"Sa... Sasuke," Naruto choked out through the blood and the pain and the heartbreak. "I guess... this is the end."
Sasuke's derisive laugh quickly turned into hacking coughs and struggling breaths. "You never did bring me back to Konoha... idiot." The once-fond insult was caustic and hateful now.
"But... I tried. I promised I would keep trying, until... I brought you back or you killed me. And now... we're dying together."
"You're such," a gasping, rattling breath, "Such an idiot. That's why I never liked you. You're stupid, and loud, and obnoxious...!"
"You're lying. That's why... you liked me. Maybe not anymore, but when you were still my Sasuke..."
"I was never yours!" he snarled.
Naruto smiled, a small, bloody, genuine smile (when was the last time Sasuke have seen that smile?).
"Even if you're not mine, I'm still yours."
"I don't want you, so save your sappy crap!"
"Sasuke..." Naruto stretched out a hand, covered with blood from wounds that he no longer had the chakra to heal. "We're going to die soon." The words were painted with the crimson flowing from his mouth.
Sasuke didn't think life had ever seemed so real, like reality itself was trying to refute the truth of Naruto's words. There was a crisp edge to everything that made it seem fresh and horribly beautiful.
"Can't we stop lying for once?"
A harsh bark of painful, cruel laughter.
"Sasuke?"
"...Naruto?"
The fire had burnt out, the wind had died down. All that was left was what they were once, before the world ruined them, before they ruined each other.
"I love you."
The crisp edges were blurring, melting together.
Just seconds left.
"I hate you. So, so much." That was all he had ever been good at, hating and destroying and killing. He couldn't remember ever doing anything else.
Faces, names, memories, all gone. All he could remember were these moments, these endless moments at the end of it all.
"That's alright... because you still care about me... you never forgot me."
Why was the world going dim?
Oh.
This is finally the end, then...
"Naruto?"
"Yeah?"
"Goodbye."
The darkness rushed in now.
It was alright.
He was used to the darkness.