Please…"

“More?” Gojo asked, sliding another finger inside and watching his face with careful focus. " You’re taking me so well," he murmured, fingers stroking deeper. "Your body’s begging to be filled, to let me make you mine."

The praise hit as hard as the stretch, leaving Sasuke trembling, his breath breaking. “I want all of you," he managed, desperation spilling out before he could stop it. “I want to feel you inside me completely. "

“Soon,” Gojo promised, his voice low and steady as his fingers worked with more intent now, each curl aimed at pleasure as much as readiness. “I want this to be everything you’ve ever dreamed of."

The realization that his body was preparing itself, slick and aching and so desperately open, made Sasuke’s face burn. But the intoxicating truth was undeniable. He wanted this bad. He wanted Gojo.

Gojo’s mouth brushed the curve of his throat, his words reverent against flushed skin. “To fill you up and make you mine."

“Yes,” Sasuke breathed, hips rocking helplessly into those skilled fingers. “Please take me. Leave your mark. Make everyone know I’m yours alone."

Gojo pulled back just enough to meet his eyes, and the look there stole the rest of Sasuke’s breath. “Look at you," he said softly, wonder threading every word. “So completely mine."

By the time Gojo was satisfied he was ready, Sasuke was writhing beneath him, nails digging into his shoulders as the alpha positioned himself. Sasuke pulled him down into a desperate kiss, breath catching like he could anchor himself with nothing but closeness.

The first press of penetration made them both groan, the sound swallowed in the kiss that shook with restraint. Gojo pushed in slowly, carefully, until Sasuke’s body opened fully around him, trembling with relief at finally being filled.

It was nothing like Gojo’s mouth on him. That had been an intense release, a rush that left him shaking. This was different. It was deeper, heavier, the heat of him dragging through every inch until Sasuke’s nerves lit like fire. Thick, unrelenting, stretching him full. His breath broke against Gojo’s lips, a sound closer to awe than anything else. How did I ever think I could live without this?

"You’re doing so good," Gojo whispered against his ear, holding still long enough to feel Sasuke’s body clench around him. "Taking me like you were born for this."

"Fuck, this feels amazing," Sasuke gasped, overwhelmed by the fullness. "Satoru, you feel incredible inside me."

"And you feel like heaven," Gojo groaned, his voice ragged. "So tight, so unreal. All mine."

Sasuke’s desperate nod was all the permission he needed. Gojo drew back and pushed in again, slow at first, savoring the slick pull before setting a steady rhythm. Each stroke drove deeper, rougher, his groans rumbling low through his whole body as control bled away.

"God, Sasuke," he rasped, kissing him hard as if it kept him grounded. "I could stay inside you forever."

But patience had never been Sasuke’s strength. His hips rolled upward, nails biting into Gojo’s skin. "Please. More."

Gojo stilled, buried deep, his voice a low growl at Sasuke’s ear. "More what? Say it."

The sound that escaped was half gasp, half groan, his body tightening around him. "I need you to move."

"Not good enough," Gojo murmured, his hand sliding up Sasuke’s throat to angle his face toward him. "Beg me. Tell me exactly what you want."

Heat flooded Sasuke’s cheeks, but the ache clawing through him left no room for pride. "Please, Satoru," he whispered, raw and shaking. "Fuck me. Hard. I need you inside me, all of you. Please."

Gojo groaned, his control snapping. "That’s it," he rasped, pressing a kiss to Sasuke’s open mouth before driving back in with a force that made them both cry out.

“So impatient,” Gojo teased, sucking hard at the curve of Sasuke’s neck before moving lower, lips closing around a nipple until Sasuke gasped. He started measured, savoring every clench, every sound, before the rhythm deepened into something harder, hungrier.

Gojo’s voice broke into a groan. "Fuck, Sasuke… you’re pulling me in like your body’s been waiting for this. Every time I push in, you pull me deeper."

Sasuke’s hands slid lower, clutching at the flex of his waist, fingers digging in as if he could anchor himself against the relentless drive of Gojo’s hips. The rhythm was merciless now, each thrust sinking deeper, shaking him apart with pleasure he couldn’t contain. His own cock strained hard between them, leaking against his stomach, every brush of friction winding him tighter.

Gojo’s hand slipped down without breaking pace, wrapping firmly around him. The added touch tore a cry from Sasuke’s throat, his body arching as the double assault drove him closer to the edge.

"Look at you," Gojo growled, pumping him in time with each thrust. "So hard for me. So eager while I’m inside you."

Sasuke’s breath stuttered, his hips jerking helplessly into both touches. "Satoru," he gasped, voice ragged. "Something’s happening. I can feel it…fuck…"

A moment later his gasp sharpened. His grip locked hard on Gojo’s shoulders as he felt his cock swelling inside him, pressing deeper, stretching him wider. The sensation held him open, fixed in place, vision going white at the edges. "What… God, what is that? I can feel it growing."

Gojo's breathing broke apart against his throat, control hanging by threads. "My knot," he managed, voice wrecked. "Fuck, Sasuke. If I don't pull out now, it'll lock us together. Seal us."

The words should've scared him. Instead, something primitive and needy clawed up from his chest. "Don't." The word came out cracked, desperate. "Don't you dare pull out."

"You sure?" Gojo's voice was barely human now, all alpha instinct and barely contained need. "Once it's in, we're stuck. Could be an hour or two before…"

"I said don't." Sasuke's legs tightened around him, holding him in place. "I want it. Want you to…" His breath hitched. "Make me yours, Satoru."

The sound Gojo made was half-groan, half-growl. "Christ. Okay. Okay, but you need to breathe and relax for me. Let your body take it."

The pressure intensified with each thrust, stretching him past what he thought possible. And then it pushed through. That final resistance and began to swell. The sensation hit him like lightning, overwhelming and perfect and too much all at once.

He was full. Completely, utterly full in ways he'd never imagined. Connected to Gojo so completely he couldn't tell where one of them ended and the other began.

“Holy shit,” he breathed, voice shaking. “I can feel it. Your heartbeat, your breath, everything.”

“I know.” Gojo pressed their foreheads together, both of them trembling with the intensity. “That’s the bond. That’s what happens when gods claim each other.”

Then came the bite. Teeth sank into the junction of his neck and shoulder with possessive precision. The pain was sharp and perfect, electricity ripping through him in a rush of sensation. But this wasn’t only about being taken.

As the mark burned into his skin and the knot stretched him to his limits, something fierce and primal surged up inside him. The bond snapped into place like a dam breaking—suddenly he could feel everything.

Gojo’s loneliness hit him first. Centuries of it, so deep and profound it made his chest ache. Divine isolation stretched across eons, threaded with the desperate hunger to be chosen rather than simply worshipped or feared.

And answering that ache came his own jagged need, flaring through their connection like a mirror. Years of abandonment. The night his family was slaughtered when he was seven, blood and silence burned into him forever. Love that always came with conditions. The raw hunger to belong to someone, somewhere.

Then something deeper bled through the bond. Gojo’s grief, piercing as a blade. The memory of once being chosen, of loving and losing. The unbearable weight of having to cut down Suguru with his own hands, carrying that death like a wound that never closed.

"I can feel it all,” he choked out, overwhelmed. “How did you survive being that alone?”

"And I can feel yours,” Gojo breathed, wonder and heartbreak tangled in his voice as their bond pulsed between them like a living thing. “Fuck, Sasuke. I felt it. The massacre, the night it all ended for you. All those years thinking you weren’t worth keeping. How did you survive it?”

Being this vulnerable should have terrified him, but instead it felt like coming home. Like finally, someone understood the weight he carried, even as he glimpsed the cosmic solitude that had shaped his alpha.

"I didn’t think I was,” he gasped, every word dragged from somewhere raw and certain.

Before Gojo could respond, Sasuke’s teeth found the matching spot on the alpha’s throat, biting down with desperate intensity just as another wave of sensation from the knot crashed over him. The taste of his alpha’s skin, salt and power and something indefinably divine, flooded his mouth as he claimed in return. There was no hesitation, no faltering. Where others had set Gojo aside, Sasuke marked him absolute.

Gojo's reaction was immediate and devastating. He cried out, body going rigid as Sasuke's claiming bite completed their bond. The sensation of being claimed in return, of Sasuke taking that final step to make them equal mates, sent shockwaves through his system that reverberated through their new connection.

"Fuck, yes," he breathed, voice wrecked with emotion and satisfaction. "Take me. Make me yours too."

The marks at their throats pulsed like second hearts, something ancient and unshakable locking into place. They'd claimed each other completely. No holding back, no conditions. Just two people saying yes while tangled together as close as bodies could get.

Sasuke felt it all through the bond. Gojo's amazement, that fierce need to protect him, the way something in his alpha had finally relaxed. Like he'd been waiting centuries for someone to want him, not just his power.

And Gojo was drowning in Sasuke's emotions too. The shock of finally belonging somewhere. That desperate relief. All those years of deeply ingrained pain, of believing he wasn’t worth keeping, finally went quiet under the weight of being absolutely, completely wanted.

The orgasm slammed into them hard and blinding, wave after wave until it felt endless, dragging them under together. When it finally subsided, they were left gasping and trembling, completely bonded and still locked together by Gojo's knot.

Sasuke sagged forward into Gojo's chest, sensation tore through him wrung out, the knot still swollen deep inside him. The stretch was consuming but never painful, his body yielding as if it had been made to fit Satoru perfectly. Through their bond, he could feel the alpha's satisfied possessiveness, but also something gentler. A protective tenderness that made his chest tight with unfamiliar emotion.

"Breathe," Gojo murmured against his ear, one hand stroking soothing patterns down his spine. "Just breathe, gorgeous. I've got you."

"This is..." Sasuke tried to find words, then lost them as a small shift sent sparks through his oversensitive system. His breath hitched, heat rushing to his face as the words slipped out before he could stop them. " God, I’m so full I’m surprised it’s not leaking out my ears."

Gojo barked a laugh, low and delighted. "Ears, huh? That’s new." He kissed Sasuke’s temple, still grinning. "Look at you, making jokes with me still inside you. You’re softening up, princess."

Sasuke groaned, pressing his burning face into Gojo’s shoulder. "Don’t make it sound like character development," he muttered, embarrassed when Gojo laughed even harder.

Comfortable was a relative term when you were locked together with a god's cock buried deep inside you, but Sasuke found he didn't want to move anyway. The fullness was intense but perfect, and Satoru's arms around him made him feel safer than he'd ever been.

"I like... I like being connected to you like this." he whispered, surprising himself with the honesty.

"My perfect omega," Gojo breathed, the possessiveness in his voice making Sasuke shiver. "So amazing taking my knot. You were made for this, weren't you? Made to be claimed and filled and kept by me."

Sasuke’s body clenched involuntarily around the knot, the surge of heat tearing a groan from them in unison.

"Careful," Gojo warned, though his voice was already thick with renewed arousal. "Keep doing that and I’m going to want to take you again the second my knot goes down."

"Maybe I want you to," Sasuke said, lips brushing Satoru's throat. His voice carried a new edge, almost smug. "Maybe I want you stuck inside me until you can't move. Think you can keep up?"

"Up for it? You'll be the one tapping out, pretty boy. And I'll still be ready for another round."

That broke something loose, laughter spilling out warm and unguarded, the sound vibrating between both their tangled bodies.

Gojo's grin softened into something hungrier. "Good thing I plan on keeping you like this for the next few days. Knotted, branded with you, yours again and again until your heat finally burns itself out."

The promise made his cock twitch, his body already stirring with renewed interest despite how thoroughly spent he felt.

"Your heat’s going to last awhile," Gojo explained, one hand moving to trace the claiming mark on Sasuke’s neck. "And my rut isn’t going anywhere until your cycle breaks. We’re going to be locked together a lot."

This should have been daunting. Instead, Sasuke found himself looking forward to it with an intensity that probably said terrible things about his self-control.

“Your satisfaction. Your possessiveness. Your devotion,” Sasuke murmured, marveling at the bond humming between them like a live wire. “And underneath it all… relief. Like you’ve been waiting for this for centuries.”

“I have been,” Gojo said softly, his honesty raw through their connection. “And I feel yours too. Contentment, trust, the shock that someone actually wants to keep you.” His tone grew fierce, protective instincts flaring through the bond. “Which is ridiculous, by the way. You’re remarkable. Anyone would be lucky to have you.”

“Not anyone,” Sasuke said, nuzzling closer to his alpha’s warmth. “Just you. Only you.”

They stayed like that, locked together and whispering soft reassurances, until Gojo’s knot finally began to soften. Even then, neither of them moved immediately, too content in the afterglow of being wholly united.

When Satoru finally did pull out, it was with gentle attention, his hands careful as he helped Sasuke settle back against the pillows. The omega made a small whimper of loss at the emptiness, his body still hypersensitive and aching.

"Shh," Satoru soothed, pressing soft kisses to his shoulders. "Let me take care of you."

He disappeared for a moment, returning with a warm, damp cloth and a basin of water that seemed to materialize from nowhere. One of the benefits of their dimensional sanctuary. Sasuke tensed with embarrassment as Satoru settled beside him, the reality of what they'd done suddenly hitting him.

"I can clean myself," Sasuke muttered, but his voice lacked any real conviction. His limbs felt heavy, satisfied, boneless in a way he had never allowed himself to be before. The thought of moving seemed impossible.

"I know you can," Satoru said gently, his touch reverent as he began cleaning away the evidence of their claiming with careful strokes. "But I want to. This is what alphas do for their mates. Let me?"

The warm cloth against oversensitive skin made Sasuke shiver, but not with discomfort. Each gentle stroke felt like worship. Like Satoru was treasuring every inch of him. No one had cared for him like this since he was a young boy, with such tender attention to his comfort and needs. It shook him, realizing this was the first time anyone had bothered in years. Tension coiled through him, his throat burning, and he hated how close it came to tears.

"There," Satoru murmured when he finished, setting the cloth aside and gathering Sasuke close. His hands were gentle as he arranged the silk pillows around them, creating a perfect cocoon of warmth. "How do you feel?"

Sasuke took inventory. He had been thoroughly worshiped, undone in ways he had never imagined, claimed in the most fundamental sense of the word. “Like I’ve been thoroughly adored by a god,” he said, and it was only the truth.

Satoru's laugh was soft, pleased. "Good. That was the idea."

They curled together in their nest, Sasuke's naked body molding perfectly against Satoru's as if they had been designed to fit. The alpha's hands stroked through his hair, gentle and possessive, while Sasuke traced lazy patterns across his chest.

A low, steady purr rumbled in Sasuke's throat, instinctive and content. He didn't bother trying to hide it this time.

Satoru's smile curved against his hair. "God, I love that sound," he murmured, voice warm and amused. "My deadly omega purring in my arms... I'm calling you my kitten from now on."

"Princess, pretty boy, now kitten…" Gojo sounded smugly pleased with himself, as if collecting titles was half the fun.

Sasuke huffed, too tired to argue, and let himself sink deeper into the warmth of Satoru's chest. If it made Satoru this happy, maybe being his kitten wasn't the worst thing in the world.

"Sleep," Satoru whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. "I'll be here when you wake up."

For the first time in years, Sasuke believed it.

The next morning brought with it the most breathtaking awakening of Sasuke's life. Not because the heat had subsided. If anything, it had settled into something deeper, more persistent. A constant awareness of his alpha, of the bond between them, of his body's satisfied contentment mixed with the promise of more. And Satoru's rut was still there too, a low-grade possessiveness that made the alpha's hands more demanding, his touches more claiming.

No, it was the best morning because he woke up claimed. Wanted. Chosen in ways that had nothing to do with his bloodline or his power or his political value.

God, I'm getting sentimental in my old age, he thought, pressing his face deeper into pillows that smelled like sex and satisfaction and their combined scents. Next, I'll be writing poetry about love and spiritual bonds.

The thought made him snort with amusement, which was apparently enough to wake the alpha currently wrapped around him like a very possessive, very smug blanket.

"Morning," Gojo said against the back of his neck, his tone cracked sleep and satisfaction. His morning arousal was evident against Sasuke's backside, making him shiver with renewed interest. "How are you feeling?"

Sasuke took inventory. Sore in all the best ways. Thoroughly fucked, still overheated, skin twitching at every touch. And apparently, his body was already considering round two.

"Like I've been thoroughly debauched by a god," he said, lips curving with the faintest, cheeky grin.

Satoru's laugh rumbled against his spine, sending pleasant shivers through his oversensitive system. "That's the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me."

"Really? You're hopeless," Sasuke muttered, though the faint flush in his cheeks betrayed him.

"Mmm," Gojo hummed, pressing lazy kisses to the mark on his neck that made Sasuke's toes curl with remembered pleasure. His hand was already wandering, tracing patterns on Sasuke's skin that were definitely not innocent. "Good thing I only care about my hopeless, current obsession."

"You say that now," he said, old fears clawing at his chest despite the bond humming contentment between them. "You don’t know what it’s like living with my nightmares, or how badly I stumble when it comes to trust."

It was deflection dressed up as humor again, but Gojo saw right through it. His thumbs traced Sasuke's cheekbones with worshipful care, waiting until the omega met his eyes again.

"As I told you before," Satoru said quietly, steady as stone, "we figure it out together. The nightmares, the trust issues, the learning curve. All of it. Because that’s what mates do."

Mates. The word sent a thrill racing down Sasuke's spine that he tried to suppress. Because mates implied permanence, implied the kind of bond that couldn’t be broken or abandoned when things got difficult.

"Even when I wake up screaming about Itachi?" he asked, trying for casual and failing. "Even when I shut down for days because someone said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Even when I'm convinced, you’re going to leave and I run first, sabotaging everything just to feel in control?"

"Especially then," Gojo said, certainty unwavering. "Because those are the moments when you’ll need me most. And I’ll still be here."

Sasuke wanted to argue, to point out all the ways he was fundamentally damaged goods. Instead, he found himself leaning into those gentle hands, letting himself believe for just a moment that someone might actually want to stay.

"I don't know how to be someone's mate," he admitted quietly. "Don't know what you're supposed to do, how you're supposed to act. The whole omega thing is new, and I'm pretty sure I'm doing it wrong."

Gojo kissed his forehead, then his cheeks, then the tip of his nose, grinning like Sasuke had said the most adorable thing imaginable. “Wrong? You marked me back. If that’s wrong, keep doing it. Because from where I’m standing, you’re already doing a damn good job.” His lips brushed over the bond mark again, lingering with shameless affection. “My magnificent disaster. The one who rolls his eyes at me and still purrs when I touch him just right.”

Heat crept up Sasuke's neck at the reminder. "Don't remind me," he muttered, scowling. "It's bad enough it keeps happening. Years of being a terrifying S-class missing-nin, and now I'm apparently reduced to purring like some house cat every time you put your hands on me."

Gojo's grin turned shameless, fingers sliding behind his ear until the sound betrayed him again. "Exactly. My deadly, dangerous omega, purring like he was made for it. You have no idea how much I love that." He nuzzled his hair with smug delight. "My kitten."

"Hmff, it's not purring," Sasuke muttered, scowling even as the sound rumbled stubbornly out of his chest. "It's... involuntary respiratory expression."

Gojo laughed, delighted, brushing another kiss across his temple. "You can call it whatever you want. It's still the most beautiful sound I've ever heard." His voice softened, hands threading through Sasuke's hair. "It means your content. Happy. Safe enough to let your guard down completely."

The truth of it hit Sasuke hard. Because he was safe here, wasn't he? Safe to make embarrassing noises and be vulnerable in ways he'd never been allowed to be before.

"My house cat with claws," Gojo murmured with satisfaction. "My omega kitten. My mate. My Sasuke."

The possessive edge to those words sent heat curling through Sasuke's system, made his body respond with embarrassing enthusiasm. Apparently being claimed came with the side effect of finding alpha possessiveness ridiculously attractive.

"And my lion," Sasuke said at last, voice quiet but steady. His lips curved faintly, competitive even now. "Though don't forget. This kitten could take down this lion any time it wanted."

Gojo's grin spread, wicked and unbothered. "Oh, I believe it. I'd let you sink your claws into me any time."

It should have felt like surrender, like giving up some essential part of himself. Instead, it felt like coming home.

Satoru’s smile curved with quiet satisfaction. “Mine,” he said, sealing the word with a kiss that carried the weight of forever.

The heat between them surged again, sending new waves of need coursing through Sasuke's body. He gasped into Satoru's mouth, arching shamelessly against him.

"Again?" Gojo asked, amusement rumbling low through his whole body.

"Apparently," Sasuke muttered, though his wrecked body betrayed him by already reaching for his mate with greedy hands.

Gojo laughed, pleased, and slid between his thighs once more. "Good. Because I'm nowhere near finished with you."

This time was different. Slower, steadier, every movement deliberate. Gojo's mouth traced reverent paths down his throat, his hands mapping scars like sacred ground. Each thrust was deep but unhurried, designed to ease the ache, to fill him completely until the desperation melted into something gentler.

"You're holding back," Sasuke accused breathlessly, rolling his hips up with deliberate precision that made Gojo's control stutter. "Trying to be gentle with me like I'm fragile."

"You're not fragile," Gojo agreed, voice strained as Sasuke's internal muscles clenched around him with calculated intent. "But you're precious. And I want to savor…"

"Savor this," Sasuke interrupted, using his legs to flip their positions with shinobi speed that left Gojo blinking up at him in surprise. The change in angle drove him deeper, wringing a gasp from them both. "I may be your omega, but I'm still me. And I don't break easy."

Gojo's eyes darkened with renewed hunger as Sasuke began to move on top, setting his own demanding pace. "Fuck," he breathed, hands coming up to grip his hips. "Look at you. Taking what you want from me."

"Learning fast, aren’t I?” he managed between breaths, pride cutting through the pleasure as he drove them both toward shuddering release.

Sasuke's nails dug into his shoulders as something deeper than pleasure washed over him. The freedom to just take, to be selfish and demanding without having to be anything other than exactly what he was in this moment.

When release came, it was quieter than the desperate climaxes before, rolling through Sasuke in waves that left him trembling in Satoru's arms. His own shudders dragged a raw groan from the alpha, Gojo filling him before pulling Sasuke close. His body hummed with satisfaction that reached his soul.

Gojo stayed close, unhurried as he cleaned him with warm cloths and rebuilt their nest with meticulous care before drawing Sasuke back against his chest.

"Sleep," he whispered, pressing a kiss to his temple. "I'll be here when you wake." The words sank deep, not as empty comfort but as truth carved into the bond. Sasuke melted into the warmth, unguarded at last, his chest echoing with the certainty that he was no longer alone.

As his eyes drifted shut, the Rinnegan stirred behind his lids of its own accord, the bond’s resonance brushing against places he had never touched before. It wasn’t effort, just instinct. A ripple through the power woven into him. For a moment, sleep and vision blurred together: faint threads of light stretched across a vast dark, layered worlds brushing against one another, futures whispering at the edges of sense. The bond glowed at the center of it all, an anchor pulling him steady while the possibilities shimmered and dissolved.

His mind reached for meaning, but exhaustion pulled him back. The last thing he carried into sleep was the sense that what bound them wasn’t only for this world, but for all the ones that touched it.

The Rinnegan’s sight faded as sleep claimed him, but the knowledge remained: their bond was more than instinct, more than emotion. It was something that could reach across worlds.

As profound as that was, his body had other ideas.

"Chocolate," he mumbled against Gojo’s chest. "I want chocolate."

The craving hit as sudden and sharp as any flare of heat. He grimaced inwardly. Perfect. Now chocolate too. My body really is doing everything it can to mess with me.

Gojo chuckled against his hair, the sound warm and low in his chest. "Kitten," he murmured, threaded with fondness. "Even half-asleep, you’re still demanding more."
"Just… craving," Sasuke muttered, the words dragging with sleep.

Gojo’s laughter rumbled through him, making his skin prickle in ways that had nothing to do with exhaustion. "Then I’ll spoil you. Chocolate, kisses, every indulgence you want. If it makes you purr like this, I’ll give you all of it."

Sasuke let out a faint, contented sound. Somewhere between protest and surrender and finally let himself drift under.

Chapter 7 Teaser: Heat's End

The heat burns on, but now Sasuke's ready to give as much as he takes.

Deep into their bonding cycle, Sasuke finally turns the tables on his alpha. Between moments when Gojo falls apart under skilled hands and a wicked mouth, lazy baths become heated encounters and quiet conversations reveal painful truths about Suguru - the love that shaped him and the guilt he's carried ever since.

Chocolate cravings and contented purring mark their days in the dimensional sanctuary as they plan their eventual return to a world that definitely isn't ready for what they've become. Sometimes the most dangerous thing isn't power - it's two people discovering forever and refusing to let anyone take it away.

Some bonds are too strong to break. Some love burns too bright to contain.

Chapter Text

By the third day, the fever hadn’t burned out. It had dulled enough to let him breathe between waves, but the pull was still there, alive under his skin and humming through the bond. The nest he had built and rebuilt should have calmed him. It hadn’t. Instinct wanted more than silk and pillows. It wanted hands, teeth, the warm weight of someone who would not leave.

Gojo appeared over the ridge of blankets with a grin that promised trouble and a lacquered box balanced on one palm. “Breakfast of champions,” he said, dropping it onto Sasuke’s chest like a prize.

Sasuke caught it without thinking and glared up through his fringe. “You can bend space, and you brought me chocolate.”

“Correction.” Gojo climbed into the nest like it was his rightful throne. “I brought you joy.”

Ridiculous. Intimate. He should have shoved him away. Instead, he opened the lid, plucked a truffle, and bit down. Dark chocolate melted thick and bitter-sweet over his tongue. A low sound slipped free before he could stop it.

Gojo was on him instantly, kissing him open and stealing the taste from his mouth. Chocolate smeared warm between their lips, messy, indulgent. Sasuke swallowed hard, dizzy with it, and Gojo only deepened the kiss, tongue sweeping in to hunt more of the flavor.

“See?” Gojo whispered, licking the sweetness from his tongue. “Divine efficiency.”

“Hopeless,” Sasuke muttered, though his fingers curled in white hair to keep him close.

Gojo plucked another truffle and pressed it to Sasuke’s mouth. This time, when Sasuke bit down, chocolate broke across his tongue and dripped warm at the corner of his lips. Gojo caught it with his mouth, sucking slow at the corner until Sasuke hissed and shoved at his shoulder.

“You’re insufferable,” Sasuke said.

“Sweet,” Gojo corrected, licking the last smear from his thumb before sucking the chocolate from Sasuke’s fingers, slow and obscene. “Don’t pretend you don’t like it.”

The heat roared higher, mixing with the ridiculous intimacy of being fed like this. He kissed him again, hard enough to taste both bitterness and sweetness, and when he pulled back, Gojo was already laughing softly, smug as sin.

They kissed until the sweetness gave way to something darker. The bond tugged low in Sasuke’s body, steady and demanding. Instead of dulling him, it lit a fuse. He felt restless, greedy, too awake.

“You never quit, do you,” Gojo murmured, amused, as Sasuke pushed him flat against the pillows.

“Not when it feels like this,” Sasuke said against his throat.

Gojo stretched out beneath him, rare stillness settling over him like he understood what Sasuke intended.

“Planning to spoil me?” he asked, voice low and rough.

“Payback.” Sasuke’s smirk was thin and certain. “Be quiet and let me.”

He started slowing, unbearably slow for the fever tearing at him, but perfect for his intent. His mouth traced collarbone, chest, the ridges of muscle that twitched when he bit lightly. He lingered over a nipple until Gojo cursed under his breath, then bit lower, dragging teeth across his stomach just to hear him gasp. He traced every tremor like he was memorizing them through skin alone, every flicker in Gojo’s breath. By the time he slid lower, Gojo’s chest was rising too fast, his hands fisting the silk, knuckles white.

Sasuke didn’t pause. He took him in with one deliberate movement.

Gojo swore hard enough it broke into a groan. His hips jerked before he could stop them, control fraying.

“Fuck, Sasuke,” His voice cracked, raw and desperate.

Sasuke hummed around him, smug at the way Gojo’s thighs shook. His rhythm was merciless in its focus, each stroke precise, tearing arrogance apart until only raw sound remained. His hand worked in rhythm, coaxing desperation higher until Gojo’s composure collapsed completely.

“Please,” Gojo gasped, the word ripped free. His fingers clutched at Sasuke’s hair, not to force, only to anchor. “Please, don’t stop…”

Sasuke pulled off just long enough to drag his tongue slowly along the underside of his cock, savoring the way Gojo’s breath stuttered. “Already begging,” he murmured, then swallowed him down again, deeper this time, until Gojo was groaning helplessly.

He dragged it out, edging him. Every time Gojo’s body tensed, Sasuke slowed, pulling back to lick and tease until he was whining, then pushed him to the brink again. Sweat slicked Gojo’s chest, his head rolling helplessly against the pillows, pride in tatters.

When Sasuke finally let him go, it was only to take him deep, greedy, swallowing every drop as Gojo came undone with a ragged cry. He licked him clean, smirking as Gojo twitched and gasped, completely wrecked.

Gojo collapsed into the pillows, trembling, chest heaving. “Devastating,” he rasped, voice unsteady. “You’re going to kill me, kitten.”

“Good,” Sasuke said, crawling up to straddle him. His smirk was vicious. “Then maybe you’ll learn what it feels like.”

Gojo looked shattered, soft beneath him, but Sasuke only leaned back, bracing with one hand, the other sliding down to stroke himself. His pace was unhurried, measured, designed to torment.

Gojo’s eyes snapped open. His breath hitched, a groan spilling out before he could stop it.

“Fuck,” he whispered, gaze locked on Sasuke’s hand. His own fingers twitched, torn between touching and restraint.

Sasuke spread his knees wider, tilted his hips so Gojo could see everything. “Stay,” he ordered, voice low. “You don’t get to touch yet.”

Gojo’s chest rose fast, his hands curling uselessly in the silk. He obeyed, trembling, watching every movement like a starving man.

Sasuke dragged it out, stroking himself until his thighs quivered, until the fever roared hot and his breath turned ragged. He edged himself deliberately, forcing soft gasps from his own throat, letting the sight of Gojo’s hunger feed his own. The bond thrummed louder, greedy for every second of it.

“Please,” Gojo begged, voice rough. “Let me touch you,”

“Not yet,” Sasuke said, pumping his fist slow, lifting his chin so his hair clung damp to his temples. Gojo trembled beneath him, caught between desperate need and the single rule Sasuke had given him. Don't touch.

By the time Sasuke finally reached for him again, Gojo was fully hard, chest heaving like he’d run miles. His hands twitched in the silk, desperate.

“Now,” Sasuke said, shifting forward. He guided himself down slowly, taking Gojo in inch by inch. The stretch tore a gasp from him, fire licking through his body until he was shaking with pleasure as he seated himself fully.

Gojo’s head slammed back, a broken cry tearing free. His hands gripped Sasuke’s thighs like a lifeline.

Sasuke set the rhythm himself. Slow at first, circling his hips, grinding down, drawing groans from Gojo’s throat. He watched the man come apart under him: blue eyes wide and dazed, lips parted, sweat shining along his throat.

Then he sped up, sudden and ruthless. Hips driving, pace unrelenting. Gojo gasped, a choked sound breaking from him as his hands flew to Sasuke’s hips, clutching like he could anchor himself.

“Fuck, Sasuke, please,”

Sasuke slowed to a torturous grind. Gojo groaned in frustration, voice fraying.

“You’re cruel,” Gojo choked.

“You like it,” Sasuke shot back, riding him slow and deep, each drag designed to wring another plea from him. “Say it.”

Gojo’s eyes fluttered open, dazed and wild. “I like it, love it, fuck,”

“Eyes on me,” Sasuke said, leaning forward until their chests brushed, until he could feel each trembling breath Gojo dragged in. He rocked down hard; Gojo’s entire body jolted.

Sasuke pulled back to a maddening pace again, forcing Gojo to feel every inch. Sweat gathered and slid; the air was thick with sex and heat, heavy and undeniable. The bond pulsed with every thrust, humming hot and bright, feeding Sasuke’s need, sharpening every sensation.

He changed the rhythm again, relentless now, driving him without mercy. Gojo’s composure was gone. He was begging without shame, reduced to gasps of Sasuke’s name and raw, desperate sounds that had nothing to do with control.

“Look at you,” Sasuke panted, voice fierce. “Not a god now. Mine.”

Gojo’s laugh came ragged, wrecked. “Yours, fuck, always yours,”

Gojo might act untouchable, a god among men, but Sasuke carried the kind of power that made even Gods bend.

Sasuke rode him harder. The bond flared, heat flooding his veins, a bright, insistent buzz under his skin. He tightened deliberately and Gojo shouted, trembling, eyes rolling back.

“Say it,” Sasuke demanded against his mouth, breath ragged. “Say you need me.”

“I need you,” Gojo groaned, every word unguarded. His hands slid to Sasuke’s back like he was holding on through a storm. “God, I, fuck, I love you,”

The confession ripped out of him as his body convulsed, climax brutal and overwhelming. Sasuke didn’t let go yet. He kept moving, riding the aftershocks, dragging another helpless cry from Gojo’s throat, and then the fire inside him detonated. His everything blurred out in heat, blinding and sharp as the bond blazed between them, and he crashed over the edge with a shudder that left him shaking.

They collapsed together, tangled and wrecked in the ruined nest, both gasping. The silks were a disaster. Pillows had lost the fight. Gojo’s arms locked around him, trembling, holding on like he’d never let go.

“I love you,” Gojo whispered again, softer now but no less sure.

The words landed hot against Sasuke’s skin; his breath caught before he could stop it. Instinct wanted to believe. Old scars whispered caution. He didn’t answer. He let silence sit between them until Gojo’s grin softened into something gentle.

“Too soon,” Gojo murmured, pressing his lips to Sasuke’s temple. “That’s fine. I can wait.”

“You can’t wait for anything,” Sasuke muttered hoarsely.

“For you I can,” Gojo said simply, pulling him closer as if to prove it.

The bond held steady, warm as breath, certain and unyielding. The fever still tugged like a tide, promising there would be no real rest yet, but the worst of the edge had been soothed. Sasuke let himself breathe into the quiet, greedy for the weight of Gojo’s body and the felt certainty that he was not alone. He drifted on that warmth, on the rhythm under his ear, on the ridiculous memory of chocolate stolen through a kiss and the absolute wreckage he’d left a supposed god in.

“Stay,” he said.

“Always,” Gojo answered, meaning it.

Sasuke closed his eyes. The tide would rise again. For now, he had this: sweetness on his tongue, the bond humming like a heartbeat, and Satoru undone beneath his hold. He held on to all of it and let the world go quiet.

The nest was warm, silk tangled around sweat-damp limbs, but Sasuke’s mind wouldn’t stay quiet. Exhaustion dragged at him, yet when he drifted into sleep it was never gentle.

The massacre returned. Always the same, blood pooling black in moonlight, the unbearable silence of his home. The copper stink of iron in the air, heavy and sweet, coating his throat. Shadows of bodies where there should have been laughter, meals, and the sound of his mother’s voice.

And then Itachi. Always Itachi. Standing over their parents’ bodies, the Sharingan burning red in the dark. Blood pooled on the floor, still warm, still real. His father’s eyes frozen wide, his mother’s hand outstretched as if she had tried to reach for him. And above them, Itachi, silent, unblinking, watching him break.

In the dream he was a boy again, feet sticky with blood, throat torn raw from crying. His brother’s eyes stayed cold, turning from him as if he’d never mattered. And then the silence pressed in, that crushing emptiness that had followed him for seventeen years, carved into him like a curse.

He woke with a strangled sound, chest heaving, vision swimming. For a second he didn’t know where he was. Panic clawed up his throat, until strong arms caught him, pulling him back against warmth.

“Hey. I’ve got you.” Gojo’s voice was low and steady, a thread pulling him out of the dark.

Sasuke fought it at first, twisting, unwilling to be seen broken open, but Gojo didn’t let go. He only tightened his hold, one broad hand cradling the back of his head like he was something precious instead of broken.

“It was a dream,” Gojo murmured, brushing his thumb gently over Sasuke’s temple. “You’re safe. No one’s leaving you here.”

The words hit something raw. Sasuke pressed his face into the curve of Gojo’s throat, trembling with anger at himself for shaking like this. But the tears came anyway, hot and furious, soaking skin that shouldn’t have had to bear this weight.

“I hate this,” Sasuke choked. “I hate needing,” His voice broke. “I can’t stand how much I need…”

Gojo didn’t flinch. He rubbed slow circles between Sasuke’s shoulder blades, steady as a heartbeat. With his other hand he pulled the blankets higher around them, tucking them close, adjusting the pillows until Sasuke was surrounded by warmth. He even reached back, pulling another cushion under Sasuke’s head, as if the smallest comfort mattered.

“Then hate me instead,” Gojo said simply. “If you need to put it somewhere, put it on me. I can take it. But I’m not letting you go.”

That broke something open. All the years of touch starvation, of holding himself apart because no one was safe to lean on, cracked wide. His hands fisted in Gojo’s hair like a drowning man clinging to the surface.

“I can’t, everyone leaves,” he gasped. “My clan, my brother, Naruto, everyone,”

“Not me.” Gojo’s reply was immediate, absolute. “Not now. Not ever. You’re stuck with me, kitten.”

Sasuke’s body shook, his voice raw. “Itachi… he said he did everything for me. Killed them all for me. But he called me weak. Made me see it over and over, made me watch every death until I broke. He twisted everything. Said it was love, but it was chains. He ruined me and still told me I wasn’t enough.”

Gojo’s hand stilled for a moment, then slid up to cup his cheek, thumb brushing away the hot wetness trailing down. “You were a child,” he said softly. “What he did was wrong. None of that weakness was yours to carry.”

But Sasuke couldn’t stop. The words kept tearing free, ragged and halting. “Do you know how long it’s been since anyone touched me without wanting something? Since I was seven. Since my mother’s hand. After that, it was weapons training, battlefield wounds, orders. Never this.” His throat worked, voice breaking. “I don’t know how to want it without hating it. Without hating myself.”

Gojo pulled him tighter, rocking him gently, as though the rhythm alone could keep him from flying apart. “You don’t have to figure it out tonight,” he murmured. “You just have to let yourself be held. That’s all.”

Sasuke shook his head hard. “I don’t want to need anyone. I can’t stand it. He left me with nothing. And still…” His voice cracked, shame and grief colliding. “Still, I can’t stop wanting… this. To be held. To not be alone.”

Gojo pressed his lips into Sasuke’s hair, a firm, grounding weight. “Wanting isn’t weakness. It’s human. You’ve just had it beaten out of you for too long.” His hand slid down to Sasuke’s back again, rubbing slow and steady until his breathing evened out. “You don’t have to fight for this. I’m not going anywhere. Not tonight, not ever. You fall apart, I’ll put you back together. That’s the deal.”

The bond hummed between them, steady and sure. Sasuke’s shaking eased, though his hands still clung tight. Gojo held him as if warmth and weight alone could replace years of emptiness. He stayed awake long after Sasuke’s eyes closed again, stroking his hair, listening to each uneven breath until they finally steadied.

Light filtered gold through the dimensional veil. Sasuke blinked awake, throat raw, face pressed into Gojo’s chest. The memory of last night hit like a blade. Heat rose in his cheeks before he could stop it.

Gojo was watching him, blue eyes soft, saying nothing. Just waiting.

 “Don’t look at me like that,” Sasuke muttered, pushing up on an elbow. “Hormones. They make you emotional.”

The excuse was flimsy, but he delivered it with his usual dry edge, daring Gojo to challenge him.

Instead, Gojo smiled faintly. “Hormones, huh? Guess I should be grateful they make you curl up on me instead of clawing my eyes out.”

Sasuke scowled, rolling away to cover the flush burning his cheeks. The bond carried what words didn’t, Gojo believed him, even if he didn’t buy the excuse. He would let Sasuke have his pride.

Gojo stretched lazily behind him, voice still soft. “You were warm. Comfortable. I’m not complaining.”

“Shut up,” Sasuke muttered, face buried in a pillow.

But Gojo only chuckled, snapping his fingers. A tray appeared across Sasuke’s lap: rice, miso soup, grilled fish, steaming tea. Simple. Steady.

Sasuke stared at it like it was a trap. His stomach twisted faintly; years of skipped meals had left his body suspicious of abundance.

“I’m not hungry,” he muttered.

“Mm. And I’m modest,” Gojo said, utterly unbothered. “Eat.”

Sasuke picked up the chopsticks because not eating would mean losing this round. The first bite caught in his throat like gravel, but he forced it down. Gojo didn’t look away. He just sat there, patient, waiting like the outcome was already decided.

The silence grated. Each bite scraped worse than kunai training. By the third, Sasuke muttered, “Pathetic.”

“Necessary,” Gojo corrected, lips quirking. “You don’t get to run yourself into the ground anymore. Not when I’ve got plans for you.”

Plans. Everyone always had plans for him. Clan heir, avenger, weapon. He wanted to snap that smug look off Gojo’s face, but the bond hummed steady beneath his skin, and the memory of last night’s comfort still lingered. Against his will, the food went down easier.

He set the chopsticks aside after a few more bites, deliberate. Enough.

Gojo sighed dramatically, then picked up a piece of fish with his own chopsticks and held it out. “Open.”

Sasuke glared. “I’m not a child.”

“Good thing I like you better than children. Open.”

Ridiculous. Infuriating. He should have shoved the tray into Gojo’s lap. Instead, Sasuke parted his lips just enough. Gojo grinned like he’d won a war and slid the bite past them.

“You’re insufferable,” Sasuke muttered, chewing.

“And you’re eating,” Gojo said cheerfully. He reached for more, and when Sasuke didn’t move, he fed him again.

When Sasuke finally pushed the tray aside, he leaned back into the nest. The blankets slipped down to his waist, and Gojo tugged them higher, fussing until Sasuke shoved at his chest. “Stop babying me.”

“Never,” Gojo said, brushing hair from his forehead where it had fallen loose. “I’m going to baby you until you forget what starving yourself feels like.”

He grinned, leaning closer. “Besides, you’re adorable when you sulk over fish.”

Sasuke shot him a withering look. “Say that again and I’ll choke you with the chopsticks.”

Gojo only laughed and lifted another piece of rice to his lips.

Sasuke rolled onto his side, presenting his back with as much dignity as he could muster. His cheeks burned. No one had ever forced him to eat before, not like this, not with stubbornness and humor instead of orders. It was unbearable. It was… safer than he wanted to admit.

He shifted back toward Gojo, just enough, and pressed the quickest kiss to his cheek. His face was already hot, but the burn in his cheeks deepened as he muttered, almost too low to hear, “Thanks.”

Gojo went very still. Then the grin spread, slow and radiant. “Anytime, kitten.”

Sasuke groaned and buried his face in the pillow, regretting everything instantly. But the bond held steady, warm as breath between them, constant, like it had been waiting for this exact crack in his armor. Gojo clearly wasn’t finished babying him.

The air shimmered. One moment the chamber floor was stone, the next it had been pulled inward, hollowed into a broad sunken pool rimmed with pale marble veined like frost. Steam curled up in threads, silver and soft, carrying the scent of cedar and citrus peel. Bottles of oil and soap gleamed like jewels on a ledge that hadn’t been there a breath ago, and thick towels waited in neat folds, inviting.

“Subtle,” Sasuke said flatly, standing at the edge with his arms crossed, pretending the conjuring hadn’t impressed him.

Gojo was already waist-deep in the water, smug and bare, steam sliding along his shoulders.”  “Feeding: accomplished. Moving on to step two, soak. Part of your ongoing heat care package, certified and signed by Doctor Gojo himself.”

“You are not a doctor.”

“I am when you’re stubborn.” He crooked a finger. “Come on. Let me spoil you.”

Sasuke scowled for form’s sake. But the ache in his hips and spine from three days of fever still tugged. He stepped down into the pool, heat swallowing him. The water loosened muscle, quieted the leftover thrum under his skin, made him sigh before he could stop it.

Gojo smiled at the sound and tugged him closer, sliding Sasuke down until he sat between his knees, back against his chest. The steam blurred edges; the pool smelled enticing

Gojo dipped his hands and began with Sasuke’s hair. Water poured in warm sheets as he cupped and tipped it, gentle enough that Sasuke’s eyes drifted closed. Fingers combed through strands with oil, working slow circles against his scalp, pressing at points that made his breath catch and ease again.

“Stop narrating in your head,” Gojo murmured, lips brushing the crown of his hair.

“Stop talking,” Sasuke muttered. But his voice was softened by the sigh that slipped loose when thumbs traced the ridge behind his ears.

Gojo rinsed careful, tipping water steady as a river. The oil slid out in long waves, leaving hair darker, heavier, clinging to Sasuke’s neck. Gojo smoothed it back with a reverence that should have been unbearable but wasn’t.

“Turn.”

Sasuke did, knees brushing his, chest close enough that the water trembled between them. Gojo lifted a cloth and washed him like it mattered, jawline, throat, collarbone. Every scar was touched without pity, traced as if it was part of a story worth reading. When he finished, he kissed the notch of Sasuke’s sternum, lips hot where water cooled.

“Indulgent,” Sasuke muttered, voice rougher than he meant.

“Guilty,” Gojo said easily, a smile ghosting his mouth. “You let me keep you last night. Let me keep you now.”

Gojo tipped water over his shoulders again, then leaned in to press a kiss against the curve of Sasuke’s neck. His mouth lingered over the claiming bite there, teeth grazing lightly.

Sasuke tensed, but Gojo only softened the touch, lips sealing gentle over the mark. “Healing fine,” he murmured. “Not that it would matter. You wear everything like it belongs.”

Before Sasuke could roll his eyes, Gojo’s mouth drifted lower. He found a bruise on Sasuke’s collarbone, a faint crescent where teeth had pressed too hard and kissed it. Another along his side, the shape of fingers clutching too hard, he kissed too. A scatter of dark marks at his hip where Gojo had held him down, he kissed with the same care. Every little wound earned attention, slow and deliberate, Gojo’s lips soft as vows against each one.

Sasuke sat rigid at first, waiting for mockery, for pity. None came. Only care. By the third kiss, his breath had shifted, shallower, uneven.

“You keep track of every injury like a soldier,” Gojo said quietly, “but you’ve never let anyone treat them like proof you survived.”

Sasuke’s throat worked. “I’ve had worse.”

“I know.” Gojo’s smile curved against his skin. “But these? These are mine. And I like seeing them on you.” He pressed another kiss just above his heart, unhurried. “Beautiful, every one.”

Sasuke’s cheeks burned hot under the steam. He couldn’t bring himself to shove him away. Instead, his hand slid into Gojo’s wet hair, fingers curling tight, the closest he’d come to admitting what it did to him to be claimed this way, cared for as much as taken.

He reached for the soap instead. “Your turn.”

Gojo blinked, surprised, then laughed, easing forward so Sasuke could move behind him. His back was broad under Sasuke’s palms, muscles tight with the weight he carried like it was nothing. Sasuke pressed, thumbs digging slow circles until Gojo grunted low, then kneaded lower down his spine, patient. The steam curled around them, cedar sharp and sweet.

When Sasuke rinsed his hair, fingers massaging scalp, Gojo made a sound he probably hadn’t meant to, unguarded, pleased, a noise Sasuke filed away with quiet satisfaction.

Satisfied, Sasuke drew him back around until they were facing each other again, wanting to see his eyes. The water rippled between them as he set the cloth to Gojo’s chest, washed him in long strokes, down over ribs, along the hard line of his stomach.

Gojo’s breath changed, soft and uneven, when Sasuke’s hand skimmed lower under the water. Sasuke smirked faintly and wrapped his fingers around him.

The water made every motion lush, friction easy, his strokes long and deliberate. Gojo tipped his head back against the marble, eyes closing, lips parting around a rough sound.

“Good?” Sasuke asked, voice low.

“God, yes,” Gojo breathed, grip tightening on the ledge behind him. “Don’t stop.”

Sasuke didn’t. He teased, dragging his hand slow, twisting at the crest, then speeding, watching Gojo unravel against the steam. When he bent and pressed his mouth over him too, taking him in with steady pressure, Gojo’s composure shattered. His hips bucked before he caught himself, the hand in Sasuke’s hair trembling.

“Please,” Gojo gasped, raw.

Sasuke made him beg longer, then swallowed him down, hand working in rhythm until Gojo’s body arched against the marble, a hoarse cry tearing free. His voice broke on Sasuke’s name as he came, raw and unguarded. Warmth hit Sasuke’s tongue, and as he swallowed, the bond flooded him, stealing his breath. The sight and sound of Gojo unraveling under him tipped him past reason, and pleasure ripped through his body before he even reached for it. For one staggering moment he couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, only feel, even as he licked Gojo clean with deliberate care, body trembling through his own release. When he finally rose back up, his lips were wet, his pulse still racing.

When his eyes opened again, dazed and glass-bright, the wonder there told Sasuke he had felt it too. Shoulders still shaking, Gojo let Sasuke draw him into a kiss, slow and lingering, tasting salt and citrus and the aftershock of something neither of them had expected.

When they finally parted, Gojo stared at him, wrecked but grinning crookedly. “Seriously, how the hell are you that good with no experience?”

Sasuke smirked, tilting his chin just enough to make it arrogant. “Did you think I wouldn’t excel at this too?” His voice dropped, dry but edged with heat. “I learn fast.”

Gojo laughed, low and breathless. “Cocky bastard.”

His grin softened, rough edges giving way to something unguarded. “You spoil me,” he rasped when he could breathe again.

“Hmf,” Sasuke muttered, sliding into his lap, stealing another kiss.

They climbed out eventually, towels wrapping them in new heat. Gojo set one heavy over Sasuke’s shoulders before taking his own, smirking when Sasuke didn’t argue.

By the time they padded back to the nest, a low tray had appeared, piled with fruit cut into shining pieces: fig, pear, persimmon. And, set apart on a separate dish, bright against porcelain, tomatoes.

Sasuke froze.

Gojo bit into one himself, juice running bright over his thumb. “Had a hunch.”

Sasuke stared, throat tight. “You shouldn’t know that.”

“I pay attention.” Gojo plucked another, held it out. “Open.”

Ridiculous. Infuriating. Sasuke parted his lips anyway. The burst of sweetness and acid nearly undid him. He hated how much it felt like being seen.

“You’re insufferable,” he muttered, chewing.

“Cute when you sulk,” Gojo said, smug.

Sasuke shot him a withering look but reached for another piece. This time he fed it to Gojo, dryly: “Your turn.”

They ate together, fruit and tea, fingers brushing now and then. Chocolate appeared next, another small, lacquered box set quietly at the side. Gojo didn’t push it. He let Sasuke open it himself.

This time the craving wasn’t sharp or frantic. Sasuke bit into a truffle, let the sweetness melt, then leaned forward and pressed his chocolate-stained mouth to Gojo’s. The kiss was slow, messy, belonging to only them.

When they sank back into the nest, it wasn’t sex that followed but touch: arms tangled, warmth shared, Sasuke purring low without realizing. Gojo grinned when he heard it but didn’t call it out. He just stroked through Sasuke’s damp hair until the sound deepened, content and unashamed.

It was a home they'd built without meaning to, made of silk and fruit, chocolate kisses and the rhythm of breathing together.

The closeness pressed at him, coaxing words to the edge of his tongue. Sasuke’s mouth parted, but the word caught in his throat. The bond stirred, hungry for it, as if it already knew. Heat rose in his cheeks. He shut his mouth again and muttered instead, “Don’t move. You’re warm.”

Gojo chuckled, settling deeper into the nest. “Whatever you say, kitten.”

The bond held steady, warm as breath louder, wrapping them both in a certainty Sasuke wasn’t ready to speak aloud. Not yet.

Sleep claimed them in the quiet that followed. When morning came, Gojo lay on his back in the tangled nest, hair sticking up in chaotic tufts from sleeping with it still wet. He looked rested in the way only someone who hadn’t slept deeply in years could look after finally letting himself collapse. His eyes were open, though, fixed on the nothingness above.

Sasuke watched the quiet stretch. Gojo’s expression had gone far away, like he was staring into a place the room couldn’t hold. His mouth moved once, no sound following, then stilled again.

Sasuke knew that look. He’d worn it too many times.

“You’re somewhere else,” Sasuke said, voice even. “Want to talk about it?”

Gojo turned his head. A wry half-smile ghosted across his face. “Talk about what?”

He didn’t answer. Just leveled him with a flat, unreadable stare until Gojo shifted under it.

“You’re terrifying, you know that?” Gojo murmured. His voice roughened. “Suguru.” For a long moment Gojo said nothing, his gaze fixed somewhere far beyond the stone ceiling. The silence pressed heavy between them until Sasuke finally spoke, low and steady: “Do you want to talk about it?” Gojo’s throat worked, the faintest curve of a smile tugging at his mouth, brittle around the edges. When he finally said the name, “Suguru”, it broke loose raw. His shoulders sagged, and he let out a sound he would never have allowed another to hear, all the godlike shine stripped away. Sasuke shifted closer, grounding him with touch, with the weight of presence, with quiet that asked nothing and offered everything.

The silence stretched after Gojo’s voice broke on Suguru’s name. His breathing steadied but his eyes were still distant, caught in the gravity of memory. Sasuke didn’t push. He waited. Slowly, Gojo dragged a hand down his face, and when he spoke again his tone was lower, ragged.

The name dropped like a stone.

“He was everything. My best friend. My partner. My first…” His voice broke, but he pushed through. “My first everything.” He swallowed hard, eyes burning. “Losing him broke me.”

Sasuke stayed still. Waiting.

“We were inseparable at Jujutsu High,” Gojo said, sitting up, arms braced on his knees. “Ate together, fought together, crammed into a room too small for two idiots who thought they were invincible. We made plans we had no business making. I was already arrogant. He was… kind.”

The word lingered, fragile.

“He wanted to save people first,” Gojo went on, quieter. “He’d stop in the middle of a fight to pull some terrified kid out of the way; tell them it would be all right. He was the one who kept me human. I only looked strong because he reminded me why it mattered.”

His hand dragged hard over his face.

His fist clenched.

“Third year,” he said, flat. “He snapped. He slaughtered a village. Said non-sorcerers weren’t worth saving. Said he wanted a world of jujutsu sorcerers only. I told myself I could bring him back. That it was grief. Rage. A phase I could stand in the way of and stop.”

A shaky breath. “I spent ten years telling myself that.”

Silence thickened. Sasuke could read the years in his face now. The brilliance hollowed by something even power couldn’t touch.

“He came back a decade later,” Gojo whispered. “Not the boy I knew. A cult leader. A killer. And I… I was the one who had to stop him. The one who had to kill him.” He stared at his hands as if they still bore blood. “He looked at me and smiled like we were still seventeen. And I…”

His breath broke. He pressed the heel of his palm to his eyes, but the tremor in his shoulders betrayed him.

“I told him I loved him,” Gojo whispered, almost inaudible. “Right before I did it. And all he said back was… ‘At least curse me a little at the end.’” His throat closed on the memory. “I didn’t save him.”

The words cracked something open. Gojo made a sound he would never have let anyone else hear. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t godlike. It was a man finally letting himself feel it.

Sasuke shifted closer, caught his wrist, and pulled. Gojo resisted for a heartbeat, then crumpled in, shoulders shaking. Sasuke wrapped him up, one arm around his back, the other at the nape of his neck. No speeches. No theatrics. Just the silent promise that he wasn’t alone.

Gojo broke against him. Silent at first, then shuddering. Hot tears hit Sasuke’s collarbone. He tried to swallow them down, but they kept coming.

“I should have noticed,” Gojo gasped against him. “He was tired. He was choking on curses and smiling anyway, and I…” His voice cracked. “I was too busy proving I was the strongest. He had such a gentle soul. He was my shade. He kept me from burning the whole sky. And I left him alone in the dark.”

“You were just a teenager,” Sasuke said, low. “A boy carrying a world. He was a boy trying to love it anyway. Neither of you were gods.”

Gojo gave a wet laugh. “Tell that to my ego.”

“I do. Daily.”

The joke softened the edge, but only just. Sasuke tipped their foreheads together, grounding them both.

“Tell me something good,” he said.

Gojo went still, then faraway. “We used to sneak onto the roof at night. He’d drag me up the ladder when I was too loud. We’d lie on the tiles and watch the stars. He’d talk about the future like he could reach it. Once he said… if we ever made it out alive, he wanted to turn Jujutsu High into more than a training ground. He wanted a home. A place where kids could heal when the missions broke them, where they’d eat real food and play, where there’d be gardens instead of empty courtyards. He said if we gave them a safe place, maybe they’d believe in a future worth living for.”

Gojo’s mouth curved, grief and fondness braided. “I laughed at him. Called him a wannabe farmer. He just smiled and said I’d thank him when I was old and full of vegetables.”

Gojo swallowed. His voice cracked, softer now. “Even when he fell. When he was gathering followers, when I should’ve hated him. He… he took in two little girls. Fed them, clothed them, raised them. He taught them how to survive. He loved them. He gave them a home. Even in the dark, he was still trying to protect children. That’s who he was. That’s who he always was.” “And I never told him I saw it. That I loved him for it.”

His face twisted, broken by guilt. “And I killed him.”

Sasuke’s grip tightened. He pulled Gojo in until their foreheads pressed hard together.

“You didn’t kill who he was,” Sasuke said. His voice was steady, unyielding.

Gojo’s eyes searched his, raw and lost, breath catching as his fingers knotted in the silk.

“You don’t know that” he whispered.

“I do,” Sasuke said. His voice was steady, unyielding. “Because that’s what love is. Even twisted, even broken. You were each other’s first loves. You stayed until the end.”

Gojo’s face crumpled. More tears slipped, but when Sasuke caught them with his thumb, Gojo didn’t try to hide.

Sasuke laced their fingers. “I’m here for you. Always,” he said quietly, echoing Gojo’s own words back to him. “That’s what mates do.”

Gojo stared at him, something breaking open and easing all at once. He leaned forward until his forehead pressed to Sasuke’s again.

“You loved him,” Sasuke said. “He loved you. That doesn’t disappear because the ending was ugly.”

Gojo laughed under his breath, shaky. “You’re going to ruin me.”

“Already did,” Sasuke said dryly. “You’ll recover.”

Gojo let out a breath that trembled but was freer than before. He tucked his head under Sasuke’s jaw, weight settling there like it finally belonged.

For a long time, they stayed that way. No saving. No fixing. Just breathing together, grief shared instead of carried alone.

Sasuke stayed close. He wasn’t practiced at comfort, but he understood it through touch and steady presence, not speeches. He let his hand slide up into Gojo’s hair, nails scratching gently at the scalp. Gojo shivered and let himself lean into it.

“You’re allowed to feel it,” Sasuke said, quiet.

Gojo huffed a breath that was half a laugh, half a sob. “Terrible idea.”

“Necessary.”

Gojo turned his head enough to look at him. Blue eyes rimmed red, lashes damp, but there was something open there that hadn’t been before. The arrogance had drained out, leaving something truer.

“I don’t know what to do with you,” he said.

Sasuke’s lips twitched faintly. “You’ll manage.”

The smallest smile curved Gojo’s mouth. He leaned in, pressing their foreheads together again, but this time he didn’t break the contact. Their mouths brushed, once, twice, not claiming but learning. When Sasuke closed the distance, it was slow, unhurried. A kiss that carried the weight of things said and unsaid.

The bond thrummed steady, no longer a storm but a steady current in his chest. Sasuke leaned into the kiss, hand on Gojo’s jaw, thumb tracing damp skin. Gojo sighed, mouth opening, meeting him with a softness that stripped away all his edges.

They lay back together, mouths still joined, and the silk nest caught them. Gojo’s hand skimmed down Sasuke’s spine, not urgent, just mapping. Sasuke shifted closer, knees slotting between his, chest to chest. It wasn’t about heat. It was about closeness.

When Sasuke straddled him, there was no rush. He rocked forward slow, letting Gojo feel the intention. Gojo’s hands steadied on his hips, grip sure but not demanding.

“This isn’t because of the bond,” Sasuke said, low, searching his eyes.

“I know,” Gojo answered without hesitation. “It’s because you want to.”

Sasuke kissed him for that.

They undressed each other with care more than lust, each brush of fingers a conversation. Sasuke smoothed his hands over shoulders, chest, the curve of a stomach still taut with power, memorizing the terrain. Gojo’s palms followed the slope of Sasuke’s back, reverent, like he’d been waiting for this quiet his whole life.

When they joined, it wasn’t conquest. It was alignment. Slow, deliberate, every motion an answer to the one before. Sasuke set the rhythm steady, hips rolling in a pace that felt less like proving and more like breathing. Gojo’s hands gripped his thighs, then eased, letting him lead, letting himself be guided.

Sasuke kept his eyes open. He liked seeing the cracks in Gojo’s mask, the softness beneath. He wanted to see the man, not the god. Gojo met his gaze and held it, unflinching, as if daring him to look away. Neither did.

But after a while, Gojo’s grip tightened. He sat up, one arm braced firm around Sasuke’s back, and rolled them gently until Sasuke was beneath him. The shift wasn’t rough.  Just decisive, as if to remind them both that strength didn’t have to dominate to be steady. Sasuke let him, legs curling instinctively around his waist.

Gojo pressed down, chest to chest, face close enough that every breath mingled. He set the rhythm this time: deep, measured thrusts that carried weight without hurry. Each movement anchored them closer, until Sasuke felt as though the bond itself pulsed with the rhythm.

Pinned beneath him, Sasuke found it easier to let go. He didn’t feel overpowered; he felt held. Gojo’s eyes stayed on him, steady and unguarded, drinking in every flicker of expression. His hands framed Sasuke’s face, thumbs stroking along sharp cheekbones as if they were something precious.

Their breaths tangled, low sounds breaking the silence, not sharp but steady. Pleasure built like a tide that didn’t crash but rose, lifting them together. Gojo whispered his name once, almost reverent, and Sasuke felt the bond pulse warm at the sound.

When release came, it was not frantic but inevitable. Like stepping into a river that carried them both. Gojo shuddered above him, Sasuke arching to meet it, and they clung tight until the tremors eased into stillness.

Sasuke tugged him closer, chest to chest, ear pressed over his heart. He listened to the steady beat there, grounding himself in it. Gojo’s arms closed around him, one hand stroking through his hair, the other splayed protective across his back.

For a long moment, neither spoke. Then Sasuke lifted his head, just enough to see his face. He opened his mouth before he could second-guess it.

“I love you.”

No fever. No cliff. Just choice.

Gojo froze. His breath went out of him like someone had lifted a weight he’d been carrying too long. He stared at Sasuke as if the words had remade the room.

Sasuke didn’t flinch. “I wanted you to hear it like this. Not because of the bond. Because I chose it.”

Gojo’s hands tightened in his hair, at his back, as if anchoring himself. His smile broke, wet and wild and truer than anything. He kissed him once, simple, then again, slower, lingering.

“Say it again,” he whispered, shameless.

Sasuke rolled his eyes faintly, but his mouth curved as he obeyed. “I love you, idiot.”

Gojo laughed, the sound breaking and free, and pulled him into another kiss.

They lay that way until silence settled around them again. Not empty. Not haunted. Just full.

The chamber had grown quiet, but it wasn’t the heavy silence of grief anymore. It was the kind that lingered after storms, fragile but clear.

Gojo lay propped on one elbow, tracing idle lines across Sasuke’s bare shoulder. His voice was lighter, though it carried the echo of what had just passed. His gaze drifted upward, as if searching the ceiling for something far away. Then he huffed a quiet laugh.

“I should take you to Tokyo,” he said suddenly. “Show you the good soba shops, the quiet shrines no one remembers, the rooftops where the whole city looks like it’s breathing neon. My city.”

Sasuke arched a brow. “Why?”

Gojo smirked. “Because you’d hate it at first. The crowds, the noise, the endless lights. You’d scowl at everything. And then” his grin curved “you’d find the little corner shop that sells onigiri at two in the morning, the kind with too much seaweed and just the right amount of salt, and you’d pretend you didn’t like it until I caught you going back alone.”

Sasuke made a low sound, unimpressed. But his lips betrayed him, tugging upward.

For Gojo, the thought of the city was a hollow thing, brighter and sharper but stripped of the presence that once gave it meaning. Tokyo had never just been buildings, shrines, or neon. It was his students, his colleagues, his friends. It was Suguru. Without them, the skyline was only a shell, a blaze of light over emptiness. Yet lying here, with Sasuke’s hand in his, the vision didn’t feel quite as hollow. If Sasuke came with him, maybe even the empty city would hold something again.

For Sasuke, it was different. He didn’t see absence but weight. A place pressing from every angle with light and sound, a world that refused to stop living. He had walked through ruins his whole life. This was the opposite. Where Gojo saw loss, Sasuke saw challenge and the chance to carve something new into the world waiting ahead.

The thought cut deep, hitting something he hadn’t dared let himself imagine. No cursed name, no resurrected clan on his shoulders, no council whispering about his blood. Just a life. A home. A place where family wasn’t a ghost or a burden but something he could build himself. For the first time, he let the image come: children and teenagers laughing in sunlight, tomatoes growing in a garden, voices that belonged to him.

Then another image rose, closer and almost unbearable. A child’s laugh, high and bright, dark hair catching the light, eyes too blue to be only his. The ache in his chest made him want to turn from it, but he didn’t. His hand curled unconsciously in the silk, as if to hold the fragile vision steady.

“You think it’s possible?” Sasuke asked quietly.

Gojo watched him, reading what he didn’t say. His grin softened. “Terrifying, right? Wanting something that simple?”

Sasuke didn’t look away. His voice dropped, deliberate. “Families who aren’t torn apart because a village says so. If we’re the strongest, we don’t just talk. We change it. Not violently. Not by fire or steel. Diplomatically. With weight no one can ignore. If they see us, they’ll have to listen.”

Gojo blinked, startled by the certainty in his tone. He let the words hang, surprising even himself. But once spoken, the images came easier than expected.

“I could stand in front of kids, and they’d see a sensei, not a curse. They’d laugh when I glared. They’d tug at my sleeves when I tried to leave. They’d shove tomatoes into my hands because they’d figured out, I liked them, and they’d call it a bribe.” His lips curved faintly, unwilling but real. “And I’d let them get away with it.”

Gojo’s thumb brushed the back of his hand, quiet for once. “You’re not a curse,” he said, simple as breathing.

The words settled between them. Gojo’s grin widened then, but it wasn’t his usual cocky show of teeth. It was softer, unguarded, the kind that slipped through when he forgot to perform.

“Tomatoes, huh?” he murmured, brushing his thumb over the back of Sasuke’s hand. “Kid shows up with his pockets full of bribes, and you let him win? That, I need to see.”

Sasuke made a low sound but didn’t pull away. His chest tightened, but not with fear. It was something warmer, steadier, almost unbearable in its simplicity.

“You’d really want me there?” he asked, quieter than he meant.

Sasuke let out a sound before he could stop it, low and instinctive. A purr, soft in his chest, vibrating against Gojo’s skin. His cheeks heated, but he didn’t pull back.

Gojo stilled, then smiled like he’d just been handed the world. “More than anything,” he said softly. His grin lingered for a moment before it faltered, his hand going still against Sasuke’s.

“My kids,” he murmured.

Sasuke brow lifted. “Your students.”

Gojo nodded, throat working. “I keep thinking about them.” His voice dropped, each name heavy but full of affection. “Nobara, loud, stubborn, so sure of herself she scared half the boys in her year. But her laugh… Gods, her laugh. She laughed like she could split the world open.”

His breath hitched, but he pressed on. “Megumi. Serious. Quiet. Always shouldered more than he had to. He pretended he wasn’t holding us together, but he was.” Gojo’s voice cracked. “And now… Sukuna has his body. That was the last time I saw him.”

He swallowed hard. “Oh, Yuji would smile even when the world was tearing him apart, bleeding himself dry just to keep a promise no one asked for. Too much heart, too much hope.”

Gojo’s voice dropped to a whisper. “And Yuta,” His breath caught. “Yuta apologized every time he breathed wrong. So gentle it hurt. But he could level a battlefield with a whisper. My cousin. My student. My family. I should’ve been there for him.”

He dragged a hand over his face; grief etched in every line. “Panda made jokes that weren’t even funny, but we all laughed anyway. He kept things lighter than they should’ve been. And Maki, furious, scarred, unstoppable. Every time an elder tried to put her down, she stood taller. She was proof they were wrong. Inumaki, too, quiet, careful with his words. But he’d hand out rice balls like that was enough to fix anything. And somehow, it almost was.”

Memories flickered sharp and unbidden: Panda lobbing a baseball across a sunlit field, Yuji’s cap slipping too far over his eyes, Nobara screaming she was “queen of the field” when she stole second base. Megumi rolling his eyes, almost smiling despite himself. Inumaki pressing snacks into everyone’s hands without a word. Yuta at the edge of it all, hesitant, until Panda shoved him into the game and he laughed, really laughed.

Gojo’s voice shook. “I don’t even know if they’re alive. And it’s killing me.”

Sasuke caught his fist, pried it open, and laced their fingers tight. His voice came firm.

“Then we don’t wait. We go to them.”

Gojo’s words about Suguru’s dream lingered between them. A school that could have been a home, a place where children could grow without being crushed by duty. Sasuke let the thought settle. In his mind, it unfolded into something more: laughter echoing in open halls, students leaning into lessons without fear, small hands tugging at his sleeve not because of his name but because they trusted him. He imagined children who would see him not as an Uchiha, not as a criminal, but simply as theirs.

“I want that too,” Sasuke said quietly. His voice held no hesitation. “A place where no one has to be alone. Where family means something different than loss.” He could almost see it: a garden where children picked food, they had grown themselves, a library filled with stories instead of weapons, dorm rooms where laughter spilled into the halls.

Gojo’s answering smile was raw, wet at the edges. “With you beside me? They’d finally have what we both wanted them to have. A real home.”

He blinked, startled by Sasuke’s earlier words, then laughed softly, the sound breaking wet at the edges. “Go to them, huh? Bold as ever. But… maybe you’re right.”

“You said this place bends rules,” Sasuke pressed. “And my Rinnegan doesn’t stop at one world. If there are seams, we can cross them. We already proved it.” His gaze was steady, uncompromising. “We don’t sit here and wonder. We act. We find them. We stop Sukuna. We save your students.”
His eyes burned, voice steady. “And now that you have me, we’re unstoppable. Together, we can tear him down.”

“The Rinnegan showed me once,” he went on, voice low, deliberate. “Not in battle. Not with effort. Just… in sleep. Threads of light across a dark so wide it didn’t end. Worlds brushing against each other like layers in the same cloth. And at the center, our bond. An anchor.” His eyes narrowed, certainty hardening. “It wasn’t a dream. It was proof. With the Rinnegan to reach and your Limitless to steady, we can aim for those seams. Not perfect, but close enough to try for the moment we need most.” Alone, the Rinnegan could only see the seams. Alone, Limitless could only steady the void. Together, sight and anchor became a path.

Gojo didn’t answer right away. His grin came slow, breaking wider only after the silence stretched. “Unstoppable, huh? Guess the world should start praying, because I think you mean it.” His hand tightened over Sasuke’s. “And I believe you.”

He swallowed hard, his laugh breaking wet and unsteady. “You don’t give me a choice, do you?”

Sasuke’s mouth curved faintly. “So, they tell me.” He paused, then added, softer, “When this is done, I’ll go back. To Konoha. To my world. Not to change it. The only one who can do that is Naruto. But I need to face it. Say goodbye. To Naruto. To what’s left of my clan. To all of it.” His grip on Gojo’s hand tightened. “And then… I’ll go with you. To Tokyo. Together we’ll build whatever comes next. Our home.”

For once, Gojo didn’t joke. His throat worked as he swallowed, and when he spoke the words were low, steady. “Then we go together. Konoha first, for your goodbyes. And after that… Tokyo. Home.”

The silence that followed did not weaken; it solidified into resolve. What waited wasn’t comfort. It was the future, and they would face it together.

They gathered themselves, leaving behind the warmth of silks, pillows and the quiet ache of days spent in fever and closeness. The bond still hummed steady, but the air around them had sharpened, no longer sanctuary, but a threshold. Gojo tugged his uniform straight; Sasuke adjusted the sheath at his hip, weapons settling like old companions. The playfulness of heat and stolen chocolate was gone. What remained was resolve.

Sasuke closed his eyes. The Rinnegan stirred, its vision spilling out in threads of light, stretching across a dark that had no end. Worlds brushed against each other like layers of cloth, and at the center, steady as a heartbeat, was their bond. He reached for it, guiding those threads into a seam that shimmered, uncertain but waiting. “It’s an educated guess,” he murmured, voice low. “As close as I can make it. We could still be off.”

Gojo’s hand tightened on his. “Close enough’s all we need. If it dumps us on our asses, we’ll still make it look good.” Limitless steadied the weave, their power meshing until the temple groaned and light bled through the cracks.

The doors yawned open. Sound hit first. The hum of a city alive with machines, the faint crackle of neon buzzing against the night. Towers of glass and steel carved the sky into jagged lines. Streets wide and strange glowed with lights that burned without fire.

Gojo’s steps slowed, his grin flickering. No familiar cursed energy. None of the sparks he’d memorized, none of the signatures that meant home. The city blazed bright, alive with machines, but the silence underneath pressed sharper than the noise. For a second his chest ached, raw and hollow.

Sasuke saw the falter before the mask returned, a flicker of truth in the space between breaths.

Then his grin returned, crooked at the edges. “Well, shit,” he said lightly. “Looks like we overshot. Welcome to the future.” His thumb brushed over Sasuke’s knuckles, reckless spark sliding back into his voice. “Guess that’s our cue. Ready to terrify a whole new world, kitten? And maybe find out what happened to my brats while we’re at it.”

Sasuke’s lips curved faintly. He laced their fingers tighter, and together they stepped out into a time that wasn’t theirs.

Chapter 8 Teaser

The sanctuary has been a world of its own, safe, contained, suspended outside of time. But nothing stays untouched forever. In the next chapter, a discovery arrives that neither of them could have predicted, one that brings wonder and terror in equal measure. It will shift how they see themselves, how they see each other, and how they move through the future that’s waiting. Beyond their walls, the world is stirring again, and soon the weight of it will be impossible to ignore.

Chapter Text

The air bent around them, stretched thin and tore.

Light spilled first, harsh and unforgiving. When Sasuke blinked, it did not fade. Signs blazed in colors he had no names for, pulsing against towers that climbed so high they split the sky into broken glass. The streets below swarmed with people and machines, wheels shrieking over stone that wasn't stone at all, lit by lamps that burned without flame. The air smelled of oil and smoke, strange sweetness and something metallic beneath it. The resonance of wires overhead hummed constant, a vibration that had no chakra to anchor it.

For a moment he thought they'd stumbled into illusion. Every instinct recoiled. No chakra in the air, no warmth of fire, no familiar crackle of jutsu waiting to be unleashed. Only a different resonance, metal and engines and endless noise. He held still, face narrowing, as though staring long enough might reveal the trick.

Gojo had gone still too. Not the deliberate stillness he wore like armor, but the kind that slipped out when something cut close. Sasuke noticed it in the set of his shoulders, the way his mouth tightened before he forced it back into a smirk.

"Well," Gojo said lightly, "guess we overshot. Hundred years or so, give or take." His eyes swept the skyline, lingering on the towers and signs that belonged to no world he knew. "No cursed energy I recognize. Whatever's here, it isn't mine. Not my students, not my time."

He let it hang for a beat before his thumb brushed across Sasuke's fingers, careless on the surface but deliberate underneath. "Welcome to the future, kitten. Ready to terrify a whole new world? And maybe find out what became of my kids while we're at it."

Sasuke's fingers tightened around his without thinking. Neon spilled over Gojo's white hair and the fringe hiding his Rinnegan, painting them both in colors that didn't belong. Then they stepped from the threshold into a time that wasn't theirs.

The street swallowed them whole. A river of strangers flowed close, faces fixed on glowing rectangles in their grips. Sasuke shifted, instinct pulling him toward his sword before he forced the movement still. No one looked twice. To the crowd, he and Gojo were just two more bodies carried along.

A machine buzzed at the corner, blinking with a dozen small lights. People lined up, fed coins into its slot, and pulled cans from its belly. Sasuke froze mid-step.

Gojo leaned down, smile curling. He kissed Sasuke once at the corner of his mouth, quick and distracting, then murmured, "That's a vending machine. Glorious invention. Gives you sugar water or terrible coffee, depending on how brave you are."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "They feed money into it. Why would anyone..."

Gojo covered the rest of his protest with another laugh. "Kitten, if you glare any harder, that poor soda machine is going to combust."

The crowd flowed on around them, the language on every sign unreadable, words spilling from strangers' mouths too fast to grasp. Sasuke ignored it, kept moving, but his eyes snagged on every impossible thing. A woman smiled down at him from a tower thirty feet high, lips painted crimson. A blink later she vanished, replaced by a steaming bowl of noodles suspended in midair.

"Genjutsu," he muttered.

"Not this time," Gojo said cheerfully. "Just advertising. The world got high tech without me."

At a crossing, a glowing figure of a red man hovered over the street. The entire crowd stood waiting in silence. Sasuke frowned, eyes flicking to the empty road. "Why are they standing still?"

"Because the little man says so," Gojo replied solemnly.

Sasuke shot him a look. Gojo only grinned wider. "Relax. Green means go. You'll get the hang of it. Or we'll cross on red and terrify everyone. Both fun."

When the figure turned green, the mass surged forward. Sasuke let the tide carry him, teeth set. Gojo strolled beside him as if the world had not upended itself, sunglasses catching the neon so they glowed almost as bright as the signs.

By the time they broke free of the crosswalk, Sasuke's shoulders ached from holding back the urge to strike. Every corner screamed with light, every sound scraped against instincts trained to read silence and shadow. He could track a thousand movements in battle, but here there was no rhythm, only chaos.

Gojo noticed his expression and smiled like he was in on the joke. He leaned down, kissed the corner of Sasuke's mouth again, and whispered, "Tense, kitten. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were about to start stabbing vending machines just to restore balance."

Sasuke's gaze shifted his way. "I opened the door. You insisted we walk through it."

"True," Gojo said without shame, pointing toward a narrow alley where neon light bled pink across the pavement and music throbbed like a pulse. "Perfect. Drinks are this way."

Sasuke stared at the doorway. "That looks diseased."

Gojo's laugh startled a pair of strangers. Their eyes snagged briefly on his blindfold, then on Sasuke's lowered fringe, unsettled without knowing why. They moved on quickly, muttering in words Sasuke couldn't follow.

He ignored them and fixed Gojo with another flat look. "You intend to drink here."

"Not just drink," Gojo said, leaning closer with a grin that promised trouble. "Dance. Maybe sing if you're lucky."

"Absolutely not."

"Kitten," Gojo replied, still loud enough to draw more gazes, "you survived gods and wars. You can handle one bar."

The bass rattled through the pavement, alien and insistent. Sasuke exhaled once, sharp, then stepped forward. Better to face the indignity than look like he was being dragged.

The alley spat them into noise so thick it vibrated under their skin. Bass hammered the floorboards, lights spun wild across a haze of smoke, and bodies packed the space wall to wall. Glitter tangled in hair, shirts clung slick with sweat, skirts rode high and trousers hung low, every color too bright for Sasuke's eyes. The air stank of alcohol and perfume, sugar-sweet and sour all at once.

Gojo drifted through it like he'd always belonged here, blindfold catching stray light as if it had been polished for the occasion. Sasuke followed, rigid, his gaze a blade cutting through the crush of strangers. He was out of place and he knew it. Every sound grated. Every brush of someone's shoulder put him one breath from lashing out.

They stopped at a counter that glowed from underneath. Gojo ordered with ease and handed Sasuke a drink. The liquid inside burned as it went down, sweet at first and then bitter, leaving his mouth tingling and his throat raw. He set the glass down harder than he meant to, the taste strange on his tongue.

Gojo laughed, tipping his own drink back like it was water. Then he grabbed Sasuke's hand and pulled him into the crush of bodies.

At first Sasuke resisted, stiff as stone, every step jagged against the tide of rhythm. Gojo only closed the distance, hand firm at his waist, mouth brushing his ear as he whispered, "Trust me."

He didn't want to give Gojo the satisfaction, but desire crept in anyway. Being wanted like that, seen like that, got under his skin, and he hated how much he liked it.

The bond hummed low, answering the bass, until Sasuke's body betrayed him. His movements softened, fell into rhythm, hips finding Gojo's with reluctant precision. They melted into one another's pace, gliding, turning, drawing closer until every brush of skin sparked.

Gojo traced a palm down over the curve of him, fingers spreading in deliberate possession, and Sasuke's grip on his shoulder locked instead of pushing away. The crowd blurred. Music pulsed through the floor, up their legs, into the line of their bodies grinding together.

Then Gojo bent close, tone roughened past amusement. "You're devastating," he said, words nearly lost in the music. "I can't resist you."

Sasuke started to tell him to behave. Gojo kissed him instead. The kiss came hard, hot, tongues colliding, their hips still moving in time with the music. Sasuke swallowed the groan torn from Gojo's throat, his own rhythm thrumming wild as the friction of their bodies turned the dance into something darker, almost obscene.

The room shrank around it. Sweat gathered where their skin met, lips bruised with the drag of teeth, Gojo grinding them closer until Sasuke thought he might dissolve entirely into rhythm and hunger. The crowd roared louder, but it barely registered. For a moment it was only them, locked in a kiss that burned hotter than the lights strobing overhead.

When the music cut, silence lasted a beat, then broke into applause. Whistles, clapping, laughter. Sasuke froze, pulse racing, humiliation scalding hot. Gojo bowed low with theatrical flourish, dragging Sasuke into a dip so sudden the crowd roared louder.

Before Sasuke could wrench free, Gojo had snatched a microphone. He spun it in one hand, shoved his blindfold up just enough to flash blue eyes at the room, and said, "This one's for my kitten." His voice carried over the cheers, bold and certain. "Only person who's ever made me dance like that. Only person I'll ever love like this."

The screen lit behind him, lyrics scrolling. He sang without hesitation, voice clear and wild, filling every corner of the room. It wasn't polished, not perfectly on key, but it was raw. Each note, each word, aimed like an arrow at Sasuke. Declaration disguised as performance, love confessed under neon and smoke.

The crowd cheered, raised glasses, shouted their delight. Gojo grinned through it all, gaze fixed on Sasuke like no one else existed. When the song ended he blew an outrageous kiss in his direction, unashamed, while applause thundered around them.

Sasuke covered his face with one hand, heat climbing his throat, but the connection hummed steady under the embarrassment, warm and unyielding.

Gojo leaned in once the noise began to fade, voice low, meant for him alone. "I used to love places like this. The noise, the chaos, the way you could lose yourself in it. I wanted to share it with you. I wanted one dance."

Sasuke let his hand drop, meeting his gaze through the blur of lights. For once, he didn't look away.

The night air outside tasted cooler, though it still hummed faintly with engines and the neon crackle of signs above. After the crush of the bar, the street seemed almost hollow. The music had faded behind them, leaving only the shuffle of strangers passing by, their faces glowing in the light of their alien devices. Sasuke rolled his shoulders, easing the phantom weight of too many bodies.

Gojo looked unbothered, stretching long, grin lazy. "Not bad for your first dance lesson," he said. He waited a beat, then added, softer, "Come on. There's somewhere I want to check."

They moved through side streets where neon shimmered against cracked walls, the air damp with the smell of rain on asphalt. Gojo's stride carried something different now. Less swagger, more memory. Like he was following a thread no one else could see.

They stopped before a squat building wedged between glass towers. Its windows were dark, its sign half-burned out, paint peeling under the glare of newer lights.

"I used to come here all the time," Gojo said quietly. "Food was terrible. Drinks watered down. But it didn't matter. They didn't care who you were. Cursed, blessed, ordinary, it was all the same. Everyone fit." His voice drifted, the grin pulling thin. "Thought maybe it'd still be here."

Silence stretched. Sasuke studied the building, the way it sagged between brighter, louder neighbors. It reminded him of something, this relic clinging on long after its time had passed. The old Uchiha district in Konoha came to mind, never rebuilt after Pain's attack, where only a few buildings remained standing and no one lingered after dark. He understood what it was to return to places that should have held warmth and instead find only ruin.

"You wanted me to see this," Sasuke said quietly.

Gojo's hands drifted into his pockets, shoulders drawn as if bracing. "Guess I did. Wanted you to see a little piece of my world. What's left of it."

For once, there was no theater in his tone. No grin to soften it, no laugh to cover the ache.

Sasuke let the silence hold a moment longer, then said, "It's the same everywhere. Nothing lasts. Not temples, not homes, not people." His gaze lingered on the dark windows, the empty threshold. "But you carry them anyway."

Gojo turned toward him, blindfold cutting the light but not hiding the faint curve of his mouth. "Yeah. Something like that."

The neon buzzed overhead, uncaring. They stood side by side on a street that belonged to no one, two survivors staring at ghosts neither of them could ever fully lay to rest.

After a long silence, Gojo shifted. "There's one more place I need to see." His voice carried no grin this time, only weight. He started walking, slower now, each step as if he were tracing a memory back into existence.

Sasuke fell in behind him. He didn't ask. There was something in the way Gojo carried himself that told him the answer already: wherever they were going mattered. The air itself seemed heavier, thick with memory.

The city thinned as they went. Neon gave way to dark stretches where weeds split the pavement and towers fell away to broken stone. Gojo stopped at last before a set of gates leaning under rust, their paint long gone.

The school still stood, though half its bones were gone. The courtyard lay cracked, one wing caved in under vines, gates sagging with rust. Yet within those ruins a hall had been rebuilt, clean and bright.

Jujutsu Academy Memorial Hall

They stood outside the gates a long moment and did not speak. The iron was scabbed with rust. A piece rattled against another piece in the wind. Gojo's hand hovered near the latch and did not close. He looked like a man deciding whether to disturb a grave.

"I can go alone," Sasuke said, not unkind.

Gojo's mouth shaped a smile that did not reach his voice. "No. If it exists, I have to see it. If it doesn't, I need to be wrong with my own eyes."

He pushed the gate. It scraped the stone, loud enough to feel improper. They went in together. Only then did Gojo's fingers find Sasuke's for a brief, hard squeeze that said more than any of his lines ever did.

Inside, the air stilled. Walls of polished stone stretched wide, etched with names. Alcoves held offerings: flowers sealed in glass, half-burned candles preserved, folded letters yellowed at the edges. Some panels carried screens, faintly lit, breathing voices trapped in recordings.

Gojo walked among them with the slow tread of a man half in the present, half in the past. He stopped when he saw his own name carved alongside Suguru's.

Satoru Gojo. The Strongest. Beloved Sensei.

Below were his students, and Shoko, their quiet constant, the one who stayed when both men were gone.

A voice played. Yuji's, warm and unguarded. "You gave me the strength I needed to win. I missed you every day. I love you. I hoped you knew we did it. We kept fighting. We lived. You told me once your dream was a future where you didn't matter anymore, where we'd grow stronger without you. I'm trying, Gojo-sensei. I'm still trying to be the person you believed I could be."

Gojo's next breath shuddered. His hand braced against the stone, fingertips trembling.

Another breath followed. Nobara, fierce even in memory. "You told me about my mother. I didn't want it. I burned it. You gave me the truth anyway because you knew I could take it. You never treated me like I was weak. You made me believe I could stand on my own. I respect you, you infuriating man. Don't get smug about it."

A rough chuckle tore from Gojo, broke, died in his throat. He leaned his forehead against the panel, blindfold brushing stone.

Next came Panda, softer. "You told me I belonged. That I wasn't less. That I was family. I still hold onto that. I love you. I always will."

Gojo's shoulders shook once. His mouth worked as if he might answer, but no sound came.

A breath later came Inumaki, soft and careful. "Salmon. Konbu. Tuna mayo. Okaka." He touched his throat, then his chest. "Ikura."

To a stranger it would sound like a list. Everyone who knew him had learned the language in it: thank you, stay steady, I am here, I admire you.

Gojo's hand covered his mouth as if to hold something in. The sound that slipped out was half laugh, half sob. "I hear you."

Maki's voice steadied the air, edged with her dry bite. "You ducked responsibility whenever you could. I'm still not impressed. But you believed in me when no one else did, and that made me take responsibility for myself. You were reckless, infuriating, an insufferable bastard to the end, and you pushed me to claim my life. Consider this the closest I'll get to a thank you. Don't gloat."

Gojo's laugh cracked through his tears. "Of course you'd say that."

Another voice joined them then, older now but steady, the kind that never bothered with sentiment unless it mattered. Shoko's.

"You two were idiots," she said. Her tone carried that dry, familiar rasp, amusement folded around the ache. "Geto with his grand ideals, you with your god complex. You both thought the world couldn't touch you. And look how that turned out."

A pause, then softer, "Still. I don't regret knowing you. You made the years bearable. Even after everything, I kept the bottle ready, just in case you ever came back to share one last drink."

The recording clicked faintly, as if she'd leaned closer. "I hope wherever you are, you finally stopped trying to carry everyone else. For once in your damn life, Gojo, rest."

Gojo's next breath broke wetly through grief. "You'd still call me an idiot at my own memorial," he whispered, voice shaking. "You never changed."

Then Yuta. Clear, aching. "You were my sensei. My friend. My family. You lifted me when I couldn't stand. You saved my life. I'll carry your legacy. I'll protect what you loved. I love you. I always will."

Gojo's knees almost buckled. He braced harder against the stone, the words tearing something loose. "You shouldn't have had to carry my burden. I should have been the one to bear it."

Sasuke stood beside him, silent, eyes tracing the faces frozen in images on the walls. He sensed something warm trace his cheek before he realized: a tear, unbidden. He wiped it with the back of his hand, then set his palm on Gojo's wrist, anchoring him.

The room seemed to narrow. Another recording sputtered then, voice older but thin with strain. Megumi.

"You told me the truth about my father. I laughed when I read it. It hurt, but it was you. Blunt. Impossible. Honest in a way no one else dared to be. You raised me. You gave me a home. I love you. I'm sorry. When Sukuna had my body, I was the one who... I can't undo it. I'm not me anymore. But I'm still trying."

Gojo bent at the waist, a sound breaking out of him that wasn't a word. His fist struck the wall once before he flattened both hands against it, forehead bowed low. "Megumi," he said low. "You were supposed to have more. Not this."

The bond thrummed with grief, so raw Sasuke absorbed it in his own chest. He tightened his grip.

When Gojo finally lifted his head, his eyes drifted lower. A plaque caught the light, its carving still crisp compared to the names above.

Megumi Fushiguro. Died in battle, age nineteen.

Devoted son. Loyal friend. He gave everything he had.

A second voice filled the air. Yuji's this time, rough with pain. "Megumi, I love you. I still do. I miss you every single day. You were my light when everything else went dark. I hope you know..."

Gojo turned away, unable to hear more. The words carved deeper than he could bear. His shoulders shook as he touched his fingers to his blindfold, as if he could block out both the wall and the memories.

The bond between them pulsed wild with grief. Gojo's fingers traced along the names as though he could touch them back into life. "He was a boy," he rasped. "He should have lived. I promised him more than his father's shadow. And he died carrying my ghost instead."

Sasuke's grip tightened. His voice came low, steady. "We'll find the right time. We'll make it back. We'll change what was coming for them. For him. I promise."

The words cut through the silence like steel laid true.

Gojo turned, blindfold hiding nothing of the grief moving through the tether. "You would share that with me?"

"I already do," Sasuke answered.

For once, Gojo had no quip and no grin. He leaned into him instead, arms locking around him, as if the weight of every ghost in the room would crush him otherwise. Sasuke held fast, a silent vow settling into the space between them.

On the far wall, burned lines came together into the fan he knew by heart. Uchiha. The sealwork was old, almost rubbed out, but it still lived in the stone. The air had a copper tang. His attention drifted lower, pulled toward the floor. He marked it and kept quiet.

They didn't leave right away. Gojo sank onto the low step beneath the wall and bowed his head until his breathing steadied. Sasuke stood beside him and watched the gloss on the carved names dull where tears had dried. The silence didn't feel empty. It reminded him of a room that hadn't been opened in years and was finally letting its air move again.

When Gojo lifted his face the second time, the muscles around his mouth had learned how to hold grief without breaking. He wiped the blindfold with the back of his wrist and let out a breath at himself, not amused, only acknowledging that the body can only cry so long. Sasuke rested a hand at his shoulder for a moment, then took it away. They both understood the gift of being seen without being fixed.

Looking back, he noticed more of it. Not just the fan on the wall, but fainter lines farther in, the kind of old sealwork that sinks into stone. The pull was clearer now, a thread drawing his gaze downward. Something waited beyond.

"Come," Sasuke said quietly.

Gojo angled his head. "Kitten, I'm in the middle of my tragic breakdown. Can it wait?"

Sasuke didn't answer. He simply stepped deeper into the hall. The echo grew louder with every pace, tugging at his blood. Gojo sighed, shoved his hands into his pockets, and followed.

The memorial hall tapered into narrower corridors, dimmer, colder. Lamps flickered where power still ran, but most of the light came from the faint shine of Sasuke's gaze as the Sharingan cut through the dark.

"Not many people come this far," Gojo said as they moved down a stairwell that smelled of damp stone and old paper. His voice echoed hollow against the walls. "Basement's nothing but dust and ghosts."

The air grew colder. Shelves slumped against the stone, some splintered, some collapsed under the weight of books left to rot. Scrolls lay scattered across the floor, ink smeared, words bled into stains. Yet even here, traces of care lingered. A case of glass still intact. A drawer sealed shut. Offerings of flowers, long dried, left at the threshold of rooms.

Sasuke slowed. His stare traced faint residue along the walls. Not paint, not decay, but the skeletal outline of sealing scripts burned into the stone. Most eyes would see only cracks. The Sharingan traced the strokes with clarity.

He brushed dust away. Beneath it, carved small and nearly erased, the curve of a fan. The Uchiha crest.

He went still. "This... shouldn't be here."

Gojo stepped closer, tilting his head. "Huh. Definitely not your average jujutsu graffiti." He bent, running a gloved hand just shy of the grooves. "Uchiha, right? That's your clan symbol."

Sasuke said nothing at first, only stared. His blood recognized it, even if logic rebelled. "Yes."

Gojo straightened, grin nowhere in sight. "So, what the hell is it doing in my school's basement?"

They moved deeper. Cabinets lined the walls, some broken open, others still sealed. Sasuke pried one loose and unrolled the brittle paper inside. The script was crooked, written in a hand desperate to record.

Unmapped energy. Patterns that defy measurement. Eyes not listed in any record. Possible intrusion from beyond this world. Unresolved. Are they a curse?

Gojo leaned in, brow furrowing beneath the blindfold. "So that's what they thought of your clan? An anomaly. A curse they could pin under glass?"

Sasuke folded the paper shut and exhaled, quiet and even. "When have the Uchiha ever been welcomed? We've always been treated like a curse. It would be no different here." He glanced back at the fan scorched into stone, lines cut like a warning. "Maybe that's exactly what they decided we were, something they couldn't name, so they tried to classify it."

Whatever he'd woken down here didn't fade. The charge stayed on his skin, insistent, as if the place had marked him for more than a look around. As they moved along the back aisle, the pull inside him settled into something he couldn't ignore.

Gojo leaned a shoulder against the wall, the usual ease stripped to something harder. "Yeah. Your clan showed up here. Not as guests but as specimens. Catalogued, pinned down, picked apart. No wonder the record is buried."

Dust sifted from the ceiling. The air held a faint charge, as if the sealwork itself were listening.

Sasuke scanned the far side of the room. Faded marks showed under the Sharingan, thin lines leading into a side alcove where the shelves had collapsed and the dust lay thicker. At the end of it stood a case half-buried in rubble. The glass was cracked but intact. Inside, on a stone plinth, lay a fragment of carved rock, its spiral lines seeming to shift when he tried to follow them.

The cost is the body. The bond is eternal. The key is you.

The words rose again, the same ones he'd traced on the seal that opened the temple. He understood them now. The bond already held. It was Gojo. He'd been the key that opened the temple. That left the cost: the body. This relic was tied to it. He could sense it. A low heat thrummed through his palm, sinking into bone, echoing deep in his chest. It was the missing piece, the third thread in the pattern he couldn't name. He didn't know why it had waited for him, only that it had. And that knowledge unsettled him.

A deeper thought cut through the noise. Why were the Uchiha here at all?

Had they crossed between worlds? Been summoned? Studied? Or had someone brought them, sought them out for what lived in their blood? If this place carried their mark, then it wasn't chance. It was design. The idea lodged hard in his chest.

He thought of his father then, Fugaku, quiet and precise, always watching more than he said. A man who measured affection in orders and approval in silence. Sasuke had spent a lifetime wondering if that restraint was pride or shame. Now, staring at the Uchiha fan scorched into a jujutsu wall half a world away, he wondered how much Fugaku had known. How far his reach had gone. Had he found this place once too, left the trail, left the relic?

The heat from the fragment deepened, pulsing faint against his skin like a heartbeat answering his own. For a moment, he thought of the years spent chasing his father's shadow and how it always seemed to lead back to him, to the eyes, the power, the curse carried in his name. Maybe this had never been about living up to Fugaku at all. Maybe it had always been about finishing what he started.

The flare swelled until light spilled from under his lashes. Heat climbed and his next breath hitched. The relic answered, its lines quickening, threads unspooling as if to lace themselves through him.

Gojo's grip closed hard around his shoulder, grounding him. "Daddy leaving you breadcrumbs, huh? Cryptic, controlling, never explaining a damn thing. Typical."

Sasuke's voice came low, almost swallowed by the hum. "And I was never enough."

The words left him raw. For a heartbeat he was back in the compound, his father's eyes heavy with disappointment, every silence a judgment. Always training, always pushing, never praising. That old ache rose again, the thought that he could burn through lifetimes and still never meet the mark his father had drawn for him.

But even through the ache, a new understanding threaded through. Whatever Fugaku had known, whatever path he'd started, it had ended here. And now it was Sasuke who stood at the center of it, bound to a bond he hadn't asked for and holding the cost in his hands.

The relic brightened again, violet rings sharpening in his vision as if answering the thought itself.

Then it stilled. The lines on the walls guttered out, leaving the room quiet except for their breathing.

Gojo exhaled slowly, still gripping him hard. "Remind me never to let you wander into basements alone again."

Sasuke reached for the cracked glass. It splintered under his touch, crumbling away as if the relic wanted free. He lifted the fragment from its plinth. The spirals still shone faintly, a low warmth beating against his palm before it cooled to stone.

He tucked it into his cloak without a word.

Gojo angled his head, disbelief plain even through the blindfold. "Of course you'd pocket the cursed object. You just can't help yourself. Stealing relics now, kitten? You're making me look like the responsible one."

Sasuke closed his hand into a fist, sensing the rhythm lingering in his veins. "It called to me."

Gojo smirked faintly, though his tone carried no levity. "Yeah. And now it won't shut up."

When they emerged back into the hall of names, Gojo slowed, his usual swagger muted. His blindfold turned toward the walls, toward the faces sealed forever in stone. He didn't stop this time. He only brushed his fingers once more across the edge of Megumi's name as if to promise he'd come back, then kept walking.

Outside, the night air tasted colder than before. The academy's ruins loomed behind them, the new memorial shining like a scar stitched into old bones. Neon shimmered faintly in the distance, but here the quiet stretched long.

Gojo tipped his head back, blindfold aimed at the stars, though none of them were familiar. "World's not subtle, huh? Throws us forward in time just so it can rub our noses in all the shit we couldn't save."

Sasuke didn't answer. The relic's fragment lay cold in his palm where he'd hidden it in his cloak, its etched spirals still faintly warm from the Rinnegan's flare. The resonance hadn't left him. It clung under his skin, threaded into the marrow of his bones, as if the stone had recognized something and refused to let go.

His words were steady. "Then we find a way back."

Gojo turned toward him, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth, but their link carried only gravity. "You really mean it. Even after what you saw down there."

Sasuke's eyes, still faintly rimmed with the Rinnegan's glow, met his. "Especially after."

Gojo let out a breath that might have been a laugh but came out closer to surrender. He slung an arm around Sasuke's shoulders, pulling him in close as they started down the cracked road. "Alright then. Two broken gods against time itself. What could go wrong?"

Sasuke said nothing. The fragment nestled against his side like a second heartbeat.

The road stretched ahead, cracked asphalt overgrown with weeds, neon light dancing in the distance like a mirage. The night hummed with machines Sasuke didn't understand, but the real sound came from within him. The fragment beat faintly against his side, steady as a second heart, the hum spreading through marrow and muscle until even his Rinnegan stirred beneath his lashes.

Gojo's arm stayed draped across his shoulders, easy, careless, though Sasuke sensed the grip hidden in it. His blindfold angled slightly toward him, as if measuring.

"You're quiet," Gojo said at last.

Sasuke's fingers brushed his cloak where the relic lay hidden. "It hasn't stopped."

Gojo hummed, low and thoughtful. "Yeah. I sense it too. Not in me, though. Just... bleeding off you." He gave a wry smile, no warmth in it. "Guess the shiny rock picked its favorite."

Sasuke's eyes flicked sideways. "It didn't pick. It recognized."

Gojo's mouth curved faintly. "Recognition, huh? Sounds like destiny dressed up as flattery."

He squeezed Sasuke's shoulder once, then let it go. "Whatever that thing's doing, it's yours now. Like it or not."

The words rose again, not as warning this time but as truth accepted. The cost is the body. The bond is eternal. The key is you.

The city ahead shone with glass and light. Behind them, the memorial had fallen silent, the dead fading back into stone. Between the two, Sasuke carried the fragment against his ribs, a weight he already knew he couldn't put down.

The city noise faded as they headed for the spot Gojo had marked. At the edge of the ruined district, where the last buildings gave way to rubble and weeds, the air shimmered. To anyone else it would look like heat rising off the ground, but Sasuke's Rinnegan saw the difference. It burned too clean, like a cut through the world itself.

Gojo whistled low, lifting his blindfold just enough to look. "That tear's not fading. Feels like it's been waiting for us."

Sasuke was quieter than usual, the kind of silence that weighed from the inside. The fragment rested against his ribs, its spiral lines warming with every step toward the tear. His vision blurred, the rings of his Rinnegan spinning too fast, as though the relic wanted out.

Gojo reached for his arm before he could stumble. "Steady. We're not through yet."

The air thickened. Static glimmered between broken rebar, a storm that had no sky. The fracture widened under their approach, jagged light flaring at its edges. Gojo lifted one hand, cursed energy spilling from his palm in a lattice that held the tear open.

"On three," Gojo said, his tone light but edged with control. "One for me, one for you, and one for whatever the hell that thing in your coat is."

Sasuke stepped forward. The relic burned hotter, pulsing in sync with his heartbeat.

The pull grew heavier, but it wasn't trying to break free. The pressure drove inward, threading through muscle and marrow, sinking deeper into his chakra network. It wasn't resisting the passage. It was merging. Anchoring itself. The warmth spread low through his core, grounding him until his breathing shifted. It wasn't leaving him behind; it was choosing to stay.

On the third step, the portal ripped wider. Wind roared, dragging dust and rust into its pull. Sasuke braced, chakra flooding to his feet, but the ground wavered beneath him, distant, as though his body no longer belonged entirely to him. The relic's rhythm surged, and his knees buckled.

Gojo grabbed him, arms iron around his waist. "Hey. Eyes open, kitten. Not the time to nap."

Sasuke tried to answer, but the words jammed in his throat. The warmth coiled through his body, spreading from deep within until it blurred thought and breath alike. His chakra tangled, threads splitting like fabric stretched too thin. For an instant he thought he heard another rhythm under his own heartbeat, faint, impossibly faint, yet there.

He staggered. Gojo dragged him upright with a sharp breath, hauling both of them through the fracture. Shimmer tore across his vision, violet burning into white.

Then silence.

They hit the ground hard on the other side, gravel skidding under their boots. Gojo stayed crouched with Sasuke in his arms, blindfold whipping in the leftover wind of the portal. The tear sealed behind them with a sharp crack, leaving the night too still.

Gojo tipped his head down, trying to see Sasuke's face. "Talk to me."

Sasuke's breathing came ragged. Sweat dampened his hair, skin too pale even in the dark. His hand flattened hard against his side where the fragment lay hidden, as though holding himself together by force.

"It's nothing," he rasped, though the word trembled.

Gojo snorted, but the sound held no amusement. "Yeah, sure. You nearly drop in the middle of a jump, and we're calling it nothing. I've taught toddlers with more convincing poker faces."

Sasuke pushed against him, but the motion lacked strength. "Let me stand."

Gojo let him, but only half. His arm lingered around Sasuke's waist, steadying even as he rose. The bond hummed between them, sharp with Sasuke's strain, jagged with something Gojo couldn't name.

"Your body's reacting to something," Gojo said finally, voice low. "Not like a wound. Different."

Sasuke steadied his breathing, hand brushing the faint outline beneath his cloak. "It's the relic."

Gojo's gaze followed the movement. The light that had clung to Sasuke's ribs flashed once, then went out completely, leaving only the dull shape of stone against his skin. His frown deepened. "Then why does it look dead now?"

"It isn't," Sasuke said. He could still sense it deep inside, warm and steady, threaded through his chakra. "The light was just the shell. Whatever mattered is already inside me." He paused, testing the sensation with wary focus. "It feels different. Protective. Maybe even healing. Like there's something working in me, rebuilding what's been worn down. I know how it looks, but I'm better now. Better than I've ever been."

Gojo folded his arms, shoulders drawn rigid. "Protective and healing," he repeated, slow and skeptical. "That's a generous way to describe something that crawled into your ribs."

"It isn't hurting me," Sasuke said. "It's settled. It feels like it's part of me now." His voice dropped, quieter. "I know it makes no sense, but it feels like it was always meant to be. Like it was waiting for me."

Gojo's jaw tensed, the line between protectiveness and fear razor thin. He took a breath, exhaled, and forced his tone steady. "Every instinct I have says this is wrong. That thing merged with you, and I don't like what I don't understand. But you're standing here, calm, whole, steady, and I swore I'd trust that."

Sasuke met his gaze. "Then trust it. Trust me."

Gojo's hand hovered before resting briefly at the curve of Sasuke's waist, light but deliberate. "I do," he said quietly. "But I'm still watching. Nothing touches you without going through me first."

Sasuke's lips curved faintly. "I know what I'm doing."

Gojo's mouth tilted, a ghost of his usual smile. "That's what I'm afraid of."

Gojo huffed a breath that wasn't quite a laugh. His grip eased, though he didn't step back. The low hum settled deep in Sasuke's bones, no longer a flare, just a quiet presence that stayed. It moved beneath his skin, faint but constant, like something that had chosen to live there.

Sasuke's gaze lingered on the sigils faintly pulsing along the walls, their rhythm echoing his own pulse. His words came calm and deliberate. "We go back. Not to prove anything, and not to let anyone else define this. We go because the answers are there, in Konoha, in what's left of the Uchiha grounds, in the people who still remember. If we don't choose our path, someone else will."

Gojo's mouth twitched, the faintest curve of approval under the strain. "Then we do it your way, kitten. But I'm keeping a close eye on you. No more collapsing on me."

Sasuke's tone softened. "Thank you. For trusting me."

For a moment, Gojo only looked at him, like he understood what it cost to say it. Then he leaned in, brushing a soft kiss against Sasuke's temple, gentle and wordless. "Always," he murmured.

The warmth beneath Sasuke's skin pulsed once more, slow and certain, as if answering the promise. Then it quieted, sinking deep, leaving behind a silence that reminded him almost of trust.

Gojo's smile spread slow, eyes glinting. "Good. Then we go back, have a little fun, rub their noses in what we are together."

Sasuke's glance flicked up, wary but not disagreeing. "You mean after all their posturing and mistrust?"

"Exactly," Gojo said, tone light but edged. "Let them see what they failed to protect. What they never deserved."

Sasuke's mouth curved faintly, something unguarded spilling through. "Then we'll see who still stands with us. Sakura, Kakashi, Team Taka, I'd like to think they will." He paused, voice lower. "And Naruto... he owes me more than anyone. I trust him, even now. I have to believe he'll stand with me."

Gojo tipped his head, smirk quick and irreverent. "Naruto, huh? I get to meet the man who didn't realize what he had until it was too late. I almost feel sorry for him. Almost." His smile softened into something more approving. "Still, if he stands with us, then even the councils will have to listen."

Gojo leaned back, pleased. "A proper cast for the stage. Allies, contingencies, windows for the temple, safe houses before speeches. But when the speeches come," a smile ghosted across his mouth, quick and dangerous, "I'll enjoy every moment. Let them murmur, let them measure. They'll choke on the sight of us standing there."

Sasuke's fingers stayed locked around his hand. "They'll see what they want to see. Fear makes people stupid. They'll cling to their fear until it blinds them. Let them. When we step back into that crater, we'll decide how the world sees us, not the other way around."

Gojo's laugh was low, almost reverent. "You sound like a general already. Logistics before theatrics, allies before enemies. Fine. But at least let me start the conversation when we get there. I want to be the one to introduce us properly."

Sasuke's mouth twitched, betraying the smallest spark of dry amusement. "There will never be a dull moment in our lives with you around," he said, voice quiet but edged with affection. "I guess I'll be the one cleaning up after you."

Gojo's smirk curved slow. "And what do I owe you every time you do?"

Sasuke's eyes drifted toward him, smirk faint but certain. "You'll think of something."

Gojo chuckled, soft and knowing, and lifted their joined hands, kissing Sasuke's knuckle as if sealing a private promise. His voice dropped lower, teasing but deliberate. "Then I'll take that role gladly. If being annoying means filling our days with laughter, and giving you every kind of pleasure I can think of, then I'm all in."

Sasuke's smirk deepened just slightly, a quiet gleam in his eyes. "Then I look forward to it."

Gojo's smile widened, warmth threading through his tone. "Good. I'll make sure you do."

They sat there long enough for small plans to take shape: allies to contact, routes to test, the ruined Uchiha compounds that needed searching for scrolls no one else should touch. The practicality of it all settled beside something quieter, hope that didn't seem fragile this time.

Hope and strategy coexisted in the silence that followed, steadier than any oath they could have spoken aloud. For the first time in years, Sasuke sensed his chest expand with more than survival. Determination burned through him, fierce and alive, echoing the pulse that had joined his own. That resolve carried them forward, through the days that followed, until the waiting world forced itself back into view.

Six days later, the crater waited.

The emptied ring of earth had been a spectacle before. Now it was a staging ground. Seal teams lined its rim, sensor rigs spiked into the wind, command tents ringed the horizon. The world had had less than a week to sharpen itself against the return, but they'd sharpened anyway. Spies reported through coded channels, the Kage's envoys spread maps across battered tables, and every hand clutched at the idea that protocols could mean control.

Dr. Yamamoto, the woman brought by the Kage for her expertise on ancient omegas, sat under a canvas awning with her notes spread wide. She'd been with the encampment from the start, parsing fragments of clan records and older texts. Her tone was flat with certainty as she repeated what she'd warned before.

"If Sasuke Uchiha truly is awakening into this form, then you aren't preparing to meet a shinobi on the battlefield. You're preparing to face a rarity the clans wrote about in fear. And history shows us how nations treat what they fear: they turn it into a weapon, or they start a war trying."

No one argued. No one wanted to.

They remembered the first mocking letters: HONEYMOON IN PROGRESS. And then, when the temple vanished completely, the last slap across the sky: THANKS FOR THE WEDDING GUESTS! THE MANAGEMENT. The joke had bite, and every leader in camp carried the sting of being laughed at before the world.

At the Kage encampment, tempers frayed. Kurotsuchi's voice snapped sharp, Darui stayed cool but uncompromising, Chōjūrō's fingers twitched as though he might form seals at any second.

Gaara's calm was its own weapon. His breathing cut steady through the argument. "Fear clouds judgment. I won't pretend he's not dangerous. He is. But danger doesn't always mean enemy. Forget that, and you'll start a war you can't win."

Back in Konoha's pavilion, unease simmered.

"I want them to understand him," Naruto said, fists braced against the table, words raw. "I want Konoha to stand with him. He left because he had to. You all saw him after the war. You saw how he tried. Dinner sometimes, words that weren't just mission reports. He was coming back to us. I thought..." His voice broke, anger and grief tangled. "I thought maybe he was finally ready to be happy. With us. With me."

The silence bore down, merciless.

Around the table, Konoha's voices shifted restlessly. Ino biting back a retort, Sai watching with unnerving calm, Shikamaru's sigh already half-formed.

Sakura's fingers covered his. "Naruto," she said quietly, "we don't know why he left. None of us do. But I don't think it was weakness. He carried more than anyone should have. He was the boy who bore exile, then the shadow Hokage who took every mission no one else wanted or could survive. He went into the dark so the rest of us could breathe. I believe whatever choice he made came from strength, not surrender."

Kakashi's eyes dropped to the ground. "The truth is," he said, voice rough, "I don't know if we ever gave him enough reason to stay. We wanted him to do the dirty work when it was convenient and be a comrade when it suited us. He deserved better."

Shikamaru sighed, hands laced behind his head. "What's done is done. The real question is whether Konoha stands with him now or hides behind the others when they try to move against him."

Sai, who'd been silent until now, spoke with his usual measured detachment, though his eyes betrayed more. "If the others move to contain him, they'll fail. You've all seen it before. But failure won't stop them from trying. It'll only escalate."

Ino leaned forward, voice fierce with conviction. "And if they treat him like a weapon again, then we're no better than the rest. He's one of us. Our teammate, our friend. I don't care what title they give him now; I won't stand by and let them dissect him."

Tsunade's gaze narrowed. "If the other Kage strike, it'll be war. Don't forget that."

"In war, you pick a side," Naruto said, lifting his head. "This time, I won't pick against him."

At the crater's edge, Team Taka stood with Orochimaru, defiant and restless against the disciplined lines of shinobi. Karin's chakra burned hot in the air. "He's been used enough. Years of it. Missions, revenge, redemption. Everyone wanted their piece. It stops here."

Suigetsu's grin flashed, all teeth and trouble. "He isn't a boy you can drag around anymore," he said, voice low. "He's a man now, stronger than they'll ever admit. Let them try to leash him."

Jūgo's rumble carried more weight than volume. "We stand. Always."

They stayed close to Orochimaru's shadow, deliberately apart from Konoha's lines, loyal to Sasuke above all.

Orochimaru's smile was faint, his voice soft, words barely carrying. "Again," he murmured, "I want to watch which way the wind blows." His pale eyes swept over Karin, Suigetsu, and Jūgo with the calm appraisal of a man taking inventory of sharp tools. Team Taka bristled but didn't answer.

The sigils at the crater's heart blazed to life.

The ground heaved like a living thing, a pulse shuddering through earth and bone. Sensors screamed. Shinobi scrambled to their stations, shouting orders they'd drilled until they dreamed them. The Kage rose in unison. Dr. Yamamoto's grip crushed the edges of her notes.

For a breathless instant, the world seemed to hold still, waiting.

Then light tore upward.

The ground pulsed once, then split with light. Fireworks exploded across the sky, brilliant arcs of blue and violet, bursts painting the clouds in his colors. He strolled through the rift as if onto a stage, coat flaring, one hand already raised for applause.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and esteemed busybodies," Gojo boomed, chakra carrying his tone across the field, "your wait is over! Honeymoon's done, curtain's up, and sorry you missed the fun. Trust me, it was unforgettable."

He looked out over the crowd, amusement flickering in his eyes. "Perfect and sexy, a handful, absolutely, but if you're lucky enough to see it, count yourself blessed." The light spread behind him, revealing the figure at his side. His smile caught it and held.

"Now, before anyone embarrasses themselves by asking, yes, that is Uchiha Sasuke. Last of his name, savior of this world, and somehow still humble enough to tolerate me."

He swept a hand toward Sasuke with mock reverence. "The prodigy who became a legend, the man who said no to every leash you ever tried to put on him, and lucky for me, the one who said yes when I asked."

The fireworks flared again, and the crowd erupted in gasps. Gojo only winked. "You're welcome for the view."

The curve of his mouth widened, chakra flaring in time with the fireworks. "But from today on, remember us for this: not one or the other, but unstoppable together. Power shared, not chained. Balance, not control." His grin tilted, razor bright. "We stand as one."

He paused long enough for the words to settle, the fireworks echoing their pulse across the crater. "If you thought either of us was dangerous before, wait until you see what happens when we fight together."

He turned, tipping his chin with an easy smile. "Oh, and before I forget. I'm Gojo Satoru, by the way. The strongest from my world. You might as well know the name of the man who stole your legend."

He shaded his eyes theatrically, scanning the stunned Konoha ranks. "Speaking of which. Naruto, right? Where are you hiding? I've heard plenty about the man who spent half his life chasing mine." His grin curved with amusement, but his tone stayed warm enough to sting. "Takes devotion to pull someone back from darkness again and again." He paused, softer. "You had a good thing once. That kind of love is heavy. I get it." His head tilted, eyes glinting like blue fire. "Your loss, my gain."

The words lingered, stirring a ripple through the silence. Sasuke's gaze followed Gojo's, finding Naruto across the ranks. For a heartbeat their eyes met. No challenge, no apology. Just recognition. A quiet, knowing half-smile that said more than words could: I remember. You mattered.

Naruto froze where he stood at the front of Konoha's lines. The sound around him thinned, every heartbeat suddenly too loud. It was like his lungs forgot what to do. The sight of them. Gojo stepping through light like a god made human, and Sasuke at his side, calm, radiant, alive. It cracked something open in him he hadn't realized was still fragile. Every instinct screamed to run forward, to demand why Sasuke hadn't come back, but the words jammed behind his teeth. All he could do was stare.

Around him, the Kage stirred.

Kurotsuchi's jaw ticked. "Show-offs," she muttered, though her chakra bristled anger more than annoyance. "They're not posturing. They're proving they don't answer to us anymore."

Darui's sigh came slow, measured. "I've seen worse tempers. Never seen power like that. Guess 'containment' isn't on the table."

Chōjūrō's fingers flexed near his blade, more out of habit than threat. "Then we adapt. Or drown trying."

Gaara's voice cut through the murmurs, quiet and even. "They've stepped past what we call human. The question isn't whether to stop them. It's whether we deserve to stand beside them."

Tsunade folded her arms, the ghost of a smirk under her words. "If that's love on display, the world might survive after all. Or burn prettier when it doesn't."

Gojo turned fully then, voice rich with mischief and pride. "Now, let me introduce you properly. The love of my life, my true equal, my beautiful omega, the one who chose me completely. The last Uchiha, and the strongest partner this world will ever see." His hand swept out toward Sasuke. "This is Uchiha Sasuke, the man who's survived everything you threw at him, the one who still chose to stand here beside me. My equal, my partner, my home."

His smirk held too much bite to be playful. "Contain him? Please. He's the one who keeps me in line." His grin brightened, eyes glinting with mischief. "And honestly, half of you should be thanking him. If I'd shown up single, I might've taken a spin through your villages just to see who could keep up."

Sasuke's mouth curved, just barely. "You exaggerate," he said, tone dry, a hint of amusement undercutting the words. His glance swept the assembled Kage and shinobi, flat and cutting. "He's unbearable even at the best of times." The faint grin sharpened. "Consider this your warning."

Then, deliberately, he turned and pulled Gojo's mouth to his. Not a shy brush, not hidden. It was a clear, claiming kiss, proud and unflinching, softened only at the edges by the smallest curl of amusement. The kind of kiss that said they weren't afraid, weren't ashamed, weren't here to bow.

Gasps rippled through the ranks. Chakra faltered in the seals, hands stilled in mid-sign, and for a heartbeat the whole battlefield forgot its lines.

From the Konoha contingent, half the shinobi looked scandalized, the other half stunned into silence. Sakura's hand flew to her mouth, eyes wide, then slowly softened as she exhaled. "He looks happy," she whispered, the words small but certain. Kakashi's single visible eye narrowed with quiet relief, the ghost of a smile hidden beneath his mask.

At the outskirts, Suigetsu's bark of laughter cracked through the air like a thrown kunai. "Well, would you look at that," he drawled, loud enough for half the camp to hear. "Guess all it took was somebody finally pulling the stick out of Sasuke's ass. He's practically glowing. Happy. In love. Hilarious. About damn time! Hey, Sasuke! When do I get to meet your lover? Should I bring flowers or weapons?"

Karin smacked him hard on the shoulder, face flushed scarlet. "You absolute idiot," she snapped, then added, softer, "Still... it suits him."

"Hey, I'm just saying what everyone's thinking," Suigetsu shot back, still grinning like a shark.

Sasuke's mouth twitched, the corner curving up despite himself. The brief sound that escaped him might almost have been a laugh.

Jūgo's rumble was quiet but firm. "I'm just glad he's found love. He deserves it." The simplicity of it quieted even Suigetsu, the truth landing heavy between them. For Sasuke, it cut deeper than Gojo's fireworks ever could. Acceptance, unqualified, from the one who'd always seen the boy beneath the weapon.

Across the field, Sasuke's gaze met Jūgo's. Just a moment, but enough. Something in his expression eased, the rigidity around his mouth unwinding.

Ino leaned forward, voice hushed but gleaming with awe. "God, they're hot."

Shikamaru, beside her, dragged a hand over his face and muttered, "Troublesome doesn't even begin to cover it."

Orochimaru's smile twitched, equal parts amusement and calculation. "Ah. So that's which way the wind's blowing now," he murmured, more to himself than anyone else.

Gojo's laughter broke against Sasuke's lips, delighted and unrepentant. When he pulled back, his grin turned bright enough to rival the sky. "See?" he called out cheerfully. "Incredible and mine. Try containing that."

The crowd rippled again, the seals around the crater flaring as shinobi scrambled to reset formation. But the protocols seemed flimsy now, paper screens against a storm.

Gojo's grin only widened. "So, who's ready for the next act?"

Silence held.

Then Sasuke stepped forward, gaze sweeping the stunned ranks. His tone was calm but carried. "Now that the theatrics are over," he said, glancing at Gojo with faint amusement, "I'd like to make a proper introduction."

He turned back to Team Seven. "This is Satoru. My partner."

Gojo inclined his head, grin softening though his eyes still glinted with that familiar spark. "Thank you," he said, gaze landing on Naruto. "For keeping him from losing himself. I never would have found him otherwise." His grin curved again, lighter but edged. "What you lost, I'll spend the rest of my life protecting."

Naruto's throat worked, but no sound came.

Sasuke's gaze held his, steady, familiar. "We need your help," he said simply

Chapter 9 Teaser

The crater has become a battleground of politics and power, but something is changing inside Sasuke that no political maneuvering can control. When Konoha's medics examine him, what they discover will force impossible choices.

Naruto must decide where he stands. The Uchiha compound holds secrets that were buried for a reason. And the relic that merged with Sasuke? It was protecting something all along.

The truth comes out, and it changes everything.