Part 2 in a possible series of extrapolated endings that will never happen. Can you tell I am overly fond of melodrama yet? Sasuke left Konoha but didn't go to Orochimaru.
Disclaimer goes here.
In the end, it comes down to this: two men talking.
Naruto is old before his time; his hair is white, his face wrinkled. The demon fox has eaten him away from the inside. He looks 50, rather than the 35 he is. Sasuke looks good for his age, if you can ignore the puffiness around his eyes and the faint beginnings of sag around his jaw. In poor lighting, like he's in tonight, he can pass for 20.
It's been a lifetime since they had the time to actually say anything; Naruto spent it hunting for a brother he never had, Sasuke hunting for a brother he should never have had, and neither will admit that there was any other way. Naruto might have a point, but Sasuke is past being able to see such things. He's spent too much time focused on Itachi, and now he can't look away even if he wanted to. Tunnel vision in the extreme, but Sasuke always has had selective vision.
But tonight, the air is still and neither of them is in the mood to fight, so they talk instead. Sasuke's conversation, as always, consists of single syllables. Naruto has much more to say about the village and its inhabitants, but even he runs out of words eventually.
Tonight, though, there's still one thing Naruto hasn't bothered to say, and it annoys Sasuke more than he cares to admit. There are, after all, only two constants in Sasuke's life; the death of his real brother is one, the persistence of his chosen brother the other. It takes Naruto turning to leave to make him ask why, tonight of all nights, Naruto has finally given up on trying to drag him back to Konoha.
There's a look on Naruto's face, when he turns back, that makes Sasuke fear the answer, but he asks again anyway.
The answer, when it comes, is short and clear.
"The only reason left is dead."
Sasuke presses him for details, but Naruto asks him if he even cares. Did he even notice Sakura wasn't on the list of people Naruto had just talked about? Did he even think about her once when he left them in Konoha? He sighs and tells Sasuke anyway; she got ill, she died from it. A slow death, and one even Tsunade couldn't stop. A month of pain and anguish, and the last week worst of all; she'd been delirious, forgotten totally that Sasuke was no longer there and had called for him over and over.
Sasuke can't answer the questions, can't even begin to process the information.
Naruto sighs again and turns away. He leaves Sasuke stood in the clearing, and both of them are alone this night like never before.
In the end, it comes down to this: two men who have nothing left to say.