•Shackles of Time•

Chapter 1: Say cheese!

He was floating.

That's all a black haired male could decipher, for some unknown reason, he was unable to open his eyes leaving him in a black abyss. He was used to it though considering that was all their world was reduced to after... the war.

It was not another shinobi war, after all, a certain blonde had united the nations. It was a world war, shinobi and civilians alike were threatened, the world was at stake. It was hard defeating the enemy, unlike other 'conflicts' which had a certain goal. Something like 'a war for revenge' or 'a war to end wars', the one they had participated in was different. The enemy's goal was simply to destroy for no particular reason. It was simply to bring destruction.

In the end, you could say they won. The shinobi had defeated all the enemies, yet their goal was achieved. Everything was gone.

So when that idiot, that stupidly idiotic genius that he considered his best friend, one he would protect with his life, proposed the option of literally defying the natural order of the universe. He didn't hesitate to agree. His best friend was used to doing that after all, and he always somehow manages to drag him with his antics.

Not that he's complaining.

And look where that got him, floating in an abis of who knows what, having no sense of direction and sight, or rather, having no sense in general.

If he could, he would sigh. Yet his body was rendered motionless.

It was not soon after that he started to feel a tingling sensation on his wrists. At first it was like a feather brushing softly on his skin, as he focused, he realized the item was cold and wrapping around his arm. He would have struggled if he could.

His senses slowly returned to him, a clashing of metal resounded loudly in his ears, like iron gears turning or chains mashed together. The feeling on his wrists turned painful contrary to the previous light touch, or perhaps that was because he just felt numb then.

The raven felt himself falling, or a better way to explain it would be pulled down by a force from his arms, harshly might I add.

He let it, deducing by now that he could do nothing else but comply to whatever force struck him. In all honesty, the raven truly had no idea what was happening. His mind was blank yet he still knew everything.

He didn't know his name but he knew his identity. Didn't know what happened yet knew the situation. It was all a haze of information, so jumbled up yet still there. He briefly wondered if he was dead. Is this how dead people feel? do they even feel at all?

The clanging of metal didn't stop, it was irritatingly loud. He felt himself sink more and more, the chains bringing him down. Just as he felt his conscious slip away-

"SASUKE!!"

'sasuke?' was that his name? sasuke.... sasuke, sasuke.... sasuke uchiha! That was him!

Just as his name came to mind, another one flashed in his head 'uzumaki naruto'

'uzumaki...'.

"naruto!" he screamed as he snapped his eyes open with renewed vigor. He saw a blurry silhouette looming above him, spiky blonde hair and worried cerulean eyes met him in his wake.

The blonde sighed "you made it..." the blonde muttered in a barely audible voice. If it weren't for the uchiha's trained senses, he wouldn't have heard it. Nor would he have sensed the other chakra signatures around them.

He froze. A rush of memories crashed on him. He almost bumped heads with naruto while abruptly trying to sit up, luckily, he was stopped by a soft hand of the very person mentioned earlier. It comforted him, telling him to calm down and just comply.