AN: I started writing this a while back, planning for it to be a one-shot, but then it kinda evolved into a plot and I just couldn't help but write more. This prologue is the edited one-shot. I hope you like it.
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Prologue
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Sasuke panted, watching his opponent as Naruto floated in the murky water. Dark clouds formed above the valley and obscured the sun. A storm would start soon, but Sasuke didn't care. He was a shinobi, he was trained to fight in any kind of conditions.
The Uchiha took another breath, filling his air-deprived lungs. He watched Naruto from the shore and a few moments passed without either of them moving. Sasuke had regained his breath, he smirked.
"What's the matter Naruto, too lazy to fight anymore?"
Sasuke knew that was a lie, but he couldn't keep himself from taunting. "Stop nodding off and GET UP!" Finally, he had proven he was stronger. A few more moments passed and yet, Naruto was still unresponsive.
Sasuke frowned, usually Naruto would snap back. The Uchiha took a step forward, and then another – Naruto still didn't move. Carefully, Sasuke stepped on the water and made his way towards his rival. 'Maybe this is a trap. Maybe Naruto just wants to me lower my guard.'That though is soon dismissed. Naruto isn't that smart, Sasuke told himself. And Naruto definitely didn't like people underestimating him, this was under his pride.
Sasuke looked down on Naruto's face. His eyes were closed and his spiky blond hair was drenched and straight for once.
Sasuke lips tug upwards "One time you shout your mouth."
He lifted Naruto by the neck, but the blonde didn't even twitch and it irritated Sasuke that Naruto has the nerve to ignore him now. "Answer me when I talk to you!" he yelled, throwing the boy to the shore. Naruto hit the ground with a laud thud. He hadn't even tried to cushion his fall. But Sasuke took no notice of this. He charged, expecting his rival to be up on his feet and ready to pack a punch when the smoke cleared. But when the Uchiha got close, he didn't see Naruto back on his feet and his eyes shining with that usual determination. He saw Naruto's prone form sprawled out on the ground, face first.
Sasuke smirked "C'mon Naruto, I though you were going to drag me back to Konoha even if you had to break every bone in my body." he said as he kicked Naruto's shoulder, thus turning his body over.
Still no response. Sasuke got a strange feeling in his gut. It was familiar, but he couldn't place it. It was dread, horror and bitterness all mixed in one. Sasuke's eyes widened and he crunched down. It couldn't be...
But it was.
Naruto lay there, prone and unresponsive – lay there with all the blood washed away by the river's water. His eyes were closed, he looked just like all the times he fell asleep in class back at the Academy.
Only there was one big difference.
Sasuke's heart suddenly clenched. He knew what that feeling was then, it was the feeling he got when he came back from the Academy that night. It was the feeling that twisted in his stomach when he went through his own home and the one that stabbed at his heart when he opened the big double doors to find his family dead and bleeding on the floor – killed by their own flesh and blood.
His hitai-ate suddenly untied itself and fell next to his fallen teammate, and soon after Sasuke was on his knees next to the blonde.
"No. Our friendship was worth it." He had told Naruto. He cared for the hyperactive idiot to a certain extent, he was his rival. He pushed him to grow stronger, but he was also his goofy, rag-tag friend. The same friend who often bothered him, asked if he wanted to go for ramen with him or if he wanted to train together.
That same friend was now lying right in front of him. Sasuke's hands began to shake, but he couldn't force them to check Naruto's pulse - he couldn't dare touch Naruto's neck.
The rain began to fall, then - a light drizzle at first, before bullets began to rain down on the earth.
Sasuke didn't understand. He wanted revenge more than anything; he wanted the power to avenge his clan. So why was he feeling like this? Was this regret?
The Uchiha sensed someone closing in. He should get moving, he knew – if he wanted to make it to Otogakure. One problem, his legs wouldn't work.
It was like he was eight years old again and Itachi was standing over the bloodied bodies of his mother and father. But, only this time, when Itachi stepped out of the darkness – it wans't Itachi! It was him – Sasuke! It was him and he was using his Mangekyou Sharingan to kill everyone he once cared about.
Sasuke was his brother this time; he was standing over the body of someone he was supposed to love and care about. Someone who was supposed to be his best friend!
"Our friendship was worth it."Worth what? Was he really so keen on exacting his revenge that he was ready to destroy everything else? His mind went silent; he couldn't force a single though to form in the emptiness that clouded his senses.
Naruto's words echoed in his mind. Naruto was always dead last, always the weakest, the ditsy mascot of Team 7. But were they really Team 7 anymore?
There was a soft thud and the sound of someone's sandals hitting the ground. Sasuke turned his head, suddenly alert and out of his daze.
Kakashi-sensei was already there, though. The man's hand was already tightly latched on to Sasuke's upper-arm but Kakashi's exposed eye was locked on Naruto.
Am I too late? Kakashi wondered as he watched his student, before looking at Sasuke.
The dark haired boy's eyes were wide and alert. But he didn't try to escape. Sasuke's eyes are deep with a hollow sadness, though expectant.
Kakashi sighed, looking back at the body on the ground "He promised he'd bring you back." The copy-nin whispered, unsure if he was saying it for himself or for his wayward student "Naruto doesn't break his promises."
Sasuke nodded, he didn't have the will power to do anything else.
Kakashi felt for the pulse on Naruto's neck, freezing dead when his fingers make contact with the cold skin. There was a moment of silence before the muscles in Kakashi's arm slacked and his fingers slided off the wet skin. Sasuke's eyes seemed to deepen in sadness; he looked down to his lap, away from Naruto's face.
Sasuke looked as though he was lost in his own world then - reminiscing and reconsidering things he thought were thought through.
Kakashi took his hands off Naruto's neck and to his forehead. Kakashi hesitated for just a second before untying the hatai-ate his student had worn with much pride.
The copy-nin gazed back at Sasuke, who was now looking off into the distance, seemingly unaware that Kakashi had let go of his arm. The man sighed, depressed, but he didn't let the agony he was feeling show. He'd failed in protecting his loved ones, yet again. Kakashi's hand clenched the hitai-ate even tighter.
Tentatively, he stood up and made his way behind the kneeling Sasuke. Kakashi did this oh so slowly, as if cornering a frightened animal before it could bolt away. He crouched down behind Sasuke again and begun to tie the headband to the boy's bare forehead.
Sasuke gave a small jolt, suddenly reminded of Kakashi's presence once more as the cold metal of the hitai-ate made contact with his wet forehead.
He turned around, hand instinctively going up to the forehead-protector. But when he met the eye of the man he called sensei, his will to fight disappeared. Teacher and student stayed like that for a while, kneeling in front of each-other while the raindrops pelted the earth around them.
Sasuke held himself with all his might and every fiber of his will, but it is still too weak against his core... his core that burned with loss and grief and the desire to regain what was lost - but he couldn't do that!
Kakashi's gaze returned to Naruto, and he imagined that the hyperactive boy would start coughing any second now and then he'd be jumping around in the next, happy that they managed to save Sasuke. He imagined, but it did not come true.
Kakashi can't tear his gaze off the orange-clad genin, just as Sasuke doesn't dare look at him.
Ironic, how small things suddenly become important just because you lost them.
Kakashi wondered, but catches himself before he can fantasize a single thought about what could have been, had the events leading up to this taken a different path. What was done was done; they had completed the mission, despite all the casualties. He can't let himself brake down here – not now, not yet.
Kakashi has seen many comrades, and civilians, for that matter, die and sometimes, he thought that maybe - just maybe - those who died young were spared of a horrid future. It was easier for the person who died to leave, but it was harder for those who stayed behind to part with them.
Sensei looks over his lifeless student for a meaningful moment. Naruto... the rule beaker... who never broke a promise...
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