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/-\
The dust hadn't even settled before the SHIELD corridor was flooded with agents in tactical gear. Red emergency lights bathed everything in a harsh glow, shadows leaping across the crumbling walls and sparking consoles. Sasuke stood unmoved, dark cloak fluttering slightly from the static in the air. Steve Rogers, shield on his back again, was already barking orders.
"Secure the perimeter! Clear the wounded! Medical to Bay 3, now!"
Bruce Banner was muttering to himself as he analyzed energy readings on his handheld device. "This isn't over. That portal didn't just open randomly..."
Sasuke's Rinnegan was still active. He glanced back at the scorch mark where the Architect had fallen. The thing's remains had disintegrated the moment the portal collapsed. Nothing left but a faint scorch on the steel floor and an imprint in Sasuke's mind. It had known his name. It had been hunting him.
Steve approached quietly. "You alright?"
"I've been worse," Sasuke replied. He paused. "That thing... it wasn't just some soldier. It knew me."
Steve nodded grimly. "And it said something about correcting a multiversal error. Sounds like we're not dealing with coincidence here."
Bruce joined them, pushing his glasses up. "I scanned the residual energy signature before it faded. It matches the same readings we got when Sasuke first arrived. Dimensional overlap, not teleportation. It came from a tear in space-time."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "So, they can track me."
"Or they're tracking the energy that brought you here," Bruce added. "The same energy that's now inside you."
Sasuke looked down at his hand, flexing his fingers. For a brief second, arcs of blue lightning flickered along his knuckles without his command.
Steve exhaled. "That's not exactly comforting."
"I need information," Sasuke said. "These Architects... who are they? What do they want?"
Bruce hesitated. "We don't know. Not yet. But we've got someone who might be able to help. He's... a little eccentric."
Steve smirked. "Very eccentric."
The Avengers' Quinjet soared across the sky, the ruins of the SHIELD facility shrinking below. Sasuke sat silently near the rear, gaze locked out the window. His mind drifted, pulling on fragmented memories of his previous life. Konoha. Naruto. Sakura. The war. His death.
And now this new war, in a new world.
Steve, seated beside him, watched Sasuke for a moment. "You remind me of someone."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "That a compliment?"
Steve chuckled. "Depends who you ask."
Before Sasuke could respond, Bruce turned from the cockpit. "We're close. Brace for weird."
The Sanctum Sanctorum was an oddity even in a city like New York. A nexus of magical energy, veiled in enchantments, it stood timeless and imposing.
They were met at the entrance by a man in deep crimson robes, goatee trimmed with precision, a sardonic gleam in his eyes.
"You brought a dimensional anomaly into my house," Doctor Strange said flatly. "Do you know how many wards I've had to recalibrate?"
"Nice to see you too, Doc," Steve said dryly.
Strange's gaze turned to Sasuke. His expression faltered.
"You're not from any dimension I've charted. Not even the shadow realms. What are you?"
Sasuke stepped forward, unafraid. "Someone who died. Someone who was brought back. Someone your multiverse wasn't ready for."
Strange tilted his head. "You're not wrong. Come inside. We need to talk."
Inside the Sanctum's grand library, arcane tomes levitated gently between shelves. Strange floated above the ground, cross-legged, hands moving through holographic projections of the multiverse.
"These Architects," Strange began, "aren't native to our multiverse. They exist in a sub-layer below even the Quantum Realm. A liminal void. A place where unmade ideas and forgotten timelines go to rot."
"Why would they care about me?" Sasuke asked.
Strange gestured, and an image of Sasuke's arrival shimmered in mid-air. A tether of glowing energy connected his arrival point to a deep, chaotic knot of swirling red and black.
"Because your arrival tore a hole in their prison."
Bruce leaned forward. "So, Sasuke's reincarnation broke a seal?"
"No," Strange corrected. "He was the seal. Or rather, his soul was used to plug a breach millennia ago. Something... or someone... pulled him out."
Sasuke's fists clenched. "Then they'll keep coming. Until I'm either dead again or back in the void."
Steve looked between them. "How do we stop them?"
Strange's cloak fluttered. "We don't. Not yet. But there might be a way to trace the Architects' influence. If they're sending agents, they'll need anchors conduits in our world."
Bruce frowned. "You mean like hosts?"
"Or cultists," Strange said darkly.
That night, Sasuke stood alone on the Sanctum's rooftop, the city lights glowing beneath him. The wind tugged at his cloak, and the silence gave space to the thoughts pressing on him.
Was he really a seal? Just a piece of some cosmic patchwork? Or was there more to this reincarnation than survival?
A voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Can't sleep either?"
Steve joined him, coffee mug in hand.
"I don't sleep much," Sasuke muttered.
Steve nodded. "Neither did Bucky. My friend... he went through something like you. Came back wrong. Took him years to find himself."
Sasuke's eyes softened a fraction. "Did he? Find himself?"
"He's still trying," Steve said. "But he's not alone. That helps."
They stood in silence for a while, two warriors out of place in their own times.
Then Sasuke said, "I'll find these Architects. I'll end this. Even if I have to go back into that void myself."
Steve looked over. "You won't do it alone."
Sasuke gave him a small, appreciative nod. Though he had been torn from everything familiar, his instincts told him something vital he wasn't facing this new world entirely on his own. Strange as it seemed, he might be forming something he hadn't had in a long time: allies.
As the wind shifted, Sasuke allowed himself to relax slightly. Not with trust, not yet. But with a resolve that didn't feel as lonely as before. This new world wasn't home but maybe, piece by piece, he could carve out something like it. Something worth protecting.
He turned his gaze upward. The stars here were different, their constellations foreign. And yet, something in their arrangement reminded him of nights in Konoha of dreams half-remembered, and promises made in blood and silence.
He spoke again, barely above a whisper. "I'll make it count this time."
/-\
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my Patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/Its_Zack/"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want.