Normal Text
Thoughts
Flashback
Sasuke approached the walls of the village. He wasn't particularly trying to mask his presence, in fact he wanted them to know that their destruction would soon be upon them. He emerged from the forests surrounding the village and looked up at the closed gates, the Leaf symbol above them. Drawing his katana, he ran his Chidori through it and directed it towards the closed gates in front of him, smashing them to pieces. He smirked to himself, but before he could enter the village, a lone figure stepped forward, indicating that he should halt. The figure was ANBU, with a long robe and mask. Sasuke's normal scowl grew larger – one ANBU! Did they really think that was all it took to beat the great Sasuke Uchiha!
The figure in front of Sasuke continued to make his way over the rubble, not moving that quickly, as if he was hesitant to be there. Sasuke smirked again – this fool didn't want to fight him? Although, it does make sense as I won't be beaten so easily. I will destroy this village, the one that killed Itachi.
Flashback:
Itachi moved towards him, panting for breath, bleeding from his eyes and mouth. Sasuke stepped backwards as his brother came closer, his hand outstretched to take Sasuke's eyes – or so the younger thought at the time – and Sasuke backed up against the wall just behind him, the clan symbol above his head. Itachi moved his hand forward and Sasuke's knees shook. But, rather than take his eyes, Itachi poked Sasuke's forehead, between his eyes, before slumping forwards against the wall and hitting the floor, dead.
But then later, he learned the truth, that Itachi had planned the whole thing. It was then that he vowed revenge on the village which had destroyed his entire clan and forced him to kill his brother.
Sasuke moved to face the ANBU, waiting for him to make the first move. After a few moments, when he realised that the ANBU was clearly going to remain on the defensive, Sasuke moved his hands in the appropriate seals, and opened his mouth, intending to use his Fireball Technique on his enemy. However, before he could complete this, the ANBU threw a kunai towards Sasuke's shoulder, forcing Sasuke to move to avoid being hit.
Sasuke glared at the ANBU, who was still just standing there. The ANBU then moved his hands and created three shadow clones. An impressive number, Sasuke thought, but not as good as Naruto. The three shadow clones moved quickly, surrounding Sasuke so that one was on each side, with the real ANBU in front. Sasuke smirked, and before the shadow clones could strike him, he used Chidori Senbon, popping all three in the blink of an eye.
"It's going to take much more than that to defeat me", Sasuke stated calmly, while the ANBU just stood there, quietly observing. Definitely not Naruto, Sasuke thought, or he would have started his talk no jutsu by now.
The ANBU again created shadow clones, around thirty or so this time, which again surrounded Sasuke. Okay, Sasuke thought, this is much more impressive, perhaps too impressive, like...Several of the clones had moved, kicking him up into the air. The others then continued to kick him higher. Sasuke recognised this technique and realised what was coming, so he rotated in the air, throwing several shuriken above and below him, popping the clones who were going to kick him higher, as well as the one he knew would kick him back down to the ground. Sasuke recognised this technique as one that he had used during the Chunin exams. His was called the 'Lion Combo', partly copied from Lee's 'Shadow of the Dancing Leaf', and only one other person did something so similar – although he usually felt the need to shout his name whenever performing the jutsu.
Landing gracefully on the ground, Sasuke teleported behind the real ANBU, ignoring the shadow clones which remained, and drew a kunai, throwing it towards his opponent's head as the ANBU turned to see where Sasuke had appeared behind him. The kunai hit the top of the ANBU's mask, shattering it and causing the hood of the cloak to fall back.
Naruto. The ANBU who he had been fighting all this time was Naruto. Well, it made sense now why the person had come alone, as Naruto would be the only person who stood a chance against Sasuke, but...he had yet to speak a word, not even when using a jutsu, instead remaining silent, which was so uncharacteristic of Naruto. Sasuke also remembered how, at the beginning of the fight, Naruto seemed wary to come out, which was also unlike him, as Naruto would normally jump at the chance to fight anyone, especially Sasuke.
"Well, aren't you going to say some nonsense about saving me?" Sasuke asked Naruto. Naruto looked away slightly, the smile which was normally permanently attached to his face conspicuously absent. Instead of responding, Naruto focused his chakra into his hand, creating a Rasengan. Sasuke created the Chidori and moved to attack Naruto. As they had done so many times before, they jumped towards each other with their respective jutsus activated.
However, at the last moment, Naruto dropped his hand. Rather than clash, like the two jutsus normally did when they were fighting, Sasuke's Chidori went through Naruto's chest, while the Rasengan in Naruto's hand just fizzled out. Sasuke pulled his arm back, shock almost showing itself on his face – why hadn't Naruto tried to stop it? Why has he let me do this? Naruto slumped forward against Sasuke before falling down to the floor. Sakura, who, up until this point, like many of the other Leaf ninja, had merely been observing from the village wall and destroyed gates, ran over, activating her medical ninjutsu to heal the hole Sasuke had torn through Naruto's chest.
Sasuke looked Naruto in the eye, silently communicating his 'why?' to Naruto. Naruto, for the first time since Sasuke had started this battle, finally spoke:
"I am the Hokage now. I represent the village. Now you've killed me, you don't need to destroy the village, as you have symbolically done so by killing me." With that Naruto let his eyes close, and, despite the attempts of both Sakura with her medical ninjutsu and the Kyuubi inside him, Naruto let himself die.
Sasuke looked down at Naruto's body, realising what he had done – I have exacted my revenge by killing Naruto, my...well, Naruto was - no is - important to me, regardless of what we were - are - to each other.
"Sakura", Sasuke said calmly, "you must kill me."
"What? Why?" Sakura asked.
"I have killed Naruto, so I must avenge his death, as I am an avenger. Therefore I must die, and I am asking you to do it."
"I can't do that, that would require me to do something useful!"
"You're both annoying and useless, you know? You can't even kill an enemy, how are you a ninja?" Sasuke replied. He drew a kunai from his weapons pouch and knelt down beside Naruto's body. He gripped Naruto's hand, pushing the kunai into it. Before Sakura could stop him (so not actually that quickly) he used his own hand to move Naruto's and pushed the kunai in Naruto's dead hand into his own throat, killing Sasuke instantly. Sasuke's body fell forwards, draped across Naruto's, while Sakura just sat beside them both, looking on helplessly (her normal look).
The village was now safe, although many people mourned the loss of their Hokage. But, in the afterlife, Sasuke appeared beside Naruto.
"I let you kill me to save you! You weren't supposed to go and kill yourself! I was supposed to save you by dying to end your revenge!" Naruto shouted at Sasuke. Much better, Sasuke thought, this seems much more like my dobe than that person I was fighting back there.
"But I am an avenger."
"That's your answer for everything! Besides, you were going to destroy the village in revenge, and by killing me you did that! So why kill yourself?"
"What did you expect me to do when you died, not avenge your death by destroying your killer?"
"Why do you care?"
"Why do you?" Sasuke countered, restraining himself from grinning at having his dobe back – No Sasuke! Uchihas do not show facial expressions other than arrogance! Naruto blushed slightly and looked away.
"Because I had to save you, teme", Naruto muttered, almost under his breath.
"Maybe you did", Sasuke replied, equally as quietly. Naruto looked at him, blushing redder now as he realised that he and Sasuke seemed to be alone in the afterlife – and who knew how long they may be alone with only each other? Naruto thought. He turned away again, trying to get rid of the thoughts about what he could do with his...well, with Sasuke, while they were alone.
"Thank you, dobe." Naruto looked up, but before he could react, he felt Sasuke's lips on his.
And so they kissed and lived happily ever after – well in the afterlife anyway – and the village was safe and hopefully, at some point, everyone would realise Sakura's uselessness and get rid of her. We hope.
The End.