Chapter One: My Best Friend Grew Horns and a Superiority Complex
You'd think after three years of training with a pervy sage who made me wrestle wild toads, survive tsunamis of boiling oil, and eat things that made ramen look like gourmet cuisine, I'd be ready for anything.
Spoiler alert: I wasn't ready for this.
We were standing in the middle of Orochimaru's latest creepy cave lair. And by creepy, I mean skulls in the walls, slithering shadows, and enough snake décor to make Medusa herself go, "Okay, that's a bit much." Sakura was by my side, chakra already thrumming in her fists. Sai was hovering behind us with his usual fake smile plastered on like a bad sticker. And Kakashi-sensei? Reading Make-Out Tactics like this was just a Tuesday. Classic.
Me? I was staring at Sasuke freaking Uchiha, who looked like he'd stepped out of a Final Fantasy game on steroids.
He had wings now. Big, leathery black ones that looked like they were sculpted out of shadows and rage. Horns curled from his head like he was cosplaying a demon prince at an anime con. And his eyes? Sharingan, sure, but they were doing some wild, time-bendy stuff—like a video on 3x speed and slow motion at the same time. My gut clenched. This wasn't the Sasuke I remembered. This guy… he looked like he could punch Madara in the face and walk away with perfect hair.
"Sasuke…" I said, and yeah, I know, not the most original line, but cut me some slack. My childhood best friend had apparently made Orochimaru his sidekick, and I was still mentally buffering.
He looked at us like we were annoying flies buzzing at the edge of his kingdom. "Go home," he said. "I don't need saving… especially not from my servant's guests."
Orochimaru was standing behind him, smiling in that weird, I'm-plotting-your-death kind of way, but for once, he looked… humbled. Like Sasuke had slapped the evil out of him.
"You made him your what now?" I asked, because seriously, this whole dynamic was giving me a chakra-induced headache.
Sasuke didn't answer. He just smirked—calm, cool, and completely terrifying.
"Well," I said, scratching the back of my head, trying not to look too nervous, "what's the plan now, then?"
Sasuke's smile widened, and it wasn't friendly. "First order of business: I want to see if you're really worthy of being my rival."
And then he moved.
Let me tell you something about Mangekyo Sharingan time warping.
It's not fun.
One second he was twenty feet away, the next his blade was kissing my neck like we were on a bad date. But I wasn't exactly the same knucklehead he left behind three years ago.
Sage Mode, check.
Flying Thunder God, double check.
I vanished from his sword's caress and reappeared behind him, my foot slamming into his side hard enough to make his ribs question their life choices. He skidded back, wings flaring, and spun with a devilish grin.
"Oh," he said, voice low and thrilled, "you have gotten stronger."
"Yeah, well," I grinned back, gathering chakra, "I had a pretty good motivation. You know, the whole you abandoning us and siding with a walking snake fetish thing?"
He shrugged, completely unfazed. "Tch. I didn't side with Orochimaru. I conquered him."
Sakura gasped. Sai raised an eyebrow. Kakashi turned a page in his book.
I squinted. "You what now?"
"You heard me. I used his power, bent it to my will, and evolved beyond anything he ever imagined. My Mangekyo can distort time—accelerate it for me, slow it down for everyone else. And the curse mark? I redesigned it. Improved it."
A black energy flared around him. His body shimmered with eerie chakra, and metallic claws jutted from his arms like he was part Wolverine now. Honestly, Professor X would have thrown him into detention instantly.
I crossed my arms. "So let me get this straight: you turned into a time-bending, winged rage demon, made Orochimaru your intern, and now you want to test if I'm worthy of being your rival? Sasuke, are you sure you're not the final boss now?"
He looked at me with fire in those swirling eyes. "We've both changed. I want to see if you can keep up… or if I need to leave you behind."
"Well," I said, charging chakra into my palm as the air around us began to crackle, "there's only one way to find out."
Boom. The Rasengan in my hand erupted into a massive spiral of destruction—one I'd supercharged with wind chakra, sage chakra, and enough I'm-going-to-punch-my-friend-back-to-his-senses energy to level a mountain.
Sasuke laughed—a real one, short and sharp. "Then show me."
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So here's the deal.
I was already running on full power, Sage Mode activated, eyes glowing like a neon sign at a ramen shop. And still, Sasuke was keeping up with me like he'd been secretly binge-training in some super-speed boot camp.
We were tearing through the forest like two runaway tornadoes—trees didn't stand a chance. Branches snapped, rocks exploded, and I swear one poor squirrel ran for its life so fast it probably got a concussion from whiplash. Kakashi and Sakura were trailing behind, barely hanging on. I wasn't about to let either of them become collateral damage, so I had to take things somewhere else.
Sasuke—ever the showman—decided to up the ante. Mid-fight, he aimed a crazy powerful jutsu straight at Sakura. "Guess what, Naruto? Time to block or let her turn into a human pancake."
My brain went, Nope. Nope. Nope.
I had to pull out the big guns. Flying Thunder God—second stage. This wasn't just your standard "blink here" teleport. This was blink, and mess with physics teleport.
I slammed a teleportation circle on the ground, planning to shove Sasuke's attack into some random dimension like an overcooked lunch. But Sasuke, being the smug pain in the chakra you-can't-ignore, used his time-bending Sharingan to mess with the circle's timing, making it unstable—like trying to stream a YouTube video on dial-up.
Great.
So what did I do? I created clones. Lots of clones. Like, "Hey, get the heck out of here!" clones for Sakura, Kakashi, Sai—everyone who wasn't ready for the fireworks.
Then boom.
The portal exploded.
We vanished from the forest—just like that.
Next thing I knew, I was not standing in a forest anymore.
Nope.
We were hovering above some ocean I'd never seen before. The kind of place where the water was so blue it made my eyes hurt just looking at it. Sasuke stopped mid-air, wings spread, looking around like a cat hearing a suspicious noise.
He asked—almost politely, which was weird for him—"Naruto, check this out for me."
Now, in Sage Mode, my senses go from "barely awake" to "world's most annoying overachiever." I can feel chakra all around me—like I'm connected to the planet's Wi-Fi, but instead of cat videos, it's life energy signals.
And this place? It was different.
Thousands of miles around us, I could feel life forces stronger than anything I'd ever sensed before. Stronger than Orochimaru's creepy snakes. Hell, some of these energies were bigger than Kurama's—my own literal chakra demon roommate.
I swallowed hard. "Sasuke… we're not just somewhere new. We're in another world."
He frowned, eyes narrowing. "Great. More unknowns. Just what I needed."
I wasn't thrilled either, but being the eternal optimist (or reckless idiot), I thought, Okay, Naruto. Don't freak out. This is probably just some random dimensional hiccup.
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"So… wanna try replicating that portal thing and hope for the best?"
That's what I said. Out loud. With my actual mouth.
Sasuke looked at me like I'd just proposed we juggle live explosive tags while riding exploding toads.
His exact expression? Imagine a disappointed dad who just found out his kid failed math, set fire to the living room, and still can't spell "ninja." Yeah. That was the look.
For a second, I thought he was going to throw me into the ocean like a sack of bad decisions. Instead, he ran a hand through his hair like an anime protagonist in a shampoo commercial and sighed with the weight of someone who seriously regretted all his life choices—particularly the ones involving me.
Black lightning flickered across his body as he powered down from Devil Mode™. The horns and wings disappeared, leaving behind regular ol' pretty-boy Sasuke floating in mid-air like it was just another Tuesday. Which it wasn't, by the way. We were literally in another dimension.
"We can't risk such a thing," he said, all calm and logical and annoyingly smarter-than-me. "We could end up dead. Or worse—somewhere with talking trees and zero ramen."
Okay, he didn't say the ramen part, but he might as well have. That was the level of danger we were talking.
"And do you even know what could happen to this world if we open another unstable portal?" he added, eyes narrowing. "Maybe we destroyed our world just by doing this."
That hit me like a kunai to the gut.
I mean, I was pretty sure he was bluffing. But what if he wasn't? What if Sakura was now just a pile of pink-haired stardust and Kakashi was reading Icha Icha Paradise in limbo?
My expression must've changed, because Sasuke looked at me like I was a puppy someone had just drop-kicked into traffic. Which was rude, honestly.
He sighed again, softer this time. "I was just joking."
I blinked. "Really?"
"Yes. Our world is probably fine," he said, pausing just long enough to make me doubt it again. "But we shouldn't risk it. Not unless we understand how this… dimensional shift even happened."
"You mean the unstable teleportation portal combined with your time-warping eyeballs while I was chucking Sage Mode into a chakra blender?"
He gave me The Look again.
"Right," I mumbled. "Totally not scientific."
I rubbed the back of my neck and glanced around. Endless ocean below us. Endless sky above. No landmarks. No birds. Just two idiot ninjas floating mid-air in a completely unknown world where power levels made Kurama look like a housecat.
And yet… I couldn't help feeling excited. Nervous? Sure. Confused? Constantly. But excited? Oh, absolutely.
New world. New enemies. Maybe even new allies.
Sasuke floated beside me, arms crossed. "We need information. Resources. Shelter."
"Ramen," I added helpfully.
He didn't answer. Which meant he agreed.
"So," I said with a grin, "ready for another adventure?"
Sasuke didn't smile, but he didn't say no either.
Which, in Uchiha-speak, meant yes.