As Above So Below

As Above So Below
Chapter 6

Sasuke restlessly prowled his tiny apartment, as bare and utilitarian as it had been the day he moved in, four weeks ago. It had been difficult to procure all the identification and papers he’d needed to work and live in this world, but he wasn’t a highly skilled shinobi and genius for nothing. He’d only had to ask the right questions in low places, do an unsavory job or two, and voila! Sasuke Uchiha now had an entirely fabricated history in this place. He’d been born to Shirley and Chin Uchiha in Seattle, Washington, before moving to the LA Basin twenty years ago. Tragically, his mythical parents had perished in one of the many quakes in that region; Sasuke didn’t even care which one it had been. It wasn’t as if it really mattered. He wouldn’t bother to discuss his ‘family history’ with anyone in this world. All he needed was the little cards and papers, and he had them now.

Even so, Sasuke didn’t intend to stay in this world long enough for anything he acquired to have any meaning. Thus, he bought nothing, added nothing to the mean little furnished flat he now resided in. He spent all his money on just enough food to keep him healthy, good enough clothes to keep him working. The rest he spent on his search. Once he found Naruto, he’d find a way back home, with his precious blonde in tow. He’d lived too long without his lover as it was.

And Naruto was so close, he could taste it. Could almost smell the rich, earthy and slightly spicy scent that was uniquely Naruto. That damned mind doctor, Jason Sannin knew where he was. Dammit, why was this all taking so long? He’d spoken with the accursed Jiraiya look alike over two hours ago. The damned man had promised he would speak with those that were close to Naruto, and get back to him. Didn’t the idiot, as simple and stupid as his counterpart back home, understand how long he’d been looking? How much Naruto meant to him?

Dammit!

There was a hard pounding knock on his door, and Sasuke almost levitated a foot into the air. He was pacing so furiously, he’d completely lost contact with the real world. Heart pounding he dashed to the door to throw it open. Perhaps it was even Naruto! Maybe the damned doctor had brought him even now! Maybe…

Sasuke’s heart slumped. It wasn’t Naruto, or even the blonde male that looked so much like him from earlier today. No, it was that stupid pot smoking, guitar strumming Shika creature from down the lane. What the hell did he want? Sasuke hadn’t said a word to him in weeks, not since he’d realized how different the two men that were one really were.

Then, his heart stopped beating for a moment. Wait a moment… The man was wearing a green padded flak jacket over a black mesh shirt, and around his bicep was a leaf hitai-ate.

“You’re a hard man to find, Sasuke Uchiha,” Shikamaru said in his placid, slightly annoyed voice.

It was an excessively rare moment. A moment where Sasuke was utterly confounded to the point of his mouth hanging open. This man at this place hadn’t even crossed his mind.

Shikamaru gave a dry laugh, and pushed past the stonkered boy and ambled into the single bare room, blinking up at the naked bulb overhead.

“Nice digs,” was his bland comment. Though his face was serene, inside he was chortling madly. Sasuke still stood before the open door, having rotated helplessly as he only stared in shock at him. Mwahahaha… he couldn’t wait until he got home to tell Chouji how he’d completely stunned the imperious Uchiha.

Sasuke shook himself like a wet dog, all over, and finally recovered his wits. He closed and locked the door, and moved slowly, almost menacingly towards his fellow shinobi.

Shikamaru threw himself into the badly sprung couch and smirked at the other man. “I suppose you’re wondering how I got here…”

“Not really,” Sasuke said coolly, fully in possession of all his wits now. “I’m sure Kakashi is at the bottom of it.”

Shikamaru shot a finger at him, like cocking a gun. “Right on the money, as usual. Sharingan. Useful thing, that. Even if it really all is so very troublesome.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Well, have you found him? The love of your life?” It was still surreal to Shikamaru that the Sasuke Uchiha had the hots for Naruto Uzumaki. Not that he was really surprised. He’d always thought there was more to the pair of them than met the eye.

Sasuke didn’t bother denying it. Yeah, they’d kept it a close secret in Konoha, for now anyway. But he knew it would never last, and he didn’t want it too. Specially when people like Hinata Hyuuga and that damn fucker Sai tried to breathe down the blonde’s neck. And though there was never any love lost between himself and the lazy Jounin, Sasuke was so very glad to see him. He’d been more homesick than even when in Sound. More homesick than he’d ever thought he’d be. He shook his head, eyes glued to the bare, dusty floor boards.

“Any leads?”

Sasuke drew in a deep breath. “I think so. I met someone here that recognized my headband. I’m waiting to hear back from him.”

“Uchiha, have you seen any… um… familiar faces around here?” Shikamaru was still completely unnerved from his run in with his own face, higher than a kite and laughing and completely stupid! Shikamaru had felt ashamed that this was his double.

Sasuke smirked. “Oh yeah.”

There was a long and strangely comfortable silence. Neither boy was the talkative type. Sasuke was glad to see Shikamaru, and the shadow user was glad to have finally found the Uchiha. Which reminded him…

“Listen, Uchiha.”

Sasuke frowned at the distant, almost hesitant way the other boy was speaking. “Yeah, what?”

“How long have you been here?”

Sasuke’s brow furrowed and he did a quick tally. “Just over five weeks. Exactly thirty six days, why?”

“Sasuke, you left Konoha three days ago.”

Sasuke sat back, stunned. Three days? But he’d been here for weeks! That means…

“Time moves faster here.”

“Yeah, imagine our shock,” Shikamaru gave a short laugh. “We sent Neji through, the same day you left, with the understanding that the portal would be opened again twenty four hours later. When Kakashi opened it the next day, Neji looked at us, absolutely furious. Tsunade asked for his report, and Neji told her that he’d been waiting twelve days for pickup. That’s when we realized something was wrong. Well, it took us several tries and we figured that out too. Time does move faster here. A lot faster.”

“Is it consistent?” Sasuke asked, feeling cold dread settling in his gut.

“Yep. One day at home equals just over twelve days here.”

Sasuke took less than a second to make the adjustment in his head. “That means, one month home is the same as a whole year here.” The cold dread turned to numbing shock. His eyes dilated.

“That’s right Uchiha,” Shikamaru’s voice was unusually gentle. “Naruto’s been here eighteen years.”

******************************

It was midmorning, and Stefan was not at the Madara headquarters. It was almost eleven o’clock, and Nathan was actually downtown instead of in his little office in the back of the house working on the website orders. Both men found themselves riding in Stefan’s sleek black Porsche down some of the seediest streets in the area. They had an agenda today. There was a young man they were going to see, and get the answers that had plagued their lives for the last ten years. If this was ‘Sasuke’s’ son, perhaps he could shed some light on why Naruto suffered the way she did. Why she’d been looking so long and hard, and why she was still so wounded inside, years after she’d finally given up.

Jason had called that morning. Apparently, he’d tried calling last night, but for obvious reasons, the phone had gone unanswered. Hell, neither men had even heard the phone ringing next to the bed, they’d been so involved. Well, finally Jason caught them early that morning, and it had been an interesting conversation to say the least.

But Stefan was a man of action. He would see this damned boy, and finally put to rest his husband’s and children’s fears. Hell, his own too.

They finally pulled up at the address Jason had given them, but there was no sign of the red convertible that the psychiatrist so favored. But, no sooner had they gotten out of the car, when it roared up. Jason stared unsmiling up at them as he pulled along side, then parked as well. He’d brought with him a very muscle bound rather thug looking man. It was a distant cousin of his, who’d once been a sumo wrestler in Japan. The man, now much slimmer, with his dark hair and rather scraggly beard, was a fearsome sight sometimes, and was always smoking foul cigarettes. Though Stefan had all the bells and whistles on his car, including a state of the art protection system, it was hard to keep a convertible safe on streets like this. Hence, his cousin, Shinra.

The three men stood on the curb for a moment, before Stefan said curtly, “Let’s go.”

Sasuke had been watching their arrival, expecting them, and swallowed dryly when he saw Stefan and Nathan. He was so stunned by the sight of them, that he didn’t take note of Asuma’s double with them. God, Nathan… as beautiful as Naruto… Naruto… And the other man. It was like looking at himself twenty years from now. Or rather, eighteen.

Sasuke swallowed the lump that was always in his throat since his talk with Shikamaru last night. The other Konohan was not there at the moment. He’d returned to the rendezvous point, to meet with Kakashi and Tsunade, as he had every day since his arrival over a week ago. He took with him a detailed letter that Sasuke had written, his account for the last five weeks. He’d spared nothing. He would need Konoha to get home with his dobe. He would not alienate the Hokage further. That she was furious with his rashness and disobedience was evident in the letter that Shikamaru had given him this morning.

He was waiting by the door, and opened it even before they had the chance to knock. Opened it, and came face to face with the keepers of his hopes and dreams, fears and regrets. Opened it to come face to face with… himself.

“Come in,” he said softly, stepping aside, trying not to stare at either his older face, or Naruto’s older one. God… please… please let him not be too late. Please let there still be a Naruto for him. Please God.

Stefan’s calm face did not betray his inner turmoil. Jesus god, it was like looking at himself in the distant past. This boy was the same age as Naruto had been, when they’d found her. This boy, with his face, stood to take so much from him.

Once the door was closed and locked, the darker man began without preamble.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Sasuke Uchiha, and I come from Konoha. I have come looking for my boyfriend, Naruto Uzumaki.” It was important to Sasuke that nothing was unclear. The sooner they knew how determined he was, the better. He did not want to have to resort to violence, though he would if he had to. He had to find Naruto.

“I’ve been over and over this whole planet, Sasuke Uchiha, and I’ve never heard of any land called Konoha.” Stefan was cold, and the feel of his son’s first two names rolling off his tongue to a stranger was very strange.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t.” Sasuke smirked. “Trust me, you wouldn’t believe me if I explained it all to you.”

“Then perhaps I will explain it all to you. Konoha is the capitol city of the Fire Nation, one of the five greatest Ninja realms in the world. It cannot be reached by any car or plane or train, but by a green door. And you are a shinobi. One of the most famous and skilled in the lands. You wield this fantastic power called Chakra, and are able to create fire, walk on water, run up cliffs, and change into other people as well as objects. You are more than Naruto Uzumaki’s boyfriend, you are his lover, his most precious person.” Stefan delivered all this with an expressionless face.

“Where is he?” Sasuke shot back, refusing to let his shock and excitement show. There was a lengthy pause, and then the Uchiha went on. “I know you know where he is. You’ve seen this before, this hitai-ate. And you have to have talked to him, to know all this. Where is Naruto?”

“Yes, I know Naruto Uzumaki,” Stefan said softly, ignoring the suspended breath of his husband beside him, the blonde man almost dancing with impatience. “And I have heard these stories, and more, more times than I care to admit. But there is something you will understand.” He took a deep breath. “Naruto Uzumaki is no boy, or even a man. She was a girl when we met her, she was a woman when we got her pregnant, and she was a woman when we married her. She’s a woman still. I don’t know what game you are playing, but I am tired of it. It will end now. I want to know why Naruto thinks she was born a boy, why she’s so haunted by these ludicrous tales, and why you had pictures of her in her girlhood.”

“I don’t believe you,” Sasuke said desperately. “Naruto would never stay a girl for long. He can’t. There is no chakra here for him to use.”

“Stay a girl,” Nathan echoed, blue eyes troubled.

“Really, then how do you explain these?” Though he hated to do it, Stefan handed the dark boy his own series of photographs.

Sasuke looked through them slowly. Naruto as a teenaged girl, looking troubled; Naruto as a young woman, smiling shyly into the camera, her blonde male counterpart next to her. Naruto laying in a hospital bed, looking exhausted and sad, cradling a baby in her arms. Naruto, dressed in filmy white, with two dark tuxedoed men beside her, smiling happily as they had their arms around her. Naruto, dressed in a bright orange apron, brandishing a wooden spoon; Naruto…Naruto… Naruto… All female, all obviously in someone else’s home, someone else’s life, someone else’s arms.

But… it was Naruto! Female or not. He’d know those eyes, those whiskers, anywhere. As much as Nathan resembled the man Naruto would have become, the eyes, they weren’t quite the same, and he had no whiskers. His heart squeezed painfully in his breast. Naruto had taken lovers, Naruto had borne them children. Naruto had married them.

“Sexy no Jutsu,” he whispered hollowly. He couldn’t understand why Naruto had remained female after coming here. After all, Sasuke’s own Sharingan shut down painfully hard when he’d arrived. With no chakra to power it, it was lost to him here. So should Naruto’s henge… unless…

What if Naruto’s trademark joke move hadn’t been a henge? What if it had been a true transformation? He’d never cared for the jutsu at all, and of course had never pondered it save to think about how much he hated seeing Naruto as a girl. Thus, he’d never asked about it, never knew, never realized that it wouldn’t fade with time, or failure of chakra, but only when Naruto would use chakra again to transform back. There were such Jutsus, after all. He’d just always thought it had been a stupid henge, not the remarkable jutsu it apparently was.

The enormity of it all struck Sasuke; Naruto had been trapped in an alien land, in an alien body, and hadn’t been able to find his way home, his way back to his natural body. He’d been stuck here, like that, for eighteen years! Alone, lonely, probably scared and heartsick. And without Sasuke. For eighteen years.

It did not pass him by that Naruto had now been female for three years longer than he’d been a boy. Naruto was… a married woman, with children.

He sat down heavily in the closest chair, tears in his eyes, and didn’t care that three strange men, his rivals, his enemies, were watching. It really didn’t matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore.

Stefan, seeing the slump of defeat in the boy, the tears in his eyes, the shocked glaze on his face, gave a smug smirk. Obviously, the boy had no response to his sally. How could he?

“I still want to know why Naruto thinks she was born a boy. What sort of brain washing was used on her?” He asked coldly. Now that the farce was at an end, he would have his answers, so that Naruto would never be sad again.

“That’s because she was born a boy,” Sasuke responded in a choked voice. “Everything’s true. I don’t care if you believe it or not. Naruto was a boy, back in Konoha, and my lover.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Stefan snapped, and shrugged off the hand that touched his arm. He didn’t have time for Nathan’s tender heart. As much as he loved the blonde man, and god, did he ever, sometimes his tenderness was a liability, like now.

“I’m not being ridiculous,” Sasuke said, shaking his tears away, and straightening up, back ramrod stiff. “I’m assuming you love her, since you married her, since you got children off her. Won’t you believe your own wife?” The words were as bitter as poison on his tongue. It angered him, knowing Naruto had told them, and they had not believed him. They did not deserve him.

His eyes burned with purpose. He didn’t care if Naruto was now sixteen years older than him. He didn’t care that Naruto was female now; he’d change that the moment they got home. He didn’t care that he’d bedded other men, married them. He didn’t care that he’d had children with them. Hell, in eighteen years, it was no wonder Naruto had thought he’d never see Sasuke again, never come home, never be a boy again. But he was Sasuke’s Naruto, and by all that was holy, Sasuke was going to get him back.

A plan formed in his mind.

At Stefan’s scornful sniff, Sasuke smirked ruthlessly. “And I can prove it to you.”