The wind blew strongly, whipping the trees back and forth, blowing leaves across the field. Debris from the devastation of the land flew wildly. Large craters were scattered across the ground. The air held and electric charge that surged through . Cerulean eyes stared across the field at the one in front of him. His face was devoid of all emotion, but his eyes betrayed him; he could see the pain in those deep obsidian eyes. He could see the fear and the terror-the tears brimming, waiting to be shed. To anyone else, he'd seem as stoic as ever, lost in the darkness and forever drained of any emotion other than hate. But those cerulean eyes knew the other better than anyone else. He could tell that the other was just as terrified as him; scared of what was to come. Scared of what would become of him after this was all over. Scared to hit the point of no return and irreversibly alter what could have been. Tan hands reached up to wipe blood off whiskered cheeks, a bitter smile contorting his face. Blond hair stained red with blood blew wildly in the wind, whipping across his face. Obsidian eyes shifted to the other's face as the wind whipped his hair wildly.. The blond sighed and spoke softly, the wind carrying his words.
"Sasuke..." He could hear the sorrow in his tone. He looked into Sasuke's deep eyes, begging for him to read his heart, to know what he wanted to say.
"Save it, Naruto. There's nothing left to do, nothing left to say. I said it three years ago and I'll say it again," He closed his eyes as the blood leaked from them, "it's too late."
"I don't want to kill you, and despite what you say...I know you don't want to kill me either." Naruto watched as a bitter smirk crept onto Sasuke's face.
"Well aren't we a little conceited? Get over yourself, Naruto. You know nothing about me or my intentions."
"But I do know that you didn't want to hurt any of us. We never wanted to hurt you. We never did. So why?" Naruto stared down at the ground as he felt the sensation of tears build but never come. He'd long since cried himself out.
"I don't owe you or anyone an answer." He said, short and angrily. His exhaustion was evident in his voice; he was just as burnt out from this endless game of cat-and-mouse. He looked over at Naruto and frowned. His head was to the ground and his normally tan hands looked pale. His once sunny hair was a dull yellow. Those bright eyes he'd known for so long were dulled out. He looked so...broken. Sasuke bit his lip and closed his eyes. He only opened them once he heard Naruto's raspy voice start up again.
"It..i-it..hur-rrtss..." He stuttered, emotion clouding his voice, making speaking difficult.
Sasuke sighed.
"I know." He watched as Naruto's head whipped up and stared at him with blank eyes.
"No, Sasuke, you don't know. You don't know the pain we all went through for you. You don't get how much I went through to not have you executed! To find you and give you the chance to redeem yourself. You had friends and people that cared for you and you threw us all away! And even when everyone else gave up and agreed to have you killed, I still stood by you, Sasuke! I'm still here! I promised to die with you! You don't understand what I went through for you!" Naruto's fist clenched as. He could see the anger in Sasuke's eyes as he began shake with anger.
"Don't sit here and lecture me about shit that I don't give a damn about. What you went through? I didn't ask you to take care of me and protect me like i'm a fucking child. Noone told you to chase after me like the pathetic little bitch you are. You brought all this on yourself. Friends? Noone in Konoha was my friend. I was a asset for those elders to use as their own weapon. None of you can ever understand what I went through, least of all you. So don't," he paused, inhaling and exhaling as he felt the anger taking control," don't you ever talk to me about what you went through or my so called "friends", who don't give two shits about me and agreed to have me executed! Get over yourself!" Sasuke felt himself shaking.
"Me get over myself? You selfish, pretentious bastard! You call me the pathetic little bitch when the only bitch I see is you! Cry me a fucking river, you act like you're the only one who's had a hard life. Open your eyes! Look at this place, look at the world right now! Millions of people lost their lives and families because of this dumbass war! You're telling me to get over myself, of all fucking people, I never thought you'd be telling me that! You've been so self absorbed that you hadn't noticed the world around you. That we're all hurting. That these pissy little problems that we can't workout is causing so much devastation and it hurts, S'uke. All this hate is ruining all our lives and it hurts so much. To see what you, what I, what WE did to this world, to these innocent people..." He closed his eyes and brought his hands to his face, the blood running down them.
"What...what are you saying?" Sasuke asked, disbeliving.
Naruto's mouth slowly turned into a small smile. He sighed soflty.
"I'm saying that you and I are irrelevant. That once we die, it's over, and life goes on. We are just a blemish in the big picture. Once we die, that's it, our legacy ends here."
"Legends in our own right." Sasuke added softly. Naruto nodded.
"Yea. We could do so much for this world, ya' know? We could really change it, if we all stopped fighting over such stupid things. If we'd just band together, we could be something the world has never seen. Me and you," He grinned happily," We could've been amazing. A team like no other. But I guess that can never happen."
Sasuke felt his anger at Naruto subside. He felt foolish for being angry in the first wiped the blood from his eyes, glad that it disguised the tears. It felt good to let out all these emotions that he kept tears grew heavier.
"Itachi..he wasn't evil. He did it all for the sake of Konoha and the people. He did it..for me.."
"I know." Naruto watched and waited for the other to bear his heart to him like he desired.
"Naruto, you made me...feel. Things that I weren't used to. Anger, jealousy, happiness, excitement, friendship…you did so much for me. I was weak and hell bent on revenge and when I saw you were getting stronger than me, I couldn't take it. I needed to get stronger, I needed to kill Itachi and wipe the Uchiha clan clean with his blood. But when I learned the truth, I felt so small. Like I was apart of something bigger than myself, and that I had no control. I felt angered at everyone, with the world. So what does one do when they don't know what to do? When every choice seems to make it worse an you fall deeper and deeper into confusion?"
"You destroy it all. Everyone and everything that has ever hurt you. Give in to the hate and let it consume you and take away all the pain." Naruto rested his hand on his stomach once he finished and looked Sasuke in the eyes.
"Naruto, you've matured over the years. The type that one must do in the face of war and hard times. You learn to grow up fast. I wish to have been able to spend more time with you, the naive you before this carnage. I felt no remorse toward anyone in that damned village but one thing you were right about is that I could never bring myself to kill you. I..." He stopped and wrapped his arms around himself, blood still running down his bare chest, covering his tattered clothing.
Naruto looked up to the sky and absorbed the words Sasuke said. He understood what Sasuke was trying to say and yet was afraid to hear it. Afraid that it would change so much, even in these last mundane moments of their lives. He wasn't ready to hear them and yet his heart needed to, for reassurance? He wasn't sure. He just knew that he needed to listenin to them and take them all in, for Sasuke's sake.
Sasuke let go of himself and began softly, "Naruto, I...I love you. I always have, I always will. You're me angel. You're perfect. You're my sun, my everything. I love you Naruto!" Sasuke stopped. "I-I love you, and all these years, what I needed was right here. I knew. Somehow I always knew and yet I refused to accept it. And now it's all over. It's too late." Tears and blood mix together, pouring out of his eyes. Through them, he watched as Naruto dropped to his knees and fell into a half dogeza without bowing. He was looking to the sky with his hand over his bleeding wounds. He refused to cry, instead laughing bitterly and internally at the change in roles. Sasuke, usually stoic and calm as ever, was crying his heart out, shaking. Here he was, the idiot who usually let his emotions get the best of him, sitting without shedding a single tear. What was the point? He'd cried enough; Sasuke needed this release. Sasuke was the plug and Naruto was his outlet, and putting them together always created the worst scenarios. Always. It truly was a game of cat-and-mouse between the two. But it had to end. There was no escaping the inevitable.
"S'uke, you waited so long to tell me that, at the very end. Heh, great timing" he said sarcastically. Softly, he sighed."We've always been alike in that area, loneliness. Looking for someone to hold on to. To fill the void in our bitter hearts and forget about the pain of loneliness. And we're both alike in the fact that we don't know how to hold onto the one that fills that void, because we're afraid. If only I'd have held on tighter, fought harder for you, then we wouldn't be in this mess. I realized I loved you long ago, accepted it, embraced it. But now it's too late. There's no point in thinking about what could've been. Can't go out with any regrets, ne Sasuke?"
"Usuratonkachi..." Sasuke mumbled affectionately. He closed his eyes and collected himself, stopping the tears. He had to do it; there was no other way. He looked down at Naruto.
"Get up." He called, back to his usual self. Naruto obeyed, standing and staring at him, wiping blood from his equally bare chest. He smiled sadly.
"So this is it huh? Maybe...we can be happy together when this is all over...in the afterlife."
"Where we won't be The last of the Uchiha and the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki." Sasuked added.
"Yea. Just Naruto and Sasuke, bestfriends, brothers, lovers...everything that we couldn't be in this life." He smiled one last time, for Sasuke. "Get ready, I won't go easy on you. If you don't try your best, I'll kill you." A grin played at his lips.
"As if you could." He said, dark humor permeating his voice. All conversation ceased as they stared each other down.
This was it; the beginning of the end of their eternal cat-and-mouse game. All smiles and laughs were gone. They bore their hearts to each other and finally freed themselves of their emotions burdens. As they raced toward each other, they realized that somethings never changed, and somethings just weren't meant to be.