Disclaimer: I do not own either Naruto or the Dragon Age franchises, or anything pertaining to them.

(AN): Hello once more. I've decided to poke around at this after reading a lot of Sasuke crossovers recently. The next chapter of One Thousand Nights is just sitting around waiting for Ajax to edit it and I have an off weekend, so why not?

This is Chapter 1, Version 3.0.

Anyway, moving forward I just wanted to clear up something about what exactly "Version 3.0." entails. Dragon of Beauty has been through a couple of iterations already. The first time, as my first real fanfic outside of old 14 year old Warcraft ramblings. And the second time, as a revarnished version to fill in some plotholes and polish it a little bit. But now that Naruto is finished, and considering Sasuke's character development in the tail end of the manga, I decided that this really should perhaps be rewritten entirely. Throw out a lot of the old stuff, diverge at 699/The Last instead of at some random point during the Fourth Shinobi World War.

"Japanese."

"Ferelden."

"That should do it, Sasuke-kun."

"Ah."

Staring down at his bandaged left arm, Sasuke carefully clenched his fingers into a tight fist. Every motion was smooth and controlled, filled with hidden strength. The prosthetic crafted from Hashirama's flesh was a pale and ugly thing to the Uchiha's eyes, but even Sasuke couldn't deny that even after a century the Senju's grafted sinew was still stronger than his natural body.

Still it was good to have two arms again. Even if the replacement made him resemble fucking Danzo. The mere thought of resembling in any way the man who had ordered the slaughter of his family – infants and all – had almost swayed Sasuke into refusing to have the prosthetic implanted. That, and his desire to reflect physically in some way that he was atoning for his mistakes.

Both sentiments only lasted until Naruto got hold of the Uchiha with a pair of saucers in one hand and a bottle of aged sake in the other. The blonde inadvertently started a weekly tradition of Team Seven meetings in the process.

Sasuke swung his legs to the sit and hopped off the operating table. "That point of attachment is secure right? Just like a real arm – it won't fall off if I punch the dobe in the face?"

Laughter filled the air like the sound of tinkling bells, and the Uchiha felt a reluctant smirk twist his lips as he pinned Sakura with his Rinnegan eye. The sudden fondness for Sakura and Kakashi was a little confusing, since Sasuke had never been willing to admit bonds with anyone besides Naruto and his kin before. But it was... pleasant, and Sasuke couldn't regret that those bonds existed.

"No Sasuke-kun." Sakura shook her head, peeling off her latex gloves with a snap. "Shodai-sama's cells bind very tightly. It will be just a durable as your native arm. More so even, considering his chakra and vitality. If it was going to fall off, it would have failed at bonding in the first place."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, throwing his poncho around his shoulders. The light brown swath of cloth resembled the one he'd been wearing when he'd returned to the village. But like his freshly laundered and mended clothes, the new poncho had been a gift to the Uchiha from his pink-haired teammate. "Thanks, Sakura."

A rosy blush tinted the medic's cheeks, but unlike she might have in younger years Sakura took it all in stride. She'd grown into a mature young woman – very different from her young fangirl self. "You're welcome."

Tucking his sheathed chokuto back into placed, Sasuke passed a feather-light finger over the dented and scratched surface of his old hitai-ate where it hung at his hip. "Where's the dobe? Still sucking face with that Hyuuga? You'd have thought the novelty would wear off by now."

"Now, now Sasuke-kun, you're starting to sound like a jealous wife." Sakura teased him in a sarcastic scold. "I know you're a little emotionally stunted but when a boy and a girl love each other very much sometimes they like to hug and kiss. It's only been a week since the incident with Toneri. I think we can afford to give them a little bit of time to sort their feelings out, no?"

"Che, don't be ridiculous."

"You don't have to go, ya know?" Naruto sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets and staring at the unruffled form of his brother through dozens of reincarnated lives. "Everyone's already forgiven you. It's not like you can't stay in Konoha and have a good life. Or even move off to one of the other villages if that floats your boat. I know someone should look after Oto – everyone knows that Orochimaru is less of a Kage and more of a lab geek – you could do it if you wanted."

"It's not about having to go." Looking over Konoha with a distant expression, Sasuke took in all the ways the village had changed since Pein had destroyed it and the people rebuilt it. "It's about wanting to go. It's the answer that I left the village to find in the first place. The Uchiha Clan of the Leaf. The Senju – we're part of a world that's gone by. It's time to entrust the new world to the ones that'll be coming after us. The cycle of reincarnation will end, and I'll be able to move forward with no regrets."

Sighing, Naruto turned away from his best friend and joined him in taking in the changed form of the village. The last few months Sasuke had stayed resolutely within the borders of the village, refusing any mission that would take him beyond Konoha's walls and rebuilding all the broken bonds he had with their comrades. The blonde had been utterly ecstatic to drop in to see Shikamaru only to find the Nara playing a round of shoji with Sasuke.

Underneath all of the shock and joy however, had been the constant sense of foreboding. Naruto hadn't wanted to admit it, but the Uzumaki had known all along. The extended stay in the village, the smiles and jokes, and long-winded conversations over cups of sake with Sakura and Kakashi... it was Sasuke's way of saying goodbye. The Uchiha had wanted to mend all the fences he'd broken and make peace with all the people he'd hurt over the years, so that he could pass on without leaving behind unfinished business and regrets.

Naruto wiped the back of his hand over his stinging eyes before giving Sasuke a saucy grin. "Yeah I get it. Don't worry about the village bastard; I'll look after it while you're gone. So you just take it nice and easy wherever you end up. And don't you dare forget to come back for a visit."

Lips tilting up in a small but true smile, Sasuke favoured the blonde with an exasperated but fond glare out of his mismatched eyes. "Why would I want to come for a visit when I've finally gotten away from you, dobe?"

"Teme!"

Sasuke laughed – the sound coming far easier to him now, after having finally escaped the road of darkness his feet had been walking so long.

The exaggerated grimace of annoyance on Naruto's face smoothed out to long-suffering amusement.

"Asshole."

Silence fell between the two young men as they watched the crimson sun settle through dusk over the village together one last time. Sasuke had already made all his farewells – apologized to a teary Sakura and endured the ruffling of his hair by a paternal Kakashi. He'd shaken hands with all the various members of their generation, passing along his goodbye with a firm hand until there was only one parting remaining.

"Well." Sasuke broke in, slipping his hands into his pockets and turning his back to the last desperate pink rays of the sun. "I'll be moving on now, but I'll be back to see you guys at some point or another. Look after them would you?"

Blue eyes glinted with a serious light. "It's a promise."

A light flush dusted along Sasuke's cheekbones as he began circulating chakra in preparation. "And if I don't make it back for some reason, I'll come find you guys in the next life. Who knows? Maybe we can have another drink..."

"I'll see you."

"Thanks, Naruto. For everything." For being his brother. For having faith in him. For never giving up on him.

Then the space-time doujutsu was upon him, and there was no more time for words. A black void sprang into being around Sasuke, swallowing the Uchiha up and pulling him out of the world with a deep purple tint and the quiet hiss of wind in the abyss.

Sasuke reached, soul and chakra questing on and on past the familiar dark crossroads that he suspected would lead him to one of the dimensions that Kaguya had warred with Naruto and Sasuke in. The strain built as he stretched himself ever-thinner, one end of him connected to the dimension he'd been born in and the other searching for something new.

Then something within Sasuke snapped. Blazing pain shattered through the Uchiha's mind as he came undone. The foothold to return home went spinning into the endless void as Sasuke drifted rootless and bleeding his soul and chakra through the seams of his existence. It was mind rending agony that endured beyond comprehension, reducing all higher functions of self to nothing but suffering.

If Sasuke could have had any thought outside of the pain, he would've asked: "Why is it taking so damn long to die?"

Then senselessness rose up and smothered him away.

The sound of rustling leaves was the first thing that trickled into his mind. Then the chirping of birds and the smell of must. Then came the feeling of ground pressing into his back.

Feeling?

His body exploded into agony and Sasuke was forced to take a shuddering gasp. Everywhere hurt. His ribs were on fire, his head absolutely pounded, blood rushed through his ears and he was vaguely aware of the copper tang of blood on his tongue. Wetness seeped from the corners of his eyelids, and the Uchiha knew that he traversing the void had made his eyes bleed again.

Sasuke pried his eyelids open with a groan, breaking the crust of blood that had sealed them shut.

A thick canopy of leaves blocked the view of the sky from his sight. And it felt wrong. Not the lack of the sky, but the very forest itself. It felt tainted, Blighted some subconscious part of his mind whispered. Whatever it was, it felt very wrong and he needed to leave. He needed to get out.

Weakness shook in every coil of Sasuke's body. He was so strung out and drained that he wanted nothing more than to roll over sink back into unconsciousness – to do nothing but rest until he had enough energy that he could at roll over without wanting to pass out. But there really was no choice. Sasuke had to get out of there, because wherever he was stunk of violence and dead things.

Heaving to his feet, his body shrieked with pain and Sasuke stumbled against a tree for support. His tongue felt thick and his mouth dry behind his teeth. Rolling his tongue across his gums, Sasuke spat out a sticky glob of blood and saliva.

"Oh ho ho! What do we have here?"

The Uchiha whirled around, flesh protesting the move as he glared at the speaker through glazed dark eyes.

It was a very old, very gray haired woman. Someone's mother perhaps, he thought, but the air around her did not crackle with power and he felt slightly disgusted at having let a civilian get the drop on him. Evidently, he was so drained he was barely capable of fighting at best.

Sasuke opened his mouth to demand directions to get out of the woods, but clicked shut as he glanced at her eyes. Eyes that were amber and feral and slitted. Like Naruto's had been when he channeled the chakra of one of the tailed beasts. Demon's eyes, people back home would have called them – at least before Naruto won all of them over with his bright grin and assurances about the changed hearts of his tailed beast friends.

Scraping up the last dregs of his chakra, Sasuke shoved it all into his eyes. Sharingan blazed to life in preparation for battle, tomoe spinning as the Uchiha strained to reach his Mangekyou and Rinnegan. But it was like reaching for the moon, and his clan's kekkei genkai sputtered back to useless dark irises as the last drops of his chakra ran dry.

Sasuke had the chance to see one of her eyebrows quirk in what could be interest before the strain of already having overused his body slammed back into him, sending his mind tumbling away into darkness and his body crumpling to the ground.

"Well isn't that just curious." Flemeth mused as the young man collapsed face down into the loam. Considering Sasuke with a proprietary gaze, the Witch of the Wilds smirked. "I think you'll do quite nicely."

(A/N): This chapter settles in at just over 2000 words. I'm not really a fan of such short chapter lengths – One Thousand Nights runs at 5000 and Chasing Yesterday ran at 7000. Some of my other stuff hits 4000 words a chapter. But since this is a rewrite of already existing stuff and Dragon of Beauty was first posted with 2000 word chapter lengths, I'll stick to it. It'll make updating quicker, if nothing else.

In case it wasn't clear based on several references in the text, this diverges right after Naruto: The Last. Instead of vanishing, Sasuke stuck around the village and got a new arm. That means right now he looks as he did during The Last.

Anyway, this was inspired by a lot of things. "Seeking Answers", "Ninja Ashikabi", "Uchihas of Remnant", "A Hawk's Plight", "Shinobi of Middle Earth", "Your True Colors", "Tales from the Blue Sea", "The Melody of The Wanderer"... As far as I'm concerned, good Sasuke crossovers are rare. Most of them tend to be "SasuNaru YAOI BL DON'T LIKE DON'T READ" garbage. So I hope to add my own to join the list of good Sasuke crossovers ^_^;.