Sasuke Uchiha felt unwell, trapped in a state between dream and reality. This was not a dream; he was sure of that. He knew more about dreams than most people (thank for his brother). Yet, it also wasn't reality, for in reality, one feels their body, their surroundings—not this disconnection he now experienced. He felt as if he were drifting in an empty space, his eyes closed, detached from everything around him. The only thing working was his mind, evidenced by the thoughts swirling through it. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep—had it been earlier? He couldn't even feel his chakra, the energy he had sensed and relied upon since childhood. It was as if the concept of chakra had been entirely erased from his system (considering he doesn't feel anything, it's a little strange how he know of that), leaving him feeling cold and void. This wasn't mere depletion; rather, it felt like he had never possessed chakra at all, a preposterous idea.
"Hey, are you okay?" A voice cut through his suffocating thoughts. Suddenly, he felt his body again, not fully in control but no longer immobilized. He snapped his eyes open, perhaps a bit too quickly, causing the strangers before him to take a step back, surprise etched on their faces.
The unsettling darkness he felt just moments ago faded away, replaced by a sense of awareness. But then came the instinctive feeling of loss, a void created by the absence of his chakra, With no chakra came a more profound kind of blindness; even when he was at the academy, he could sense his surroundings, but now...
"Hey there, you're spacing out! What happened to you?"
Sasuke cursed his incompetence. Here he was, without chakra, and the first thing he did was ignore the strangers in this bizarre dark place. This clearly wasn't the room he had been staying in.
"I'm fine," he cut off his spiraling thoughts and replied. He attempted to sit up, realizing he was lying on his back. He crouched slowly but fell face-first before his legs could fully straighten.
"Whoa! Easy there, lad!" one of them shouted, taken aback. They rushed to his side as he rolled onto his back, sitting up this time instead of trying to stand.
"What happened to you?" one of them asked. Now that Sasuke was looking at them, he noticed their strange attire. The largest of the three was bare-chested, with a long sword strapped to his back, wearing only black pants and boots—he reminded Sasuke of a certain demon from the Mist. The others seemed more unremarkable. To his left is a teenager with brown hair, adorned in brown leather armor on top, paired with black armored pants, he is also equipped with a sword. Next to him was a blond man who is holding a stick...?, he looked as if he were in his twenties, with long blond hair and remarkably long ears. Sasuke wasn't an expert on human physiology like Orochimaru or his student, but normal humans' ears didn't grow like that. Well, not normal humans, anyway.
"Where are we?" He ignored their earlier question, prioritizing his own.
"Ah… in an alley," the big one replied, glancing over the buildings surrounding them, which felt strange.
"The village! Is this Konoha?" No, this was definitely not Konoha.
"What? No! This is the labyrinth city of Orario! What do you mean by village?" The man looked at him incredulously, presumably between thirty-eight and forty-four years old.
"Did he hit his head, perhaps?" the one with long ears murmured, raising an eyebrow.
"Or did he get dropped by street rats?" chimed in the one in leather armor.
In an unknown situation, most would act confused or angry, but Sasuke liked the 'hit his head' explanation.
He glanced at his surroundings, confused, before finally answering, "It seems I can't… I can't remember what happened to me or how I got here." They regarded him strangely, and while he wasn't technically lying, the long-eared man smiled with satisfaction.
"Clearly hit his head, like I said," he emphasized, smirking.
"Hey! It's not a laughing matter, you stupid elf!" the leather-armored one shouted at his friend.
'Elf?' Sasuke thought; was that some kind of insult he didn't understand?
"Kael, Lorian, shut up!" The largest stranger, who seemed to be the leader, fixed them with a critical glare. He had been studying Sasuke since their encounter.
"I don't know what happened to you, lad, but we found you lying on your back like a dead person. Breathing, but still like a dead man."
Sasuke nodded, troubled. He had indeed felt like a dead man (a dead man who can think) until the man voice broke through the void.
"I'm sorry. Can you assist me in standing? I seem to have been weakened greatly," he spoke slowly. Based on their behavior, they didn't seem to recognize or harbor hostility toward him, and yet the absence of his chakra made him grimace, if he have even a litt-
"No need to make that face, boy. We all have our bad days. Cheer up! We've got you," the large man, Thorian, said before heaving Sasuke up with surprising strength, especially against his weakened body.
"What do we do with him, Thorian?" asked Kael or Lorian—Sasuke couldn't tell which.
"Just get me out of this alley, and I'll be on my way," he stated, wanting to minimize the suspicious. The longer he stayed, the more suspicious they might become about his identity. To his surprise, they accepted his fabricated lie. He had expected more resistance; it was an obvious falsehood, but they had fallen for it far too easily. He tried to peek at their headbands for any sign of of his whereabouts, but they don't have one, looked more like bandits than a shinobi anyway.
"Nonsense! You're coming with us. We were on our way to an inn for dinner before we found you," Thorian insisted.
"Kael, support him, and let's go!" he commanded.
"On it, boss!" Kael replied enthusiastically, sounding more like a common bandit than anything else as he approached Sasuke (his suspicious might be true after all) and slipped an arm around his shoulder, supporting him beneath the waist. Sasuke's felt maddeningly weak at this moment.
"I don't want to trouble you," he muttered slowly, trying to relax himself a little.
"Nah, there's no trouble. Today has been a fruitful day," Kael maintained, gesturing to a pouch at his waist. All of them had one, but Thorian's appeared the largest.
Sasuke remained silent; at this moment, he preferred silence over appearing foolish. He didn't need to be a genius to recognize something was amiss.
"Are we just inviting him to our dinner like a long-lost friend? Not to mention he might be lying," Lorian argued, frustration evident in his tone as he glared at Sasuke.
Sasuke stayed quiet, allowing Kael to support him as they walked slowly.
"Why would he lie about something like this?" Kael chuckled, looking at Lorian as if he were the foolish one.
"I don't know, maybe—"
"Enough!" Thorian cut Lorian off with a stern voice, glaring at both of them until they fell silent.
With that, he resumed walking, leading the way.
"What is your name, lad?" Thorian asked lazily, his voice authoritative with boredom tinged it.
"Riku… Riku Shinobu. I think this is my given name." Sasuke didn't have to think too hard to come up with a new identity.
"Far East, right?" Kael remarked, glancing at him.
"Your appearance is an obvious sign, but with that name, it's not even a question," Kael added, gesturing toward him.
'Far East?' Sasuke pondered, wondering if that referred to a direction or a specific land.
"Are you part of a familia?" Lorian asked suddenly, his voice ice-cold.
"No, I am not." Sasuke swallowed the question of what a familia was, unspoken as he recognized that Lorian's tone indicated he expected him to know about it.
"Hey, Riku! Do you remember how you—"
"Enough with the talking! You all can ramble after we eat! By the gods! I'm starving!"
Thorian interrupted Kael, marching out of the dark alley and into the light.
Sasuke widened his eyes at the sight that greeted him. Grand houses lined the street ahead, and towering above them was an unmistakable structure that pierced the sky. No one could miss it; even if this were some isolated village he hadn't heard of, the sheer size of it would be impossible to ignore or heard by.
"Why did you stop?" Kael asked, halting beside him.
"Nothing. I'm just trying to remember some things," Sasuke replied, glancing at the strange architecture surrounding them. Where the hell had he found himself?
"As much as I'd like to ask some questions myself…" Lorian mumbled in from his side.
"Thorian is right; we need to eat something." With that, he picked up the pace, leaving the slow-moving Sasuke and Kael behind them.
"Don't worry about Lorian, Riku," Kael said, grinning at him. "He might not be the warmest guy, but he's cool once you get to know him."
"I'm sure he is," Sasuke remarked dryly, but they continued the rest of the way in silence, silence for kael maybe but, Sasuke mind is anything but silent, grappling with the events that had transpired. Waking up in a strange land, his chakra missing, exhaustion enveloping him, and strange people showing out of nowhere, or he might be the one who came out of nowhere. His gaze flicked over the unfamiliar surroundings—there is no one at this particularl place beside them, he saw one or two people here and there, but mostly it's quite here, and that towering structure looming in the city center, it's strikingly out of place of the world he know of, If he didn't know better, he might think he'd traveled with his Rinnegan… wait, his Rinnegan?
Sasuke's hand flew to his left eye, but he felt nothing.
"What are you doing?" Kael regarded him with a mix of confusion and concern.
"Kael?" Sasuke looked back at him, emotion lacing his voice.
"What color are my eyes?" he asked, already knowing the answer, but if his chakra had disappeared completely, then—
"Black. Why?" Kael tilted his head, his brow furrowing in intrigue.
Sasuke ignored his questions, thoughts spinning back to the last thing he remembered before all this madness.
That was supposed to be a normal, innocent sleep.