Disclaimer: Don't own much of anything, especially not Naruto.
This story isn't set in any specific time, it's kind of vague and vaguely AU.
"I was hoping you'd be here," the blond said with a small grin as he landed quietly on the branch next to the raven haired youth.
"Hnn," the dark haired teenager answered, his eyes locked on the distant battle.
The blond turned his own eyes on the fight too far away to easily see what was going on.
"Who do you think will win?" He asked quietly, his tone so far from his normal exuberance that the dark haired boy couldn't help but turn his eyes to look at the blond. The blond turned his head to meet the dark eyes of his once friend.
The brunet was the first to look away. "Why do you care?" He hissed trying to hide the despair in the words behind anger.
"You're my friend," the blond said simply as if that explained everything. To him it did.
The dark haired teen snorted. "You really should choose your friends better."
"Hey, it's not my fault you turned out to be a stupid bastard," the blond answered. He scratched the back of his head with one hand. "I always knew you were a bastard, but I didn't think you'd turn out to be a complete idiot too." The grin that accompanied the words was not quite as bright as usual.
"No, you were supposed to be the idiot of the group," the raven haired youth smirked briefly.
For awhile they both stared quietly at the fight still going on in the distance.
"You know it's already too late, don't you?" the dark haired boy broke the silence. "It always was."
For a moment it looked like the blond was going to argue, he always did. He never gave up, never went back on a promise. That's just the way he was. This time however a pale hand on his arm stopped him.
"You know," the dark haired boy insisted quietly.
"I…" the blond's head bowed down, his blue eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I have to try."
"I know." He squeezed the blond's arm briefly before letting go. "But you've run out of choices."
The blond went quiet and then a determined look settled over his features, as if he'd just reached some sort of decision.
"So," the blond said with a smile, that was almost, but not quite real, "who do you think will win?" He even almost managed to get some of his normal enthusiasm into the question.
The dark haired boy frowned briefly, but then a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Hnn."
"That's not an answer bastard," the blond complained. "Come on."
"You have to ask?" The dark haired one asked coldly, but the slight glint of amusement in his eyes belied the tone.
"Bastard," the blonde grinned.
The raven haired boy smiled ever so briefly, before his expression settled on something that might have been regret. With a quick and unexpected shove he pushed the blond of the branch.
"I think we've both already lost," was the last thing the blond heard before he hit the ground and vanished in a small puff of smoke.
***
Naruto blinked as the clone's memories settled into his mind and was almost too late to block the fist flying at him. A moment later he could see the tiny moment of hesitation in his opponent and knew that he too had just received the memories from that same meeting.
He looked at the boy that had been his friend and grinned.
"Come on then, lets finish this."
AN: I occasionally wondered since certain characters can make clones of themselves, well couldn't those clones technically go of and do other stuff while they're fighting. Like sit on the sidelines of the fight having a conversation with your opponents clone… well that was basically the thought and this was how it turned out.
I don't really like the ending. I was actually going to kill Sasuke, but then I thought ambiguity might be better, but I couldn't quite write anything satisfying enough. So this is the "oh well, it's good enough" version of the ending, which is still better than the first attempts.