Found Within
Well, this is my first story I'm posting. The story will cement more later. Review if you want, flame if you want, I really don't care.
Looking back on it years later, Naruto guessed that one day he just got tired and he gave up. He gave up trying to be happy for the people who hated him. He naively had thought that by showing them a happy, kind side of him then they would learn to accept him. . .he was wrong. Everyday he put a fake smile on to make those around him, in the academy, and later in his Genin team, feel better about the chaos surrounding their lives as shinobi. He had practically sacrificed his own feeling and emotions for the good of others, yet they still treated him like shit. He still experienced the glares and cold indifference he had felt since a child. He foolishly took this as a sign that he just wasn't trying hard enough, so he was even more cheerful, to the point that it hurt. He became fake, becoming someone he wasn't just to fit in. And the worst part was that it didn't help a bit. Sasuke still betrayed them.
It was still with that same foolish smile that he promised to Sakura that he would bring Sasuke back, and it was with that same foolish determination that he would pursue a cause for someone else, and not for himself. Sure, he valued Sasuke as a friend and slightly respected him, because he was the first one to acknowledge him, but Sasuke was, quite frankly, a head dick. But it was what Sakura wanted, so he chased after him.
He saw his teammates fight and fall against those they encountered: Shikamaru, Chouji, Neiji, even brash Kiba had met their matches. He knew that, for them, he would bring Sasuke back. Even with that noble promise, in the back of his mind Naruto knew that what he was doing was detrimental against himself. Despite the good intentions, he was still doing it for others and giving himself away for them.
So he met Sasuke at the Valley of the End. He fought Sasuke for everyone else; everyone he held precious to him: for the sacrifice that his teammates had made, for the memory of the Sandaime and his will to protect all citizens of Konoha, for all those narrow minded villagers, who he still cherished because they were part of the place he loved, for Sakura, who had fallen for Sasuke, and for whom Naruto would gladly sacrifice his true self for. But when it came down to the actual fight, he found all those ideals melting away. He thought not about the good he was doing for all the others around him, not about his selfless acts and self-sacrificing ways. He only felt the present: the here and now. And somehow, amidst that frantic fighting for his life, he realized that he had given so much of himself away for others that he barely had anything left for himself.
So, in the middle of the chaos of the fighting, he had given up his idealistic attempts to better those around him at his own expense. He thought only of himself: Protecting himself and defeating his opponent for him, and not for anyone else. He realized just how tired he was of giving away chunks of himself, and so he gave up. He gave up trying to prove himself to people he knew would never acknowledge him. And he understood that you know what? He didn't need their recognition. So he fought for himself.
The black Chidori and the red Rasengan met together before the crashing rapids of the waterfall, a mighty blast of power succeeded by a white-black orb of power that absorbed everything around them. And after, all that was left was Naruto lying face up with Sasuke above him.
Naruto wasn't unconscious. Far from it, his thoughts were racing. Just when he had finally found himself, Sasuke would kill him. (And he was certain that he would) He did not want to die. He did NOT want to die. He didn't want to die! HE DIDN'T WANT TO DIE!! So he would NOT!
The massive red form behind the bars of the cage stirred as two bloodred eyes opened, finally waking. The Kyuubi could feel that it's host's fear, running like a frigid river through him. Naruto truly believed that he would die, and the fox picked up on that, believing that to be true as well. The frigid river of fear flowed into the fox, and it quickly roared as its red chakra seeped out, mingling into the chakra veins of Naruto.
Pain flooded through Naruto and his eyes shot open, his pupils dilated by his fear and by the power surging through him. The Fox's chakra jolted him into action, like a shot of caffeine. His hands, immediately becoming clawed, clutched Sasuke's head and tugged him backwards, throwing him into the rock wall behind them. Naruto rose as Sasuke slumped to face him.
"Impossible. . . that red energy should have drained him. . . he was as exhausted as I was! He couldn't even move!" Indeed, it would appear that the blonde had gotten his second wind as he stalked forward towards Sasuke. Naruto sank to his hands and feet, crouching and crawling like an animal, racing towards him. Naruto leaped at the last second, feet barreling into Sasuke's chest like a freight train, crashing him into the canyon's wall even further. Naruto raised a curled fist and drove it right into Sasuke's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Another fist to the temple left Sasuke leaning at an angle with blood dribbling out of his mouth. Sasuke was clearly unconscious, but Naruto would not stop there. He kept driving his fists into Sasuke, reducing him into a bloody pulp. Then, suddenly, his fist met Sasuke's solar plexus, and the thing bone broke and drove a shard into Sasuke's heart. Naruto could tell the change immediately: something in Sasuke's face gave out and he sank down into a position that the human body shouldn't be comfortable doing.
Icy hot reason rose back into Naruto, his bloodlust draining from him. The last resolves of the Kyuubi's chakra left him, and he sank to his knees. With the power that kept him awake gone, he was reduced to the stage earlier, when he was too weak to stand. He saw what he had done and he felt. . . odd. He knew he should feel something, some kind of regret for causing the death and the resulting tragedy that the others would surely feel, but instead he felt nothing. His face was left blank, and it was that way that Kakashi found him.