Authors Note: It's been a while, but ever since I read chapter 485, I couldn't get this idea out of my head. So I hope everyone will enjoy my first fanfic. Sorry this chapter is so short! The summary and second to last line of this chapter are taken directly from the manga and I take no credit for them. Please remember to review, I greatly appreciate it. I'll welcome everything, including flames, with open arms.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and never will. All credit goes to the creators and owners. I gain no profit from this, except the joy of writing.

Prologue: Face to Face, Fist to Fist

My feet slosh on the cold water. The disturbed droplets splash up around my ankles, meeting the exposed skin above my sandals. The sound of your chidori chirps in my ears over the din of the torrent of chakra twirling in my palm. I smell the your crackling electricity on the cool wind. Cool, just like you are. Everyone's always thought so, even me. But I've come to see past that façade, catching a glimmer of your true self. Your pain.

Feet pounding into the surface of the water holding me up, fists filled with chakra and the results of years of hard work and training, we charge at each other. I've spent my life chasing you, first as a rival, and then after you left the village, trying to bring you back. But we're finally equals now, standing opposite each other and rushing into battle with our dreams on the line. Face to face. Can you see it?

Will you finally acknowledge me?

I can't wait for us to meet, fist to fist, so that finally I can get my message through to you. So that I can finally understand you. So that I can fully feel the pain you've kept locked away inside. And maybe, just maybe, you can understand me a little bit too.

Do you still feel the same bond between us as I do?

Do you see what I see, that we're brothers and that this will never, can never, change? Or have you never felt that way?

I look into you eyes, and I realize, it's funny, how easily we could have been standing in each other's shoes right now. Right before our fists collide.