The Crystal Eye That Saw In the Dark

Chapter 1- Contemplation

Disclaimer – Ace owns nothing.

A/N: I'm extremely pissed. Both of my stories just disappeared from my account. Has this happened to anyone else? Anyway these are just the original chapters with a few corrected mistakes. Lucky for me I keep most of my chapters on a flash drive. -_- Still pissed though, since I lost all my followers, reviews, favorites, etc.

"I have long since closed my eyes... My only goal is in the darkness." – Sasuke Uchiha

~Naruto~

How it turned out this way, I will never know. What I did know, however, was that this mission was a pain in my extremely toned ass. I was smart enough to know that when you took missions like these, you kind of had to say bye bye to morals. You did whatever needed to be done to accomplish the objective.

It was never my intent to do some of the things that we did, and I'm one-hundred percent sure Sasuke, that bastard, would say the exact same thing. The old man had to have known there was a chance that things could and would come to this point. Honestly, I had no idea how he would have known, but I can almost guarantee that he did. Sasuke and I often speculated amongst ourselves and had come to the conclusion that it had something to do with that crystal ball of his.

That's why we were the perfect duo for this mission. According to him, we were a perfect fit to the requirements. One, we were both orphans; Two, we were both strong enough (barely) to survive; Three, we both had valid reasons to leave the village...and anything else we needed to do.

The old man made us slowly cut off our bonds with almost everyone except our mentors, turning Sasuke and I into ninja worthy of rank and former shells of ourselves, even though we eventually broke this rule. I won't lie to myself and say it didn't hurt me to cut off the people I loved. I was always slightly envious of Sasuke in that regard, because he dealt with losing people better, probably because of what happened with his clan. I couldn't even fathom why I accepted the mission, besides the letter. Maybe because I wanted to protect Konoha. Maybe because I resented Konoha for the hateful stares the villagers gave me as a child.

In the far ridges of my mind, I knew it was because I didn't want to be outdone my Sasuke, though I'd never admit that out loud. Regardless of my motives, I regretted accepting that mission for some time after that. Even as I thought about this, all the decisions I'd made in my life, all the memories, I always thought about a certain memory. I remember when I was a bit younger, an orphan, like me at the time, said he wanted to be a great ninja one day. He said nothing was more important than the mission. Not the past, present, or future. Not your loved ones. Nothing.

Only the mission.

Those words stuck with me and that's what I remind myself of every single day. No one had ever told me anything so painfully accurate, and ironically, I didn't truly comprehend the meaning of those words until much later in my life.

But by then it might have been too late.

~Sasuke~

Sometimes, I thought it was almost funny, (not really) how blissfully ignorant the 3rd was, deluding himself into thinking everything was under his control. How unaware we all were of the events that would rise to surface. The choices. Even after knowing the mission, we had never thought it'd get to this point. I remember when the 3rd assigned Naruto and I to the mission, he told us things about our families, things he said we would have learned much later in their lives, according to that crystal ball of his.

Of course I was able to maintain my calm composure, regardless of how much it killed me inside, and though I did have Itachi to confide to, if only for a short time, but it still pained me to let go of certain bonds. Lord 3rd had probably seen a lot of the future with that crystal ball, though I doubt he planned for everything we did after he died.

He couldn't have predicted that the village would still be crushed by Pain, because we were supposed to prevent it, emphasis on supposed. He couldn't have predicted us being forced to murder anyone who found out things they weren't supposed to know. Hell, he predicted his own death and told us that the 5th Hokage, which we had to convince back to the village (forcefully), would take over as our primary supplier of both money and information.

He helped us even AFTER death as well by supplying us with everything they needed after we left. Spies in the Sand, Sound, and Akatsuki, that I reluctantly admit saved our lives multiple times

Though I begrudgingly admit it, Lord 3rd was a tactical genius deserving of the title Hokage.

But he wasn't a God.

~About 3-4 years before~

~Naruto~

I walked around helpless and generally irritated. I couldn't find anyone to train me for the second round of the exams, and at this rate, I'd never beat that prick, Neji. I was lost in my own thoughts, so I didn't realize I was about to run straight into a tree until the person I REALLY didn't want to see called out to me, effectively breaking his train of thoughts.

"Dobe. You're about to break that tree with your face."

I turned around, with a slightly redder face, to see a raven-haired asshole leaning against the fence we had painted last week on a mission, his arms crossed and a slight smirk on his stupid face. Behind him was Sakura, the girl I couldn't get to notice me romantically. I had been in love with her since the Academy, but she had always eyes for Sasuke.

She had matured quite a bit though, focusing on training, treating Sasuke and I equally, and she had even started studying medicine, but I could see the she was struggling to suppress her feelings towards Sasuke.

"What'd you say, you bastard?!"

"Hn."

I could feel my right eye twitching. I could also feel the "I'm better than you" attitude oozing from Sasuke. We continued staring at each other, hatefully, until Sakura, who was probably tired of us fighting every day, sighed.

"Guys, can you give it a rest for once? Please?" She said in a slightly annoyed tone.

Yep, just a regular day for team seven.

We had decided to spar at the training grounds because Sasuke and I ended up arguing on where to go eat. I wanted ramen and he wanted anything but ramen. By the time we had gotten to the nearest training grounds, we were both ready to stab each other with kunai. Sakura looked at both of us with a slight frown before sighing for at least the fifth time today.

"Can you two please not kill each other?" She asked as she sat down on a nearby boulder to watch us probably kill each other.

"No promises," We said simultaneously, causing us to glare at each other. Again.

"Time to put you in your place, Bastard!" I exclaimed, with a wicked grin as I cracked my knuckles.

"Tch. Bring it."

I growled and rushed at Sasuke, aiming for his stomach, but he cartwheeled to my right and jumped in the air, delivering a swift heel kick with his left leg, which I barely dodged.

'Take this!' I thought as I threw an uppercut that connected with Sasuke's jaw. Sasuke grunted in pain, rebounded with a backflip, and landed gracefully on his feet.

I smugly smirked at Sasuke, who blinked; surprised he got hit, since he was considerably faster than me. He quickly threw two kunai, which I easily deflected with my own, only to find that he had vanished.

I was looking around frantically for him, when I felt his fist crash into my face. Though I was blinded by pain, I managed to dodge the second punch enough to where it only grazed my chin, but I barely had time to noticed that Sasuke was on the left of me, before the third punch caused me to instinctively double over in pain. I gasped as I felt all the air in my lungs vanish, and right as I looked up to counter, Sasuke kneed me in the air and sent me flying with a kick to the chest.

I was sailing backwards at a decent speed so I used it to my advantage. I forced myself to rebound on the tree I would have slammed into, and shot at Sasuke like a shuriken, using my favorite Ninjutsu.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" I yelled, making three clones. I quickly grabbed one of my clone's hands, instructed my other clones to copy, and swung the first clone ahead, straight at Sasuke. Like I predicted, Sasuke dodged them but as they dispersed, I used the smoke to my advantage. Sasuke was unable to see, if only for a second, which at the speed I was zipping through the air, was all the time I needed. Sasuke let out a surprised and slightly pained yelp as I speared him into a tree that cracked slightly on impact.

We could both hear Sakura yelling for us to stop, but she knew we wouldn't. Sasuke caught me off guard when he did his jutsu.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" He exclaimed and before I could even begin to react, a giant flame was headed towards me.

The flames licked my right arm as I barrel rolled left. Almost immediately after touching the ground, I turned and threw a paper bomb straight at the fire, grinning at the flicker of surprise that graced Sasuke's face. He cut off the stream of fire as soon as the explosive kunai hit, but the explosion still resonated across the entire training field.

We stumbled out of the smoke, both of us fatigued, but immediately rushed each other and right before either of us could land a hit on the other, someone grabbed both of us, forcing us to stop.

Kakashi-Sensei.

"You two seemed to be giving it your all," He said, looking between both of us with his lone eye.

"…."

"Hn."

Pretty much.

Kakashi-Sensei sighed and let us go "As much as I wanted to see you two beat each other to death, Lord Third wishes to see us."

I tried masking me surprise, and ultimately failed.

'Old man? What does he want?' I mused with myself, as we began walking toward the Hokage mansion.

On the way to the Hokage Mansion, we were forced to listen to a scolding session from Sakura, which can be pretty scary when she's mad enough. I usually try to avoid direct eye contact cuz that's just asking to get your spinal cord shoved up your ass.

"What were you thinking?! Why would you fight like that when your-"

Thankfully, Kakashi-Sensei cut her off. "We're here."

She growled and muttered something about punching us to death.

We walked up to the door and I burst in without knocking, just because I could.

"Oi! You wanted to see me, Old man?" I called out to him excitedly, masking my curious thoughts, putting my heads behind my head in my usual relaxed manor.

"He wanted to see US, Naruto," Kakashi-Sensei pointed out.

"Same difference."

The Old man smiled. "Good. You're here."

I glanced over and noticed a woman was arranging papers nearby. Probably his Assistant. And she just so happens to have big breasts. Fucking Pervert.

"You wanted to see us, Lord Third?"

"Actually, I just needed Naruto and Sasuke," The Old man said . "You two can resume your usual duties while I talk to them."

Kakashi-Sensei blinked his lone eye, obviously surprised and then nodded. "Sakura, let's go."

As they walked out, Kakashi-Sensei made eye contact with both of us, basically saying we'd be questioned by him as soon as we left the mansion. The old man glanced at the woman.

"Akira, please leave us and close the door when you do."

I lazily watched as Akira nodded, looked at us, and silently left the room, closing the door behind her. I glanced at Sasuke from the corner of my eye and I could tell we were both thinking the same thing.

'What the HELL was going on?'

We must have looked scared, because the Old man smiled and assured us we weren't in any trouble.

"I've called you here to ask of your services," He said smiling at us.

Sasuke snorted and I raised an eyebrow. "You make us sound like prostitutes, Old man."

He chuckled but the humor didn't reach his eyes. They seemed almost sad.

"What exactly do you need us for?" Sasuke asked with a quizzical head tilt.

The Old man's expression turned grim. "You two fit certain requirements that I need-"

"Requirements?" I interrupted, "Do tell. What kind of requirements?"

The Old man nodded as if he knew we'd ask him that.

"One, you're both orphans."

Predictably, I saw Sasuke tense up from my peripheral.

"Two, I feel you two are both strong enough for this. Lastly…" He paused, gazing at us with a stern expression. "You both have a valid reason to leave the village, if need be."

My eyes bugged out. 'What the hell does he want us to do?!'

As if reading my mind, Sasuke asked that very question. The Old man eyed us intently, and seemed to be debating internally with himself one last time, before nodding. He looked up at us with a smile that, I immediately noticed for the second time, didn't reach his eyes.

"You two would be tasked with tracking down and killing Madara Uchiha…and would also be the first and last Genin to accept an SS ranked mission."

"….."

"….."

I didn't realize he wasn't joking until he pointedly looked at both of us, features devoid of any humor whatsoever.

'Wait…what?'

Sasuke looked at me, with an incredulous expression of shock and I was sure I looked just as surprised as him. It was clear that we were thinking the exact same thing.

'Nothing will EVER be the same after we walked out of this office.'

A/N: There's the first chapter. Leave a Review, tell me what you think, you know, the usually stuff. Also any questions. I'll update sometime around next week and I'm moving back in forth between Naruto and Sasuke's P.O.V.

Also like last time I'm doing a vote for the probable conclusive pairings.

Sasuke and Hinata; Sakura and Naruto

Naruto and Hinata; Sakura and Sasuke

If you like some other pairing with either Naruto or Sasuke, let me know and I'll do my best to work it in the story at some point.