Here's anothing fic I've been brewing. I'll update in a week or so.

Chapter 1: One More Time

Sasuke looks out at the blue bay of Goa Island. Since arriving in this world, the promise of escape has been the only thing that keeps him relatively sane. His luck in this life is just as good as last life. He has no family, again, except a shitty old man who needs to stop hitting him over the head if he doesn't want to die a violent death. . . So what if Sasuke is a miserably weak ten-year-old with no chakra, if the old bastard doesn't quit soon, then Sasuke will make a way.

The lack of chakra has to be the most trying thing of his new life. He doesn't know how to live without it. Since he was a toddler he had been training his mind and body to use chakra, but now he can't access it. As far as he understands it, there is nothing of the equivalence on this world, and it makes him even more furious to be here. Sasuke doesn't blame God very often, he believes in fate, but he also believes in free-will. In a way he must because Sasuke made himself. Still, in this world he finds himself wondering who is playing this cosmic joke on him and why they decided to punish him so much.

Not only does he have no proper family, but his father in this world is a royal bastard. As if he didn't have enough issues, hearing about people murmur about how his existence is a sin and that he possesses the devil's blood only makes his time here more miserable. He already found out that apparently his life was meaningless. He died a pointless death without avenging his clan. His single goal was left unfulfilled. He can't help but think his life is incredibly pathetic.

He lets out a long sigh before standing up and trekking through the familiar forest. It's nearly dinner time so he sets out to kill something to eat. Dadan and the bandits are irritating at the best of times, but at least they were better than that shitty old man. He was willing to bring food back if it meant avoiding spending time with the old fucker.

Despite his lack of chakra, Sasuke has adjusted exceptionally well, honing his taijutsu and physical strength, which thankfully, he still possesses most of in this world. Like in the ninja realm, some people are just naturally stronger than others, like civilians. Dadan is pitifully weak compared to him, but his shitty grandfather is more of a monster than Sasuke is. As he leaps forward with his iron pipe and starts attacking a nearby bear, Sasuke actually thinks he might be stronger at this age now then he was in the past. That could do with the fact that he has unlimited time to hone his skills, versus his life before where he would attend classes, relax with family, and follow after Itachi eagerly . . .

He rips into the bear viciously.

Sasuke promised himself a long time ago not to think about that. He couldn't afford to if he wanted to keep calm.

His pipe is bloodier than usual but he ignores that. He'll clean it later when he's feeling a little less violent. For the moment, he grabs one of the bear's legs and starts dragging it back to the bandits' hideout.

Upon reaching the familiar hut, Sasuke is greeted to the unpleasant surprise of seeing Dadan and his surrogate grandfather standing outside of the hut. Shit. Just who he wanted to avoid forever.

The swearing is sort of a new development. He didn't know when it started, but it might've had to do with the old man. He found it on a fluke, but whenever he calls his grandfather a shitty geezer, he easily gets under the older man's skin. There's something incredibly satisfying about the red hue his cussing earns him. Eventually it became a habit. His mother would be furious if she could see him . . .

He throws the bear to the ground and grips his bloodied pipe harshly. It's then that he realizes that there's a stupid looking little kid standing in front of him. He's got black hair and an old straw hat with a red ribbon on top of it. There's a bandage on his face, right next to his massive smile.

"Hi! I'm Luffy. Who're you?"

Sasuke doesn't have a chance to say anything (perhaps for the best because he was planning to reply with his pipe and Garp is here), because his grandfather cuts him off.

"Ace, this is Luffy. He's going to be living with you from now on. Watch out for him."

"What do you mean he's going to be living here?! Don't decide that on your own!" Dadan snaps. Sasuke hears Dogra trying to soothe his leader, and Garp rebutting with his typical array of threats, but most of his attention is focused on the irritating boy in front of him.

Watch out for him? Does Sasuke seem like the nurturing type or something? Because he isn't.

Without a word Sasuke picks up the bear again and moves past the idiot.

"Hey, don't ignore me!" the kid shouts out. And God, he sounds too much like an annoying blond for Ace's liking.

Sasuke moves into the hideout without another look. He doesn't care anymore.

After eating his large pile of meat (and if that hadn't been an unpleasant surprise to find out exactly how much food he had to eat now. He felt disgusting when he first realized it but now it doesn't phase him as much), he exits through the front door and decides to head out to one of the rivers and clean his pipe before the blood stains and causes rust.

He stiffens unhappily as he senses a presence approaching him. A small, very unwelcome presence.

"Hey, where are you going?" The annoying kid has that goofy grin on his face. "I'm not mad you ignored me anymore. So let's be friends."

Stupid kid. He's desperate, so desperate, just like Na—

Sasuke doesn't say a word. Instead he runs forward. When he hears echoing footfalls he grits his teeth and stops beside a tree. With a firm kick he knocks it over and sends it careening towards the younger boy. Seeing the chance of escape is utterly minimal Sasuke turns and continues running.

This probably counts as murder, even he struggles to justify this one, but he just wants the reminders to stop. He promised himself not to think about stupid, inconsequential things like Naruto and his past life. Whoever this Luffy kid is, he brings back a plethora of uncomfortable memories. He hears a scream followed by silence. What he doesn't hear is the crunching of bones. He frowns, and that's when he senses the kid's presence closing in on him, again.

Sasuke could outrun him easily, but he slows down before finally stopping halfway across one of the rickety bridges that spans a large crevasse. He feels the heavy, untrained footfalls of the kid approaching him and he turns around. Sasuke does wonder how exactly the kid survived, but he mostly feels irritation.

As the younger boy closes in, Sasuke can see that his grin has somehow gotten larger than before.

"Hey—"

With a quick sweep of his pipe, the kid is sent spiraling down into the ravine. He maintains eye-contact while falling, and before he's covered by darkness, Sasuke finds a flash of something in the younger's eyes. Sasuke sort of wonders what the kid sees exactly when he looks at him, but the thought is dismissed quickly as he turns and resumes his trip back to the river.

It's two weeks until Sasuke thinks about Luffy again, and when he does it isn't by his own will, but because the kid is somehow alive and back at the bandits' hideout. Sasuke doesn't know if he should be more angered or irked. Either way, he has a feeling that the kid isn't done making himself an annoyance in Sasuke's life.

He finds out how right he was when the kid pursues him again the next day, wounds still fresh and smile still present. And after Sasuke easily loses his unwelcome tail, the kid chases after him again the next day. And again. And again. And again. And again. And Sasuke is beginning to think that perhaps the kid is missing a few screws because how obvious can it get that Sasuke doesn't want the little snot to follow him around?

His tag-along quickly improves, and Sasuke is irritated to note that every day he gets a little farther through the forest. After three months, that's when Sasuke begins employing a few of the ninja tricks he can still use without chakra. Creating multiple false trails, placing objects (massive rocks, bushes, etc.) in the way of the path, running through the trees shinobi style. He employs all of these techniques, so that's why he's so irked to find that the kid still gains ground, just at a slower rate. He'd maybe be impressed if he wasn't so busy being annoyed. Because God, the kid was annoying.

Any time he was within earshot of Sasuke, he's hollering about being friends. After the constant abuse Sasuke puts him through by leading him through the dangerous and hostile parts of the environment should have been enough of a clue. Yet day after day he still comes. Sasuke won't do so far as to end his life early himself. After getting over some of the initial memories the younger boy brings about, he views the situation a bit more rationally. All he really wants is for the kid to be gone already. It doesn't seem too likely to happen any day soon.

That's why he probably shouldn't be as surprised as he is when Luffy actually catches up to him and stumbles into Grey-Terminal. All he can think of though is how determined the little kid is, and what an irksome trait that is. As though his new life isn't ridiculous enough already.

Sabo, (who Sasuke thinks of as an acquaintance more than a friend, as an end to getting more treasure,) is equally stunned.

"How the hell did he catch up to you?!"

It's a fair question because Sasuke trained in covert action and espionage for the vast majority of his life.

"Hi! Are you Ace's friend too? Do you want to be my friend?" the younger boy asks in a rush of syllables.

"No way in hell," Sabo replies.

"Well, what's your name? I'm Luffy!"

"Sa— I'm not telling you!"

Sasuke snorts inwardly. Little kids were so stupid sometimes.

For the first time since coming across the runt, he finally turns around and addresses him.

"What do you want?"

"This is where you go? This is so cool! Can we be friends?"

"No."

"Ace, he probably heard about the treasure," Sabo whispers to him, and Sasuke stares at the younger boy speculatively. There was shinobi procedure for things like this. When there's a witness, dispose of them immediately.

"Let's tie him up." Sasuke easily grabs the little runt before he can escape and Sabo procures some rope. It's then that Sasuke finds how the kid has survived so many near death experiences. He's made of rubber of all things. This world is really fucked up. Once the youngest boy is successfully attached to a nearby tree, Sasuke can begin his disposal.

"We should probably kill him," Sasuke decides dryly, before smirking as he sees Sabo grinning.

"Yeah, you're probably right." The blond pulls out a small dagger and holds it for a few moments before his expression falters.

"I— I've never killed anyone before. You do it!" He shoves the dagger Sasuke's direction. The ex-shinobi picks it up and twirls it expertly.

"Okay," Sasuke says easily. "It's been a while since I've killed anyone."

Sabo chuckles, and Sasuke knows the blond probably thinks he's joking. He's not.

"What?! I don't want to die! Please don't kill me!"

"Shut up, you're making a racket!" Sabo snaps before turning towards his friend.

"Hurry up, Ace, before everyone in Grey-Terminal knows where we are."

But Sasuke is frozen where he stands. It's also been a while since he's heard anyone beg for their life, and longer still since he's last killed a child. Because that's what the younger boy it— just a child.

—like he had been, lying on the floor near the pools of blood—

"Shit, I think I hear someone!" Sabo hisses urgently, and Sasuke shakes the daze from his head. Frowning, Sasuke uses the dagger to free the kid. He needs more time to decide what to do with him. Besides, he figures if empirics matter at all, the kid will still be around. They all dart towards the nearby bushes and cover themselves up.

As they suspected, Porchemy and his gang are coming closer to them.

The men's detective skills suck something fierce though, so Sasuke isn't concerned about the pirates finding them at all. That is, until he hears the rustling of bushes and sees his tag-along trip on something somehow and fall into plain sight. Porchemy is quick to pick the brat up. Sasuke rolls his eyes inwardly. How stupid could you get?

"Ace! Ace! Help me!"

Apparently even stupider thans Sasuke expected, as the twerp kept calling out his name. Porchemy jumped on him, as expected and started grilling him on his relationship to Sasuke.

"He's my friend!" Luffy exclaims, before continuing more pensively. "Although he did just try to kill me."

Sabo facepalms beside Sasuke.

"Friends, eh?" Porchemy says mockingly. "Well then, do you know where they hid the treasure they stole?"

The brat's eyes jerk to the side and his lips close up.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. What treasure?" The statement is punctuated by a series of poorly whistled notes.

"Oh God, he's such a bad liar!" Sabo says, voicing Sasuke's inner thoughts. Porchemy seems to agree with them because he snags the younger boy by the collar of his tank top.

"Let's see if we can jog your memory." With that ominous statement, Porchemy and his gang of pirates departed. All the while, the youngest boy called out to Sasuke. When the shouts for help finally faded, Sasuke and Sabo both stood.

"Shit. He's gonna tell them where we hid the treasure!" Sabo says.

"Hurry, we need to move it before he cracks," Sasuke directs quickly. They'll never lose the treasure if Sasuke has a say. It's his only ticket off this stupid island and by extension, getting him away from the shitty geezer.

Sabo and Sasuke work in an exceptionally efficient fashion, transferring the treasure to a new cache, hidden in one of the tallest trees in the forest. Easy for them to find, hard to spot from the forest floor. It's perfect. As Sasuke is tucking in the last bits of treasure in the orange light of the setting sun, Sabo comes running up to him, wide-eyed and breathless.

"Ace, he hasn't cracked."

"What?" Sasuke replies.

"Luffy, he hasn't cracked yet! They've been torturing him this whole time, but he hasn't said a word!"

"What an idiot!" Sasuke grits out. He grabs his pipe and he and Sabo are heading back through the jungle to Grey-Terminal. Why the hell did he end up having such a stupid kid handing off him? Didn't the kid have any sense? Sure, Sasuke knew that death was the preferred option to revealing pertinent information to the enemies, but this wasn't the shinobi world, and the kid wasn't a trained ninja. Besides, their lives weren't even on the line. The little brat would have to be incredibly stupid if he was going to die just to protect their treasure.

Once more, Sasuke overrated the younger boy's intelligence, because that's exactly what they find when they burst into the small shack. A bloody, pathetic form hangs by rope from the ceiling. The kid's entire body is covered in red splotches, and Sasuke can see some small puncture marks dotting his body. Probably some spiked gloves then. He's proven correct when Porchemy swings at he and Sabo. They immediately split to avoid the blow before rejoining and attacking him with their iron pipes

"Get Luffy!" Sasuke snaps. Sabo hesitates a moment before nodding. With the brat taken care of, Sasuke can focus on getting rid of his latest annoyance. He's let Porchemy live for too long, and now he has to face the consequences. In a swift motion, Sasuke withdraws the dagger from his belt and leaps forward, catching Porchemy's forearm. Sasuke draws the blade sideways, creating a deep gash in the flesh that makes the pirate scream in agony. Sasuke's not done yet. He kicks the feet out from under the distracted pirate, and kicks him once in the face. After that, he moves in for the final kill. He goes slowly, like how Orochimaru taught him, and sees the expected feat in the other man's eyes. Sasuke draws the dagger back. Before he can finish things, a voice rings through the shack.

"Ace." It's the youngest, bleeding boy who blubbers his name. And suddenly Sasuke finds himself startled from a haze he never realized he entered. He turns and sees that as he anticipated, Sabo is pale-faced and weak in spirit in the face of real death. Looking down at his hands, the ex-shinobi isn't surprised by the reaction because he's splattered by another man's blood. Beside Sabo, to Sasuke's surprise, he finds an emotion oddly like concern or compassion in the younger boy's eyes. The sight is enough to pull him fully from his daze.

"You're so pathetic," he says wearily. Sasuke replaces the knife on his belt before grabbing his and Sabo's iron pipes and running out the door. Sabo is right behind him, holding hands with the youngest boy to guide his battered body somewhere safe. The trio runs through the forest, deep into the center until they come across a clearing. There, the kid collapses and starts sobbing. The noise grates on his ears, but Sasuke ignores it for the moment and focuses on the damage done to his pipe when he and Sabo did their initial attack. They used the pipes to break through the wooden shack walls and it shows.

"Ace . . ." Sabo trails off, uncertain of what to say. Sasuke wishes he could say he understands Sabo's reservations, but he doesn't. Killing Porchemy was the logical choice. He just let his instincts get too out of hand. His memories with the snake sannin are incredibly potent . . . The brat wails and wails, and it's finally too much.

"Shut the fuck up!" Sasuke stands and stalks towards the sobbing boy. "I hate pathetic crybabies like you."

"Hey, hey." The normality of his words seem to have eased Sabo a bit. "He's just relieved that's all." They both blink when they realize the cries have quieted and they both turn to the source of the near silent whimpers.

"T-thank you for s-saving me," the boy says in between sniffles.

'Thank you for saving me?' Sasuke thought incredulously. After trying to kill the other boy, letting him be tortured, and giving him constant verbal abuse, the brat wants to thank him?!

"Why you—" His fist raises automatically.

"Woah, Ace. He's just trying to thank us. Calm down."

Sasuke glares at the blond and the patronizing tone, but he's mostly confused still.

"Why the hell didn't you tell them where the treasure was?" he finally demands of his tag-along.

"Because then Ace would never have been my friend," is the mumbled reply.

"Why?! I'm awful to you! I ignore you and call you names. And you almost died for this! Is friendship that important to you, or are you just stupid?!" He's never gotten it. Friendship—

"I don't have anyone else!" the youngest boy finally shouts, and Sasuke falls silent.

"I hate those mountain bandits! And I can't go back to the village. If I didn't chase after you, then I would be alone, and being alone is more painful than being hurt!"

Now Sasuke is thoroughly stunned. The wisdom is so surprising from a boy he thought was incredibly stupid. But now Sasuke sees— not stupid, but simple and direct.

Loneliness is something he understands well. Too well. He was older than the other boy when it happened, wasn't he?

"What about parents?" Sasuke asks eventually.

"Don't got 'em."

"Friends."

"Just you and Sabo."

Sasuke tries not to flinch at that. There are more pressing things on his mind though.

"So it isn't as bad when I'm around."

"Yes." The boy nods.

"So you want me to live?"

"Of course!"

" . . . You need me, then?"

And now the kid is giving him the same look Sasuke saw all those months ago when he threw the boy into the ravine. It was understanding. Somehow he knows how alone Sasuke is.

"Yes," the kid— Luffy replies, unabashed.

Sasuke tries to soak in the sudden rush of information but finds it incredibly hard to do. He can't remember ever being truly needed. It's a strange sensation, being important to someone's life. Sakura and Naruto would argue that they needed him, were they here. But Sasuke knows the difference well. Because Luffy, this little seven-year-old, it looking at him with the same hopeful desire he remembers feeling as a kid when he looked at—

Sasuke ignores the reminder and focuses on Luffy and his admiration. Though he doesn't understand it, the feeling is . . . nice. Being needed is nice.

"Ace." Sabo gently taps his shoulder, bringing him back to earth.

"Whatever," Sasuke says. Because he knows Luffy already understands.

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It suddenly hit me one day that Sasuke and Ace are almost as equally fucked up. With that wonderful thought I proceeded into this story. More soon.