Because I Love You (SasuNaru AU)

Chapter 23: The New Future

Sasuke P.O.V

I was finally back. Back in the time where I belonged, but the home that I had entered was different. It was no longer the small apartment that belonged to Naruko and me, but an unfamiliar, high-end condo on the other side of town.

It worked...but where am I...?

I had never seen this place before. The rooms were furnished with exclusive Uchiha Corp. products. The living room was large, filled with expensive appliances as it opened towards a window-made wall that allowed the view of the city lights. The walls were all colored elegant shades of gray, black, and red. But even though the colors were there, the walls were all bare, carrying no sign of life. It was a luxurious apartment, but it wasn't a home.

I walked around the living room, trying to find some sort of pictures or signs for what my future was now, but I couldn't. There were only soulless, expensive items.

When I was with Naruko, she always took pictures and hung them among the walls. It was her way of keeping a timeline of our life together. But now since she was no longer around, the walls were most likely decorated to match my personality of this timeline.

Why everything so bare...? Naori wouldn't have let this happen-

My eyes widened in shock. In this timeline, I should have been married to Naori, but I knew she hated this timeline's me. So what happened to us? There was nothing in this apartment that made it seem as if 2 people were living here.

I called out her name in a panic as I walked around the apartment, but she was nowhere to be found.

If I'm not married to Naori...then what happened? What happened to our futures...?

Fear consumed me as I thought about Naruko. I didn't know where she was or how she was doing. Things didn't turn out as I expected, and it scared me to think about the mishap of her future.

Tears slowly left my eyes as I made my way to my bedroom. The walls were bare, yet there were stacks of paper sitting on my desk. My closet was organized; filled with countless black suits and dress shoes resting neatly beneath them. Everything in my room was perfectly kept.

I wiped my tears as I walked towards my desk. I looked through the few papers desperately in hope that I could find a clue of what I had become. Numbers and graphs painted every page. Yellow sticky notes decorated my wall as they contained important contact information of Konoha's greatest companies.

I slammed my fist angrily on the wall as I realized I had become the very person my father had always wanted me to be: the heir to his company, Uchiha Corporation.

I yelled angrily, throwing the papers off my desk. The dreams I kept secretly within me stayed locked away. I was unable to deny my father of his wish and became the very son he wanted me to be. I was a coward without Naruko. I was weak.

As I ragged, a phone began to ring in the background. I turned angrily, watching the phone ring loudly on the nightstand. As my father's name appeared on the screen, my heart dropped in fear. All the anger I had disappeared in seconds.

I walked over to pick up the phone with a shaking hand. It had been years since I had spoken to my father, and I didn't know how to react. But with a deep breath, I answered the phone.

"Hello...Father..."

"Where are you?"

"What do you mean-?"

"Your mother's been pacing around the house anxiously. You were supposed to be here an hour ago, and you haven't even bothered to call."