AN:When Sirius fell through the Gate, he never expected to be reborn. But reborn he was, into a clan just as stuck up as the family he had done so much to get away from. But hey, at least he still had his good looks, these Uchiha weren't evil, and he'd found a friend just as fond of pranking as James had been. Of course, now his name was Sasuke, his beautiful hair looked like a duck was sitting on his head, and he was expected to be a ninja and kill people, but you couldn't have everything.

Chapter 1: New Beginnings

The last thing Sirius Black remembered before his rebirth was taking a stunner to the chest, and falling backwards through the Veil of Death. He had always made fun of it's name, how overdramatic it was. James had always claimed it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black, then remarked on how appropriate that saying was.

He would always claim that his last thoughts were of Harry. He was somewhat ashamed that they were, "I always knew my family would get me killed." But his life had always been like that. Never thinking what he was supposed to, never thinking of what was really right. James and Remus had made him a better person while they were there. Well, Remus had. James had just boosted his idiocy to new heights, just as he boosted James, until Harry was born. Little Harry, whom he had loved like his own son. Little Harry who had been Voldemort's first target.

But then he fell through the veil, and after a moment of darkness, came up screaming in the brilliant light of a hospital. He was being held by a giantess, a woman with gray eyes like his, and black hair that reminded him of Harry. It was slightly saddening that it took him almost an hour to realize that he was a baby, that the giantess was his mother, that the man who looked like her was his father, the creepy child who watched with tired-looking eyes, his brother.

But they had written off his fear as the child simply being a bit on the odder side. After all, he had cried when he entered the world, and only shut up afterwards, so the minor oddities were ignored.

But as he grew older, things changed. To them he seemed a prodigy. He was, of course, he always had been, but the advantage from being a reborn soul was no small thing. Especially when the soul was the Heir of a Most Ancient and Noble House. After all, even if he had hated the lessons, he had still mastered the mind arts, and a side effect of Occlumency had given him better memory. Keeping it up was just a simple matter of meditation, which he was amused to hear increased his spiritual chakra. His parents were almost demonically gleeful at their two gifted sons, Itachi, who was had graduated by the age of seven, and Sasuke, who even though he was only a couple years old, was already disciplined enough to learn to meditate, speak, and read the various scrolls that ninja required.

But this world was too much like his last one. The Uchiha too much like the Blacks. Sirius realized that within only a few weeks. The Uchiha had a superiority complex, a love of inbreeding in order to keep themselves pure, and a pride in their profession to rival the Blacks. So what if they were proud of being Ninja instead of being Wizards? There weren't any differences that he could see. They still looked down on the muggles, even if they called them civilians. They still hated people with an unreasoning spite (What exactly was their grudge against that blond kid?) They still seemed to assume that the world owed them something (An Uchiha should be Hokage, was the mutterings he could hear).

So was it any surprise that he acted out as soon as he could? That although he never refused to become a ninja, he did everything else he could to cut himself away? That when his parents told him not to play with the commoners, he did his best to sneak out (though he got caught more often than he was used to, as they were ninja after all)? That when they ordered him to cut away his emotions, he made sure to blatantly delight in his pranks? That when they demanded dignity, he made sure that it was his father's underthings that were strewn across the yard

But he was dutiful enough, his family decided. And he was, after all, a prodigy. So even if he wasn't the most respectful, his skill would still give them prestige, and his kindness might even thaw the image that the rest of the town had begun to develop of them. And besides, Itachi adored him, the prodigy who refused to limit himself, who was kind, who was, if not dutiful to the clan, dutiful and loyal to the village.

So when he went to the Academy, it was with their unconditional support. And when he met Naruto, the boy that everyone seemed to hate, they made sure to hide their scowls, and to simply inform him that running off pranking with the blonde was fine, so long as he kept his grades up, and was, above all, careful. And that meeting, that first meeting, he decided, was where it all began.

The class began in chaos, which, he had to admit wasn't that different from any other class he had been in. But it hurt to be here, because it reminded him of James, of Remus, even of Peter, traitor though he might have been. Because any second, he expected James to grin at him, and offer a prank, for Remus to give them his responsible prefect look before correcting them on some trivial mistake, for Peter to note the various escape routes that there'd be, the various ways they could throw together an alibi (and why else hadn't they been expelled? Because even though the teachers knew it was them, they couldn't prove it, and neither the houses of Black nor Potter would ever stand for their children being thrown out without an airtight case, and of course, they couldn't toss out Peter without looking biased. Remus of course, was so damn innocent looking no one even tried.)

Sirius - No, it was Sasuke now, because Sirius Black was dead and gone, and Uchiha Sasuke was the only one he could ever be - was dragged out of his brooding when a golden haired boy dressed bright orange poked him in the shoulder. "Hey, Teme." The boy asked, a cauldron's worth of nervousness behind that too-bright smile, that overly brash voice. "You mind if I sit here?"

Sirius's -Sasuke's!- lips twitched, and he shook his head. "Go ahead." He said, waving at the seat. "But why the insults?" Not, he freely admitted, that he hadn't heard and deserved worse, but still, people didn't usually hate him on first sight.

"You were sitting back here, brooding!" The boy said, his smile turning more natural at Si-Sasuke's easy acceptance. "You seemed like a Teme."

Sasuke snickered, grinning back. There was something about this boy that reminded him of James and Lily. Something that made him likable, despite how much the village seemed to hate him. And he reminded him of Harry, whom everyone seemed to have ridiculous expectations for (Though from looking at the teachers, their expectations for the boy were significantly less noble.). "I'm sure I was," He admitted, managing to catch himself before he trailed too far into thought. "So what's your name? I'm Uchiha Sasuke, so there's no need to call me Teme." It was a pity that his name wasn't a pun anymore, he was sure he could have found a way to work a Serious joke into there. Though he had to wonder if it'd even work in this language, so unlike his own.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be the next Hokage, dattebayo!" The boy said, flashing Sasuke a thumbs up. Sasuke laughed, and grinned back.

"I'm sure." He replied firmly.

The class passed quickly, and to some extent, horrifyingly. The lesson syllabus was obviously geared toward killing. Classes focused on learning the most vulnerable parts of the body, and about half the day was spent in physical training and learning how to use the various weapons that Ninja were expected to know. That was possibly the only time that Sasuke felt glad that he was in a clan. They had already drilled him on the basics of the various combat arts that he had to learn. And it was here that his former life most shone through. Not obviously, of course, but it was the little things. The muggle martial arts training that Lily had forced the Marauders to go through meshed pretty well with the taijutsu they taught at the academy, and the Uchiha martial arts style was nothing more than adaptability training (they expected everyone to just use their bloodline ability, the copy eyes of the sharingan, to just grab whatever moves they needed on the fly). On the other hand, his mastery of wand-based dueling made him utterly incompetent at throwing weapons. The movements needed to toss a kunai or a shuriken with precision clashed with the ones he had learned to use and aim a wand. To him, a flick of the wrist lead to a drop of the weapon's tip, then a slash in order to cast a cutting curse. When he did that with a kunai in hand, it was lucky to fly more than a foot. The only reason his grades didn't drop was because he seemed to have an infinite supply of chakra, and quite reasonably argued that he could just spit even more fireballs, rather than bothering with kunai.

As the days passed, Sasuke settled in with little trouble. He befriended Naruto quickly, the cheerful boy enjoying a friend to play pranks with, and someone willing to ignore popular opinion and stay by the demon brat. The girls in the class accepted him with only a little more trouble, as Sasuke made it clear that he stood by his friends, and he was pretty and rich enough that quite a few managed to infatuate themselves with him, though they generally made it clear that neither they nor their parents liked Naruto. But even as the class grudgingly accepted him, the teachers and the adults made it clear that they were to stay away from him.

A year passed without Sasuke figuring out what secret Naruto was hiding. Unlike with Remus, there wasn't anything reliable, no full moon to track, no aversion to silverware and sickles, no strange scars... and worse, even Naruto didn't seem to know just what it was that drove everyone away, so it wasn't as if he could bluff until Naruto spilled his secrets. But beyond that little mystery, Sirius was fine. Hell, the mystery made things better, gave him something to ponder when Naruto reminded him too much of James. Even the rumblings of discontent that permeated his home couldn't keep him from being happy. After all, no one seemed to really do anything but complain to each other.

Then one day, everything changed. It was dark, and Sasuke had just returned home from "stealth training" with Naruto (who still kept calling him Teme for some odd reason, promting the affectionate nickname of Dobe in return.). They'd managed to dye the ANBU's various underthings bright orange, fill their clothes with itching powder, and then lead them on a merry chase, occasionally using Henge to take each other's appearances. He stopped immediately upon entering the clan compound, glancing around suspiciously. It was ridiculously silent, and his instincts, sharpened by years of being a Hit Wizard, were blaring. He quickly looked through his memories. Was someone's birthday today? That might explain it, if for some reason the Uchiha had collectively grown a sense of humor and a love of laughter and decided to throw a surprise party. Discarding that as about as likely as Dumbledore's "power of love" theory (which reminded him that he still had no idea what happened to Harry, and no idea of how to find out), he drew a pair of Kunai and cautiously made his way deeper into the compound.

A rustling made him glance up in panic, tossing the kunai as if he about to launch a spell from a wand, and sending it flying into the bushes. He swore as he looked around. For a moment he thought he saw Itachi on a telephone pole, but he quickly disregarded it. He drew another kunai before continuing on. Then stopped, glancing around in horror. It looked like a scene from the aftermath of a battle with the death eaters. There were bodies scattered across the grounds, most of them taken out with a deadly efficiency.

He quickly checked one of them over, swearing under his breath because he didn't have a wand, and had no idea how to heal without one. Until this point, he'd almost gotten used to being without one, gotten used to the idea of fighting with the native chakra instead of his magic. It was even more fun at time, he had to admit. Spitting a fireball just seemed more badass than shooting sparkles at people. But what he wouldn't give for his wand... He sighed as, after a few moments of fumbling for a pulse ("side of the neck, a very lethal place for nearly any wound for blood loss alone, but also because it can easily be turned into a sliced throat") and not finding one, he accepted they were dead. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, then continued walking, making his way to the main house.

"Sasuke... Don't come in." Itachi's voice drifted out. Sasuke relaxed. After all, if Itachi was there, then it should be safe, right? He put away the kunai in his left hand, then reached out to slide the door open. As he did, and the lights flickered on, he stumbled backwards. His mother and father were strewn across the ground, like puppets who'd strings had been cut. And Itachi was standing over them.

"Why?" He whispered. He wasn't sure who he was asking. Was he asking Itachi why he had betrayed his clan, betrayed his home, betrayed him? Or was he asking the world why it was that someone he considered a brother always betrayed him? First it was Peter, and now Itachi? He had thought this world was different. He had hoped, prayed that things would be different, despite the nagging similarities. He felt his magic begin to pound in his head, flooding his body, burning in his eyes, after so long of being dormant. He raised his eyes to meet his brothers. "Wh-" he began to shout, just as Itachi's eye's flared red, a shuriken-esque spiral burning over his Sharingan.

Sasuke staggered as the genjutsu rammed itself against his Occlumency shields, but managed to hold his mind against it. He gritted his teeth as he glared at his brother. "You traitor." He managed to gasp out, finally managing to snap his eyes away from Itachi's. "How dare you? HOW DARE YOU?" He raised his kunai, forgetting for a moment that it wasn't a wand, and with a sharp jab and a spat word, sent forth the soft blue glow of the Expulso curse. Itachi's eyes widened as he threw himself out of the way, his normally impassive face turning shocked at the explosion that resulted. Sasuke, - no he was Sirius now, for only Sirius Black could cast spells, so it seemed that he'd have to get Sirius, and this wasn't a time for jokes, but he couldn't stop the hysterical laughter- made a slashing motion, sending a cutting curse at Itachi, who tossed himself forwards to roll under it.

"A new Bloodlimit?" Itachi whispered, almost to himself. "Well, little brother, you're being impressive. I sought to test my capacity against our clan, and as I thought, they were weak. But you... you have potential." He casually dodged the trio of Stunners that Sirius followed up with, still talking. "But that's not enough, little brother. You are not strong enough to kill me yet. Only when you have the same eyes as me will you be able to kill me. Only when you kill your closest friend will you achieve the power to avenge our clan. So hate me, Sasuke. Live an unsightly life full of hatred, and grow stronger! Grow so that when we fight again, you will pose a true challenge, and I will truly know my capacity."

Sirius snarled. "Shut up! You have no RIGHT to lecture me! You betrayed our family, you betrayed our home, and now you're telling me that you killed your best friend? For what? Just to 'test your capacity?'" He spat another three curses, sweeping the wand, no the kunai, it was a kunai, and how the hell a kunai was channeling his magic, he neither knew nor cared, but the kunai channeled the trio of a Reductor, a leg-locker, and a full body bind all towards his brother, who dodged them with the same contemptuous ease he'd used to dodge all but the first.

Itachi simply nodded at Sirius. "Good. Hate me, brother. And if you want to know the purpose we have, the meaning behind our cursed eyes, go to the main temple of the Nanako shrine. On the far right side, beneath the seventh mat, you will find our clan's secret meeting place. And there you will be one of the three people who hold the Mangekyo Sharingan. Then I would see a reason to let you live." He tossed a trio of kunai at Sirius, who barely managed to spit out a protego in time to keep them from hitting. "Impressive, little brother. But not good enough." Itachi whispered. Sirius blinked, then felt something strike him on the back of the head, and knew no more.

AN: ... So. This happened. No idea about my update schedual, no idea about how long each chapter will be, and very little idea where this is going. Yay for mysteries!