Heavy breathing filled the air. Puffs of let out breathe could be seen in the foggy evening. Orange and black clothing was thrown around the forest, scattered and torn. Most of the trees, bushes and grass within a 50 foot radius were all ripped out by the roots. Some had faint traces of chakra clinging on them and others just had gaping holes.

"Damn, improving Rasengan is harder then mastering it."

Naruto muttered to himself, he sank down to the forest floor, not caring if his shorts got wet from the water on the floor. He inhaled the air and shivered, it was cold and his jacket, shirt AND sweats were ripped beyond wear. Groaning he stood up, only to fall back down again. Chakra exhaustion was the only explanation he could come up with. It would fade though, Kyuubi would replenish his stores.

"Sleepy…"

He mumbled to himself and closed his eyes, promising "just for a moment".

Swirling, red eyes watched a figure sleep in a forest that looked like it had been hit by a tornado.

"Fresh meat."

The figure twirled a kunai between his fingers, delighting in how the edges caught a glimmer of sunlight and shined. He hopped to another tree, one closer to ground and almost fell off the branch when he saw the face.

"Naruto…Tonight's gonna be fun."

He put his kunai away and jumped to the forest floor, he crept closer to the blonde and watched as his nose twitched in his sleep.

"You haven't changed at all, dobe."

The figure whispered. Naruto's eyes shot open.

"I'd say the same for you Sasuke, but I don't like lying."

Naruto stood up and stretched, he leaned against a tree casually but Sasuke saw right through it. Naruto was terrified of him, terrified of what he could do.

"Really? Since when?"

Naruto growled as Sasuke disappeared, he couldn't follow the movements; he didn't want to waste his replenishing chakra by trying to follow his old team-mate.

"Show yourself bastard! Or are you afraid I'll kick your ass!"

Naruto loved playing the cocky, little boy act. It got him through so much shit when he was younger he just couldn't stop playing it again. But inside he knew he was terrified of this Sasuke. The Sasuke that's been gone for years and years and just doesn't care anymore.

"You? Kick my ass? Please, dobe, just like all the other times?"

Sasuke mocked, he jumped from tree to tree watching as Naruto stared at one branch. He wasn't even trying to follow him.

"I can see right through you, Na-ru-to." Pronouncing the name as if he was his lover- "I can see that you don't want to die, but you will die, for me. Won't you, dobe? You'll die just to prove that you tried and that you haven't failed. Am I right? The look on your face is enough to tell me. You can't hide your emotions from me, I know you too well. After all these years, you are still an open fucking book."

Naruto growled deep in his throat, stupid bastard. Reading him like that.

"No, Sas-uke." Playing his name the way he knew Sasuke hated- "I'm not an open book, not anymore, especially not to you. You just see what you want to. But to me, you're an open book. The only reason you keep jumping from tree to fucking tree is because you don't know how to stop. You don't know how to face up to the fact that you screwed up and went to Sound where a power hungry, not to mention pedophile of a snake decided to teach you pathetic jutsus that will only help kill you in the end. I bet if I could see your face right now, I'd see cruel and evil but dead eyes, just like your brothers…"

SLAM

Naruto dodged the punch that was sent to his face and smiled; he had a hit a nerve. If Sasuke was going to play with fire, he might as well let him get burned.

Sasuke watched as Naruto smiled, it was an arrogant smile. One he remembered from training in Konoha and Naruto would think he had the upper hand until Sasuke sent a punch or a kick to end the fight. He watched as the blonde didn't even try to gather chakra to fight back. Naruto was lying, they knew each other too well after all these years and could still read each other.

"Where's your headband, dobe? Did they finally kick you out, finally realized how much of monster you were?"

Sasuke grinned ferally and jumped in front of Naruto, letting the poisonous words sink in. He saw them hurt his ex-team mate, he saw the ocean blue eyes fill with tears that could've fallen but then disappeared.

"I don't have to wear mine; I carry this one around instead."

He pulled out an old head-band, a slash through the Konoha symbol, out of his shorts' pocket. Sasuke stared at his headband, a connection to his old life. He couldn't pull his eyes away. This piece of metal and cloth represented a life he had put behind him, an old way of thinking, of fighting, of looking at the world.

"This…this headband reminds of everything that I can't do, no matter how much it tempts me. You took the easy way out, teme. I can't."

Naruto whispered, he let the headband fall to the floor and the sound of it falling echoed around the forest. Sasuke looked up and saw Naruto's eyes watching him, they weren't naïve or optimistic anymore. He saw the whisker marks were deeper and more pronounced, his mouth was no longer in the smile he held back when they were all genin. For the first time since he saw the blonde, he saw everything he had become. Naruto gathered his chakra and Sasuke got into fighting position, ready to die or kill but Naruto disappeared in yellow flash. Leaving leaves to slowly fall to the ground.

Sasuke walked up the fallen headband and felt the texture of the cloth and the metal incompose him, he saw memories flashing to the surface. As he jumped back into the safety of shadowed trees, he could hear the wind howling at him.

"TRAITOR!"

I am so iffy about this story because its not that great but I want to post it because I do like it.

I saw a video by DemonicGaara and Antiquitydreams on Youtube called Encounter, it got me thinking, what if Sasuke and Naruto did just meet once randomly, how would their conversation span out and their actions. Credit goes all to them for inspiring me, even if they didnt mean.

They are both great cosplayers and you should check em out. Just type in DemonicGaara or Antiquitydreams on youtube and you should be able to find them, and if not, look for a group called Koi Cosplay, thats their Cosplay group.

Anyways hope you enjoyed it and as always, please review.

Warmest regards,

TheSlytherinMuggle