A/N: I have finally decided to edit this whoopee! As much as I want to delete this coz the story had just been posted on a whim to know how to post in FF before, every review counts. I love reviews, yeah? Oh and I made the plot a lot darker and thicker.

Edited: 11-09-13

Warning: Dark plot... Not-so-sad scenes that are supposed to be sad (coz I suck at making sad scenes)

Left Alone

Naruto was horrified. How could this have happened? Just as he has found him, he was already dying in his own pool of blood. He leapt from the branch of the tree and stumbled uneasily towards the clearing. Moonlight illuminated beautifully on the bare area, but the body that lay so still in the middle of it was anything but.

"Sasuke! No! No! No! ...don't you dare die on me! You hear me?! You aren't going to die on me!" Naruto cried out. He got down on his knees, hands trembling as he wasn't sure where to touch the blood-enveloped body. Already, liquid was soaking the pants of his months-worn ANBU uniform. His eyes flitted from injured limbs, to burnt skin and deeply wounded body parts. There was just too much blood. Too much red. His trembling worsened.

"Naruto?"Sasuke croaked.

The blonde's breathing shook and tears that were yet to shed caused his vision to blur. No, he wasn't going to let this happen to him again. No, he wasn't going to lose anymore important people to him. Did Kami have to hate him so much? He gently placed one arm behind bloody neck and the other to go around the body which clothes were torn so as to prop him on his lap.

"Naruto... hey. It's okay..." -a strangled cough, followed by a dribble of blood down the pale chin and blue lips- "I've already killed my brother. I'm done. I could-"

"Don't you dare, Uchiha!"

"Na-"

"Shut up! Sakura said she'll be waiting for us by the gates once I found you... I'll be taking you there! No complaints!"

Sasuke's lips twitched up. "Still stubborn as usual, huh? You never..." -he took a deep, pained breath- "changed." And then he started coughing up more blood, his hands unable to even move and hide them from the blonde. His chest was starting to rise even weakly. Naruto felt something hot and wet slither down his eye.

"Please don't cry, Naruto," Sasuke whispered as he, this time, forced his arm to move and wipe away the blonde's tear.

"Why? Why Sasuke, why?" Naruto started hitting the Uchiha in a weak manner. And then his fists curled, shaking violently. "I've already lost too much. You-You don't know what's been happening to Konoha ever since you left. They..."

Sasuke's brows arched. "What...?"

"It doesn't matter. I just don't want to lose you too! Please, Sasuke, don't..."

The raven suddenly started tracing Naruto's ANBU tattoo. "I'm sorry. Not just because I can't promise you but for everything, Naruto. I can't believe I wasn't even there to see my brother be in the ANBU."

"It was a forced thing, Sasuke. They marked me right in the middle of battle. But..." the blonde choked, "...thank you." He had began running his hand through the dark hair desperately.

"Naruto..." he coughed and wheezed, "What's wrong with Konoha?"

The blonde shook his head slowly as more tears rolled beneath his eyes. "N-Nothing. Don't work yourself for just a hopeless thing anymore."

"Tell me."

"Bastard, stop talking. You're leaking blood." A pained smile touched his lips as he ran a thumb through the dark liquid which had just left Sasuke's lips. His eyes glazed over those familiar orbs which sent a glare he will forever be immune over. He felt something die within him because he knew that Sasuke was dying, because he knew there was nothing he could do, because he knew he had to stop the bastard from talking too much, because he knew these were the last moments he would have with him. How many times has he been in this situation? And about those, he didn't need the Uchiha to waste his breaths on learning about them.

"I realized something when you were gone," he said softly while he wiped the clear drop of liquid that came from him and fell on Sasuke's cheek instead,"You aren't just my rival anymore, my best friend, my teammate... my brother..." Naruto can't seem to continue. His voice was cracking. This had to be the worst experience out of all he already had to go through. This was, after all, Sasuke.

"Funny. You know I thought about you too when I was gone...", Sasuke said quietly, "I-"

That raven was silenced by him though when his lips were suddenly interlocking by him. Naruto's kiss was eager, desperate yet there was still that softness like he thought of Sasuke as a fragile thing. He could taste the salty tears that was caused by him and fell on both their warm, trembling lips. He felt that the Uchiha truly desired this but he soon ended it to get some air and not to waste any more of Sasuke's.

"Naruto, I'm sorry to leave you like this..." Sasuke started.

Naruto held the face of his paled lover. "Please Sasuke... just shut up, really. I know it's true but please...don't..." Naruto started sobbing even worse.

"Naruto, could you please... let me hear you say it... tell me you love me too," Sasuke pleaded.

"I-I..."

Sasuke waited.

"I love you, Sasuke."

Sasuke smiled." You don't know how happy I feel that I finally get to hear that. Your voice sucked in my dreams. I love you, Naruto. I really am sorry. Til I meet you... again..."

Sasuke made an effort to lean in and kiss Naruto for the last time.

Naruto accepted the gesture and pushed the raven head towards him. It was a brief moment of lips touching before he finally felt Sasuke go limp in his arms. Naruto shook violently as he hugged the body towards him and just cried silently into the night.

He had always been alone. But he had never felt this hollow and defeated. Sasuke was gone and he really was left alone now.

"I never thought this could happen to him."

Sakura forced the tears at the edges of her eyes not to fall. From the other side of the glass in front of her, a patient with a shock of blond hair sat so still in the corner of a white room. Blue eyes that had been so bright was nothing but dead and blank now. She didn't need to enter the room to know what he was muttering.

"He's dead... they're all dead... Konoha's gone... Sakura-chan and I are the only ones alive now..."

It pained her heart to see the broken form of none other than Naruto Uzumaki. It's been half a year since they saw him sobbing over the dead form of Sasuke Uchiha, half a year since the fall of Konoha. The thing was, the blonde had come back from his training when Danzo was wreaking havoc over the village. The first sight he was met with had been the unconscious forms of all Rookie 9, lying in pools of blood. Sakura had made it just in time before Naruto could've been attacked when he fell on his knees, disbelief and fear masking his features.

After that, they had deemed Naruto Uzumaki unstable and refused to let him in on the fight. Instead, to appease him, they set up an imaginary portion of Konoha where he thought he would be fighting and become an ANBU. The fact that he didn't notice the genjutsu convinced the shinobis even more that Naruto Uzumaki wasn't Naruto Uzumaki any longer. The day he saw the Rookie 9 really broke him. None of them had really been dead, but in the blonde's eyes anyway, they had. He even gave them a story how they died in his arms and he had been the last to hear of them. All of them gave the blonde proof that they were still alive, but Naruto's eyes would just glaze over as if he couldn't hear nor see them.

Danzo's rule ended shortly, but still, Naruto hadn't been the same. After a while, the best they got out of him was that he was back to his sane and cheery old self, and yet, he still believed the Rookie 9 dead, except for Sakura. He thought everyone was dead. They weren't sure what made him that way but they couldn't do anything and just released him from the hospital. What they didn't plan for was Naruto overhearing a citizen saying something about Sasuke and him escaping from Konoha "to save Sasuke before it's too late".

By the time they found him, Naruto Uzumaki truly was never the same again.

A/N: Honestly, I think I made the plot more confusing. Better and thicker, but confusing. I'll just edit this when I feel like it again :)