"I can see you there."
Sasuke remained still. Perhaps-
"I know it's you."
"What on earth do you mean?"
When Sasuke spoke, it wasn't with his normal voice- it was with the gravelly voice of the old prison guard he had Henged into.
"I said what I meant, stupid. I know it's you."
He couldn't see the face of the man in the dark prison cell, but the voice was one he recognized even through the hoarseness of months of silence. It'd take decades for him to forget this voice- an eon. Centuries.
"Who do you suppose I am, then?"
The man snorted. "Like I could mistake your chakra. It's you, Sasuke, of course."
"I ought to call Orochimaru himself in here to deal with you. You've finally gone 'round the bend, haven't you, Uzumaki-san?"
"Don't call me that."
It was unexpectedly quiet, and Sasuke wondered briefly if his master's prisoner (gift, really, package-wrapped in neat little chakra restrainers especially designed for Jinchuuriki and their unbelievable amounts of chakra, almost a Christmas present for Akatsuki so he could get back in their graces) really had gone insane.
"If you are going to kill me, don't call me that."
"You're a prisoner," Sasuke said, finding that he was not entirely comfortable with this whole charade anymore. "Kept alive by the order of Orochimaru-sama himself. Why would I kill you?"
"I- I found the Nakano Shrine by accident one day." Sasuke heard a wavering in Naruto's voice that he had never heard before. Not from Naruto.
"The name means nothing to me."
There was an odd feeling in Sasuke's chest, like the time he had actually been stabbed in the lung. It had healed simply thanks to Kabuto, but had left a dull ache for ages. The ache was returning now.
"Quit denying it, Sasuke, I know who you are, there is no one else around for miles, and I know why you have come. So, do it."
"Do what?"
"Kill me."
The words were said so plainly, so simply that it was impossible for them to fit anything Sasuke had ever considered doing.
"I-"
"If you're going to kill me, kill me now."
"Uzumaki-san-"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Naruto roared suddenly. "If you're going to kill me because I am your best friend, do me one last favor and never call me that again! Call me by name! Call me an idiot! Call me a dobe, but at least treat me like I am your best friend, not some stranger in a prison cell!"
"Usuratonkachi," Sasuke muttered, more to himself than anything else. The word felt thick in his throat, and his eyes felt strange.
Naruto chuckled and a once-tanned-but-now-merely-dirty hand clasped the bars of the cell. There was a streak mark on his arm through the dirt, showing the pinkish skin underneath, and Sasuke suddenly heard a sniffling sound and realized he was crying.
"I shouldn't cry, not now."
There was no one else around for miles in this horrible prison, nothing in Sasuke's mouth but one word that echoed in his mind, and his Henge faded out around him. He couldn't hold it up anymore.
"It's funny."
Sasuke sat down by the bars of the jail cell, seeing Naruto's face for the first time in so long. And Naruto, remarkably, was smiling, though not at Sasuke. Just at the floor.
"You were the one person I would have died for, did you know that? Do you remember that mission to the Land of Waves?"
Sasuke felt a chill down his back, due to of course the dampness of the cell and not the memory of his own near death.
"I know you do, you can't have forgotten it. You almost died then. I don't know if it was for me or not."
"I told you, dobe," Sasuke's voice cracked on the familiar words. "Back then, I told you my body just moved on its own. I meant it. Nothing I did."
Naruto didn't respond to that.
"Anyway, you remember that kid Haku?" he said.
Sasuke nodded. He couldn't forget. He had been the one to bury him, and the peace on his face had been so startling. Sasuke didn't understand it. When Sakura told him what had happened, how Haku had died, why had he been so happy to die for such a cruel person? He'd taken the senbon for Naruto, but Naruto was... Naruto, Naruto had to live, Sasuke was okay with death if Naruto could live.
When he looked back on it, Itachi hadn't crossed his mind at all, not once during that fight. At least, not during the moments he had felt for the first time the sensation of life slipping through his fingers. It had been Naruto, only Naruto who he had wanted with him at that moment.
"He said- he said that he would have died for Zabuza, and at the time I didn't get it of course, I had to live, I had to be Hokage, I couldn't go around dying for other people..."
Sasuke waited.
"But, I get it now. I would have died for you. No matter what you did, where you went, if I had the choice, if I could do it, I would die for you."
The funny thing was it would have been the easiest thing to open his mouth and say those words back to Naruto.
I would die for you, too. If I could. If I had the choice. I would.
He looked at Naruto again, really looked at him, greasy blonde hair and grimy face and tattered clothes, dead blue eyes. The fury was gone, and in its placed was simple resignation.
"So, Sasuke, if you are going to kill me, kill me now. I won't stop you- there's nothing I can do, and I made up my mind here that I might as well just give you what you want, if that is what I can do for you. If it is what you need. So kill me."
He looked up at Sasuke, and Sasuke noticed his eyes again, cold.
"Why are you so eager to die?" Sasuke asked quietly.
Naruto shrugged.
"It's a better death than at the hands of Orochimaru. If it'll give you what you want, that Sharingan thing. Honestly, there isn't much I wouldn't do for you, and if this is it, the last thing I can do for you, I might as well do it. I've accomplished my dream, you know. I'm- I was the Hokage, the greatest ninja of Konoha. But I won't live much longer here. Cooped up in this place, with these things on." He shook his hands in the chakra-restraints.
"That isn't a very good reason."
"So, do you want me to just come out and say it?" Naruto asked, getting angry again.
"Just come out and say what? Like I said, you shouldn't be so eager to die."
Naruto slammed a fist against the iron bars.
"I'm not eager to die! I'd rather not die, if I could live I would- but I can't- I am okay with dying- but only for you! I suppose I haven't made that clear enough. Always you, Sasuke."
Why me? Sasuke wanted to ask. He picked a different question instead. An easier one that he knew the answer to.
"Why not last time? Why didn't you let me kill you then?"
"Because- I thought I had a chance with you."
Naruto sounded broken, defeated.
"I thought you could come back. And I was wrong."
"So, why now?"
It was silent.
"Answer me."
"There's nothing left without you," Naruto said softly. "There's the village, and yeah, I love the village... I need to protect the village- but to me, you will always be more important than anyone else. Tell me, Sasuke- Has there ever been anything that has meant more to you than anything else? Not something you hated. Please, don't tell me what you hate. Not now. Tell me what you've loved, Sasuke."
Itachi, he thought vaguely. I loved my nii-san. He had been right to do so, in the end, his nii-san was good, his nii-san had loved him, too.
And... he realized it slowly. I loved my nii-san, but you mean more to me than anything else.
"Usuratonkachi," Sasuke murmured again.
"Ah, I won't be stupid enough to believe that's your answer. I'd like it to be, I'd like that more than anything else-"
For a moment, Sasuke had the irrational thought that Naruto was reading his mind.
And his Chidori sprang to life in his right hand, almost instantaneously, almost of its own will, he couldn't remember making the hand signs, but it stayed in his hand and his hand stayed where it was. Naruto faced Sasuke through the bars, suddenly as determined as he had ever been. He spoke over the crackling.
"You won't tell me? Fair enough, I suppose. Just kill me, Sasuke."
Naruto always had been impatient, hadn't he?
Then, as Sasuke remained still, "Just get it over with! Just do it already!"
And slowly, the Chidori faded. His chakra, blue as Naruto's eyes, receded, and the chirping-bird noises faded away.
As did any desire Sasuke had for anything, anything at all but to see Naruto alive and by his side forever.
There was silence, and for once it was a normal silence, because Naruto broke it.
"What?" Naruto asked, hardly daring to breathe. "Why didn't you do it?"
The beginnings of a smirk (it would be some time before a real smile was possible, but that was okay, because there was time now) crossed his face as he undid the complex latch on the prison bars, to Naruto's great incredulity.
Naruto needed Sasuke, Sasuke knew this very well, but the more important realization was that Sasuke needed Naruto just as much if not more. Sasuke didn't know how to say this, didn't know how to tell Naruto what it was about the usuratonkachi that made Sasuke drop everything to follow him.
"I don't know, dobe."
He didn't know how to say it, but he knew how to show it.
There would be guards to outrun, and Naruto wasn't exactly in the best of shape, but he'd be pretty powerful once those chakra restrainers specially designed for Bijuu chakra restrainment were removed, Sasuke could do that easily. And Sasuke knew his (previous) master, knew he could outrun him and if necessary, he and Naruto could certainly take the old man. He'd just switched bodies, anyway, he would be weak at the moment.
Sasuke suddenly found that as Naruto stepped out beside him, Orochimaru and Akatsuki seemed a whole lot less problematic. They could take them, together. They did always make a fantastic team, fire and wind.
Naruto was still hesitant, disbelieving. He stepped out of the prison cell and simply whispered, "Why?"
Sasuke finished his earlier statement.
"I don't know... My body just moved on its own."
-the end-
EET EEZ FINISHED.
Honestly, this has been in my Documents page for aaaaaaaages. I could go on and on about how I thought of it- the question of euthanasia came up in my LA class, and I thought, gee, what if Naruto thought he had nothing left to live for? What would he do? Or I could go on and on about how mad I was that day since my LA teacher informed us that Gene and Finny in A Separate Peace were not gay lovers. My inner yaoi fangirl was screaming that they were (She screams a lot, especially when Naruto says Sasuke's name or when Gene and Phinny started wrestling and uh, John Knowles, if you REALLY didn't want us all to think they were gay, then you really shouldn't have written that scene the way you did).
I hate the title, it sounds like a Pokemon game. D:
Anyway, I hope that you have a lovely week full of SasuNaru or NaruSasu happiness, whichever you prefer (I myself prefer NaruSasu, but SasuNaru just flows off the tongue better), and happy Halloween to those of you who celebrate it. :D Also please review and thank you very much for reading!