Naruto:
I think this is my first really being alone. Not true, I've been alone a lot. In fact I'm always alone, even when I'm in a crowd. No, this is not my first time alone; it just seemed the appropriate thing to say. When you start out on a journey, you're supposed to feel happy, scared or excited. Yea right. I feel...nothing. Maybe not nothing, I'm just not sure what I feel. I feel... empty. That's a better word.
I'm leaving again. I left only a month ago; it was to cool off, to calm down. I got Jiraya, one of my sensei's to take me out of the village to train. When I came back he was gone.
If I were to look back, down the path, which I just traveled, I'd be able to see Konoha. It's the place where I was born, where I was raised, where I was hated then loved then hated again. My relationship with Konoha has been very love/hate.
From a distance it looks beautiful, but I guess from a distance everything is beautiful. Why is that? From a distance you don't see the pain or the hurt. I guess you don't see anything good either, you just see it as beautiful, no questions asked. Ah, questions. You want to know who I am? What if I can't tell you? What if I don't want to? You want to know why I hurt? What if I don't know?
Who am I? What is meant by that question? You want my name? Well, its Uzumaki Naruto, but it really doesn't have any significance to me. It doesn't tell you who I am.
You can't see me hurt; you can't see me cry. I'm going to have you laughing until the end. You're going to think its all a joke while I'm lying on the ground dying. Then you're going to realize what happened. You're going to realize how much pain I was in as I made you laugh. You're going to see the person behind the jokes and the pranks. The person behind the mask of the light self-righteous personality. Then you're going to pull away in horror cause you'll realize how much I was bleeding.
I'm a bloody god-damned Mercutio. I have to be killed off before I upstage Romeo, only this Romeo isn't in love with some girl. This Romeo has no time for petty thoughts of girls and such. He doesn't start off melancholy, the true Petrachian lover, in the beginning and become happy when he meets his "true love." True love doesn't exist.
I always hated Juliet; just an over protected snot of a little rich girl. She's so naiveté. Falls in love within a week. If she loved Romeo enough to die for him, why didn't she take the dishonor to find him when she had the chance? She said if you can't give up your name I'll give up mine, but she doesn't. When her father tells her to marry Paris or he'll disown her, she threatens to kill herself, but she herself doesn't do anything about it. She should have taken the damned dishonor, gone to the Friar and somehow gotten to Mantua. Then they both would have lived. Idiots.
Then again, Mercutio isn't supposed to know any of this. He's hiding that pain which drives him as he tries to help Romeo out. Give him a reason to be in pain and it would take away from the universality of his character. Well, this Mercutio doesn't give a damn about everyone relating.

Our Romeo, our Romeo is a bastard. I'm not really his friend. I just hang around since there nothing else to do. Our Romeo cares nothing for love of another; he's too in love with revenge. It's his Laura. Who is our Romeo? Uchiha Sasuke. He's so wrapped up in his love for revenge that no one else exists in his world. Why does Romeo cry after he's banished from Vernona? Not because his friend is dead, no, Mercutio isn't mentioned once in Romeo's laments. He's sad because he has to give up Juliet.
That sounds like Sasuke. I'm walking dead man and it's his fault and he doesn't even care. Can't see beyond his own damned nose if it's not for the furthering of his goal. That's why I had to leave. I couldn't stand that bastard anymore.
I used to think he did care. That was back when we were lovers. Back when Romeo and Mercutio couldn't be separated. No one knew of course. Sasuke had his reputation to keep up and I couldn't care less, I should have seen something.
It all started on that night, so long ago. We had a mission together, just the two of us. The hotel we were staying at had only a double bed. I remember lying there, staring at the ceiling wondering if I would ever fall asleep. It's strange that when you try to sleep its impossible.
"Hey dobe," he whispered. "What do you want death to be like?" He said it quietly. If I hadn't been in that period where senses are heightened right before sleep I would have never have heard him.
"It's heaven, everyone's happy asshole. Why do you ask?" I replied.
"Just curious. I hope it's not like that.
"Why?"
"I don't want to go through the pain of being conscious. When I die I want there to be nothing. I want to stop existing."
"What's so painful about your life that you'd want that? You've got it all."
"You wouldn't understand."
"Try me."
"When I was little no one wanted to be friends with me. I didn't ever have friends. No one wanted to talk to me; they wanted the name and the image. They didn't want me. My parents didn't care about me. My older brother was a genius; they didn't need me. My mom was always away worrying about herself or my brother, my dad was always working. After my parents died, it got worse. I was 'the survivor.' Everyone felt it his or her duty to 'be there for me.' No one wanted me; they wanted the survivor."
"Why are you telling me?" I asked quietly. He remained silent. "I do understand in a way. I never had parents. I had nannies, but they never cared about me. They always left shortly after they came. When I was six they stopped giving me nannies. I was on my own. Everyone hated me. Always. No one would talk to me. No one wanted to play with me." I hesitated. "I think I want to be reincarnated, but into a happy family."
"I wouldn't want to go through the pain of living again. That's why I don't want to have children, no matter what my family says. I don't want to put anyone else through the pain of living," Sasuke murmured. I continued to stare at the ceiling. He'd never talked to me like this before.
"I don't know. I want to continue learning and gaining new experiences."
"Why would you want that?" he asked. I paused. Not sure of my answer.
"I want to know the truth, I guess."
"And that being?"
"What's the point in life? Or maybe that there is none."
"What would you do after you figured it out?"
"I'll come to that bridge when I come to it."
"I don't see a point." I heard him shift over so he was facing the other wall. I sat up to look at him. He curled up and suddenly looked like a little boy. I put my arms around him and buried my face into his back. We fell asleep like that, him safe in my arms.
The next day, we kissed. A real kiss, not an accident like the one back at the academy. It was not a good kiss to say the least. Teeth clanking, hands sweating and no one knowing what was going on, but still it brought me up to the heavens.
After that awkward first kiss, they just kept coming, every time getting better. We didn't talk about it or anything. One day we were sparing in the woods when we kissed again. We somehow ended up under this great oak tree, sitting in one another's arms.
"I love you," he had whispered into my ear. I remember looking up into his face, seeing what I had thought to be at the time sweet sincerity. I know now of course that it was nothing.
"I love you," I repeated back to him before pulling his head down to give him a kiss. It deepened. That was the first time we made love. I carved our initials into that tree with my kunai as we lay there basking in the after glow. UNUS forever.

Sasuke:
The road is quiet. Why wouldn't it be? Do I really expect it to talk? No, I guess I thought that this tip would be like all others I had taken out of the city. They had been noisy and full of life and excitement.
The first trips I took were with my genin team. Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, Naruto and I all on the road together. Through the years as we became chunins, the group get smaller and smaller. Soon just it was just Sakura, Naruto and I, then just Naruto and I. We become Jounin together at age fifteen and ANBU members at sixteen. That was only half a year ago come to think of it. Naruto and I always went on trips together. That's always how it was, the two of us together, complimenting each other in skills.
We had not, of course, taken the opportunity to be alone on these trips for granted. We relished every moment we had alone together, or at least I did. I thought he did too, but obviously not.
I guess it's my fault. I've never been good at communicating and I guess he's not either even though he's really loud. So we could never really talk about things. Probably should have, would have been smart. I'm usually regarded as smart, so why wasn't I with this?
I've heard people say love blinds you. I know it does. I used to love my brother, look what he did. Flashes of what he did to our parents and our clan makes my blood boil.
That's why I'm out here. Not because he left first, but because I have to avenge my clan. I've wasted years, its time to make it up. I'm done playing around. Or so I'm trying to tell myself. I didn't leave because he left. What do I care what that dobe does? Why do I have to be responsible for what he does? It's not I have to look after him. He's not even grateful I saved his skin all those times. Why do I even bother? I hate him! I hate him so much!
I'm getting off the road. The sky is turning dark. I don't have to start traveling by night until I reach the sound village. Jumping through trees is more annoying than it looks. I used to love watching my brother do it or riding on my father's back while he chased after someone on a mission. I remember my mother being so mad at him for doing that. No, must not think about parents. I don't have time to be weak now. Now is the time to avenge their deaths, not to cry.
When leaping through trees you must keep an eye on everything. Tree branches often appear out of nowhere. I used to tease Naruto for running into branches on missions. No, must not think of him either.
I land on tree trunk large enough for me to sleep on. Might as well stop here for the night. I get to work setting up traps. I can't help thinking as I set up traps within a hundred-meter radius of how when I went on missions with Naruto; he was the one who always ended up getting caught in the traps. I smirk at the memory of him hanging upside down by the foot yelling at me to get him down. I remember kissing him to shut up him.
Tears are stinging my eyes, must not cry must not cry. Crying is weakness. I can't be weak. I continue to set them up, even triple trapping within a square meter. One can never be too careful when camping alone.
When all that is done I climb my tree, securing my sleeping bag to the tree with chakra so I don't fall off. That was something Naruto always forgot to do. He always ended up falling off and into his fifth trap of the evening. I think he did it on purpose, just so I would kiss him even though he would have to endure my teasing first before he would get kissed. No, must not think of him.
I want to light a fire. A fire would give me something to do. It's impossible be lonely when there's a fire to feed. With a fire I would be able to cook and not to have to eat these damned energy bars that taste like grass. Yes I do know what grass tastes like. Naruto once... I'm not going to go there. I must be strong.
If I had a fire I'd also be able to have a cup of tea. I've always had a weakness for tea like Naruto has for Ramen. No painful memories in that statement. I always used to have a cup of tea before going out to train and then one in the evening right before I slept. Mom always used to have one, full of honey to disguise the taste of the herbs she added in to help me heal from all wounds I got from sparing with Father or Itchi faster. Mom. No, can't go there either. How come my life seems to revolve around either my family or Naruto? How come I can't think of anything besides either of those two?
Maybe it's impossible. Maybe I should just give in, that's not too bad, is it? Just letting myself wallow in my misery, just this once. After this I'll banish all thoughts from my mind. I'll become the killer Naruto was afraid I'd become. It's his fucking fault. If he hadn't reacted that way when I told him maybe it would have all been ok. I would have died with him, happy, but ok.
I'm just a walking dead man pursing a man I have to kill. Just a walking dead man relying on fucking drugs to keep him alive. Drugs that must be taken regularly or maybe I won't fulfill my purpose. I can almost feel the disease inside me, infecting my cells and turning it into their own. Turning my own internal defense system against me, making it completely useless. The pathetic thing is that in the end, if I survive killing my brother and anyone else who comes my way, is that I'll probably die of a weak disease that a healthy person could fight off easily.
How was I supposed to have seen it coming? It was just an ordinary fight. Just a mission. Just another guy to kill. Usually I block out fights. I don't killing sits well with anyone. That's why I block it all out. One day family members of people I've killed on missions will hunt me. I wish I could tell them I remembered their brother, father, son, friend, mother, sister or anything else, but I can't. I simply can't live with all those memories, so I repress them. That fateful fight, it wasn't a fight to be remembered, the guy hardly tried. He managed to wound me, but it was a relatively small cut, not life threatening. His blood, however, was all over me. It covered me practically everywhere and yet the guy was still breathing.
"You're dead," he whispered with his dying breath. I didn't take it seriously at the time, just the ranting of a man on the edge. That happened a few months before my first time with Naruto.
Seven months later there was a crisis. There was an earthquake and a lot of people were injured, they needed blood. All shinobi's lined up to have our blood drawn. It was just a pinprick, a little discomfort, nothing a shinobi shouldn't be able to take.
A week after that the Fifth Hokage called me in. She gave me the news. Something was wrong with my blood. They couldn't use it. The old hag as Naruto calls her wrote me a prescription and sent me to the pharmacy after explaining what was wrong. They didn't catch it in Naruto's blood, not that I asked. I ended up peeking in on medical records and stole all the packets of his blood right out of hospital. Either he didn't have it or it was too early to detect it. It takes a few months before there are enough anti-bodies to detect it.
That night I told him to meet me at our spot. Our spot is under this big oak tree. It's right by a good training spot and in an area no one would ever look. I set up the dinner, cooking really nice and all. How do you break news like this to someone? I remember practicing over and over in my head all night during dinner until he got fed up with my behavior.
"Sasuke, I'm not the brightest guy, but even I can tell something is bothering you. Spill," Naruto demanded.
"Naruto, I've got something important to tell you. It'd be easier if you didn't interrupt me until I was done," I told him. Naruto grinned like Christmas had come early. He probably thought it was good news. He probably thought I had gotten a promotion, or that I'd been told to tell him that he'd gotten a promotion. Or maybe he thought I was going to ask him to move in with me, or maybe... I'll never know what he was thinking.
"What is it?" he asked excitedly. His face fell when I didn't respond for a few moments to collect my thoughts.
"Naruto, I'm sick. You might be too. I'm really sorry, I think I gave it to you," I almost whispered. I've never been afraid before. Ok, maybe I had. I'd been afraid when my parents died, when Ochimaru tried to take over me, when Naruto and I first kissed, when we first made love and when I'd found out I was sick. Nothing compared to this.
"What..." he trailed off. He cleared his throat. "What is it?"
"I have HIV. That's what comes before AIDS," I told him in case he didn't know. You can never assume that Naruto knows things.
"What! Isn't that fatal?" he yelled. I nodded. "And you gave it to me? Was I just another fuck toy for you? Did you cheat? How could you do this to me?" He got up and smashed his foot into our tree in rage creating a small crater. He threw me one last look. It was filled with so much emotion. So much love, so much hate, so much sadness. Then he disappeared in a cloud of smoke leaving me all alone.
The next day I couldn't find him anywhere. It wasn't until two days later that I found out he'd left with his former sensei. No one knew why he left or when he was coming back. A week later, I decided to leave. What was the point in staying? I might as well fulfill my promise before I died. The Uchiha would die with me and would truly be the last of them. That was good. Our damned clan could go fuck itself for all I cared. I probably shouldn't be speaking ill of the dead, but I don't care.
So here I am, a walking dead man. I've been on the road for two months and I'm getting closer. I'm going to beat him. I have no other choice. I need to do his last thing before I die.
Where ever Naruto is I'm sure he's cursing my name just as I am his. The insensitive bastard. Though I hate him, I still love him. How can this be? I feel as if my heart has been ripped out of me and was trampled on. I want to drive my kunai into my heart to watch it bleed, that'll teach him. Naruto, until the day I die, I spill my heart for you.