"Naruto!" Sasuke roared as he charged with his jet black-chidori.
"Sasuke!" His blond opponent yelled as he charged with a blood-red rasengan.
As the two attacks collided in an explosion of chaotic, evil energy a dark orb formed, of which nothing, not even light, could reach into.
The two attacks were dead even in their ferocity, chidori's pre-eminent piercing power against the vortex of raw fury of the rasengan. To break the deadlock that he knew would not end in anyone's favor, Sasuke brought his hand forward and went to deal the killing-blow. Seeing this, Naruto raised his own spare arm and it shot forward too, intent on meeting this attack head-on, as well.
As the ball of dark energy finally faded away, Sasuke was on his knees clutching where Naruto struck him in horrible agony and Naruto wasn't moving at all. Several minutes went by and nothing changed until Sasuke finally got a grip and could see straight enough to look at his handiwork. He had a look of sadness on his face as one hand still held where Naruto landed his apparently final-blow before he climbed to his feet and continued on to Orochimaru and the promise of power great enough to kill him.
As Sasuke left the weather took a turn for the worse as it appeared that even the heavens themselves wept for Naruto's death. The rain rapidly became a storm and that storm brought something back with it, the waterfall. As Kakashi finally arrived on the scene with Pakkun all he saw was rain and water, catching a glimpse of something shiny.
The man dived into the rushing water's, much to his companion's protest, in hopes of finding and rescuing his students, but it was not to be. As Kakashi came up after what felt like far too long, struggling for breath as he held onto the edge of the river. Pakkun gripped one of Kakashi's sleeves in his teeth and pulled as hard as he could, Kakashi weakly hoisting himself up and out of the water as he breathed heavily, yanking his mask down as he layed on his back and stared at the sky.
"Did you find anything down there," Pakkun asked as he sat next to the gray-haired man. Kakashi just ripped off his headband and glared with both eyes up into the raining sky, gritting his teeth tightly. He said nothing, just glared up at the sky in hatred and silence while Pakkun waited.
It was late when Kakashi finally got back to the village, and by then most of the people in it were asleep. Only a handful of people stood at the village gates now, apart from the gate guards, and waited for him to show. Sakura had not left her spot at the gates since she had seen the retrieval team off almost twelve hours ago. Ino had only departed to go get an umbrella for her and her rival when it began to rain and faithfully stood by her side since then.
Joining the two girls were Tsunade and Shizune, the latter also holding up an umbrella for the blonde woman as they both waited for Kakashi's return. The last of the group was Jiraiya, standing in the rain without a care that he was pelted while he waited for news of the mission, more for his godson then for that little weasel of an Uchiha boy.
"Well, Kakashi, what did you find?" Tsunade asked, stepping forward. Kakashi stood alone in the rain facing the five people, long since dismissing Pakkun, face once again hidden behind mask and headband. He glared harshly at the Lady Hokage before reaching into his ninja pouch. A random lightning bolt struck behind him, letting the piece of metal he held glint in the light.
Some members tensed, thinking he was actually out of it enough to attack them, but the reality was going to be far more horrifying. Kakashi threw the metal object at Tsunade's feet, landing in a small mud puddle. The blonde woman picked it up and wiped away what she could. It was a headband, a horribly mangled headband that was hardly even recognizable. "Uchiha... Sasuke."
Everyone eyes snapped to Kakashi, but he just stood there in the rain. Sakura was in hysterics and Ino was not much better off, Tsunade tried asking what happened but everyone was cut off as Jiraiya shouted over the growing storm, "Where is Naruto, what happened to him?!" All eyes were on Kakashi again, now hoping that this was some sick joke, but they all saw what he pulled out next and wished they hadn't.
Another headband landed at Tsunade's feet, this one pristine in it's glory like it was still brand-spanking-new. Shaking hands reached for this one and held it like the owner of the hands couldn't believe it was real. "Uzumaki... Naruto!" Another lightning bolt struck.
Just as that second lightning bolt struck, many miles away, a hand ripped out of rushing waters and tightly gripped the rock. A body slowly followed the hand out of the water as it pulled itself slowly onto dry land. One way, then the other, it looked everywhere before down at itself. A hand pulled at rags around a hole in the cloth where it should cover the heart. It looked through the hole in the cloth, right through it's flesh as it stared at where a heart should be.
It said nothing for a long time, but watched as the wound healed until the hole completely closed within seconds. It then looked about again, wondering where or even what it was. It had no memories of anything before now, only that it woke up in the river. It stared up at the sky as rain splashed onto it's face and ran down it's cheeks. All it felt was cold, nothing but cold.
Then something changed, it felt something. The thing or whatever it was clutched it's chest and collapsed to it's knees. It breathed raggedly for several minutes before it relaxed and let it's hands fall from it's chest into it's lap and looked up once again. The thing gritted it's teeth before letting out an enormous scream, one so powerful it tore it's lung apart and blew it's vocal cords to pieces. The scream resonated with the thunder that followed the lightning bolt and echoed for miles as the thing finally stood and began walking, it's lungs and vocal cords already healed.
Hello, everyone. This is my newest story project, which I think I've made sound pretty interesting so far.
For those of you who can't tell, in this story Naruto has not only failed to bring Sasuke back, but has also failed to return himself and is presumed KIA. I'm not saying whether or not Naruto did die, but if he did he's not doing a good job of staying that way. That is, if that's Naruto. Dun dun duunnn!