The youngest Uchiha turned, hand drawn back, the screeching of one thousand birds filling his ears. His rival stood in the same position, facing away, several shadows licking the translucent orb forming in his palm. "Chidori!"
"Rasengan!"
Each was perched heavily atop the head of either of the two founders of the Hidden Leaf Village. Itachi's image filled Sasuke, and drove him onward. All Naruto could think of was Sasuke.
They charged each other. Sasuke sidestepped to dodge the rasengan and twisted his fist into the front of Naruto's jacket, plunging his arm forward and into the stomach of the blonde. The birds were calling out, and suddenly it was silent but for the rushing of the waterfall beneath them.
Naruto recalled a day he had spent like so many others, wandering aimlessly around Konoha, possibly in subconscious search of Iruka. He came across Sasuke sitting on one of the docks, and regarded him with a show of false contempt. Sasuke had mimicked the gesture, but when Naruto looked back, he'd been stifling a smile.
His feet were off the ground, and he looked down into Sasuke's sharingan. There were three markings in his eyes now, similar to the heaven curse mark he wore on his neck, and seeing this made the boy shiver. He watched as the three marks blended together slowly, gradually, and became one solid black circle with three protruding limbs. "Mangekyo sharingan!"
A scream tore from his lips, but it was lost in the silence. The world was black and white now, and Naruto stood with Sasuke. From a pouch he produced a small shuriken which he tossed in Naruto's general direction. It scratched the skin on his shoulder just deep enough to make it bleed, and landed behind him on a wooden cross.
The blonde boy drew back his hand. "Rasengan!" But Sasuke threw another shuriken, which caught him in the palm, and the jutsu died immediately. He winced, pulling out the shuriken and flicking it back at Sasuke. He stopped it with a kunai, twisting his wrist to hold its point at Naruto's throat.
"Sas-Sasuke. You're realling trying to kill me, aren't you?" He paused, looking away. "I thought we were friends."
"We were." He pushed the kunai's tip into the teenger's Adam's apple, a single drop of blood gushing forth from the point of contact.
He swallowed hard. "I thought we are friends."
Itachi's words resonated through the emptiness. "Take the life of your best friend." He applied more pressure to the handle of the kunai.
"I could kill you right now if I wanted to."
"Do it, Sasuke. I bet you can't."
The knife's blade was at the dip in his collarbone now, just barely penetrating the skin. There was a cut from his the center of his Adam's apple down the front of his neck to where the kunai now rested, quite comfortably, in the curve of his bone.
"Sasuke."
He dropped the kunai.
"If you tell anyone I did this for you, I'll fucking kill you!"
Naruto nodded.
"Sasuke. I love you, too." His voice broke as the youngest Uchiha turned into the boy's embrace.