A/N: First off just need to say this is NOT yaoi, no it's not narusasu. If you want that crap GTFO. This is friendship or bromance. Actually this story is rather off; I'm really not sure what the hell I was doing with it. It doesn't make a lot of sense so I don't think anyone will like it. Also it's really short. But as always feedback is appreciated anyway.

In The End

It was raining. Pouring down globs of blood and water mixing together on the once fair brown earth to form sloppy mud. Pools of it covered the area from east to west and both remaining fighters' feet were sunk into it.

Yes, both of them. Naruto and Sasuke stood mere inches apart completely alone. Unless of course you count corpses in which case they were surrounded by a mob of people. The pile of bodies didn't distinguish between village, side, good or evil or anything else. All were united under death's embrace.

Their location was indistinguishable. It was once known as Konoha: the village hidden in the leaves but that place was long gone. There had been many villages, many towns, and far too many lives to count. But that was all gone now. Now only darkness remained. As it spread closer to them the world got smaller and smaller. Once there was a world; now a country…a village…a single street.

The light from the fires in the distance and the smell of freshly killed corpses was disappearing along with the rest of the world. But neither combatant could explain or change what was happening. Too involved were they in an eternal struggle that should never have happened yet was unavoidable.

Both were bleeding. Massive blobs of blood and mind shattering pain that seemed to cancel itself out. Neither knew the extent of the damage only that they were both very close to death. He would have them soon. Soon they would feast at his table. Soon they would join his parade.

"Why…Sasuke? Why?" The one with half of his face burnt off asked. The smell of his burning blonde hair had been unbearable up until recently. "This didn't need to happen. This shouldn't have happened!" He was openly crying without remorse in front of his opponent.

The other one spit up blood. Talking was much harder for him thanks to the damage to his throat. "Don't you get it Naruto? It was too late! It was much too late!" And to his surprise he found salty tears falling from his own eyes and down his cheek.

"But it should've have happened at all!" The first one cried out. "We should've been so much more. Where did it go wrong?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," The black haired one shook his head, "The world is about to end so who cares?"

"I care!" he screamed back immediately. "I've always cared."

"And look what good it's gotten you! You couldn't save me…and you couldn't save them!"

But the blonde just looked down and shook his own head. "It shouldn't have ended this way…"

"Well at least we can agree on that. Nobody wanted this."

"Let's go back…back to how it used to be."

"We can't! Don't you see? We can't even go forward!" He tried to laugh but his throat hurt too much so it turned into a coughing fit.

"Just believe," The blonde told his friend. "Believe that we can go there together and it'll work."

"Alright…" he nodded. "I'll go with you."

Sasuke held out his hand.

Naruto took it.

"Keep that memory in your mind and hold it." Naruto told his friend.

Sasuke glanced backwards. "It's here…"

They both tightened their grip and shut their eyes.

The darkness took them.

A beautiful sunset painted the sky red as a young boy walked slowly across a dirt road beside a river. This child had blonde hair and three marks on each side of his face. He kicked a lone rock forward every few feet.

It was then he looked up and saw a boy his age sitting on a small dock beside the river. He had spiky black hair and was dressed with the Uchiha symbol on the back of his shirt. Right after the first boy saw him the other boy looked up and caught his eye. He stood up.

The first boy walked slowly over to him. Standing in front of him the boy suddenly felt awkward. He scratched the back of his head and wondered what to say.

"What are you doing here?" The other boy asked first. "Shouldn't you be at home with your family?"

"I don't have a family," he answered. A look of surprised caught the second boy's face but the first continued. "My parents died right after I was born so I never knew them. Or at least that's what the Hokage told me. He's the only one who knows but he won't say anything else."

The second boy looked uncomfortable but shrugged. "Yeah so? My whole family was killed two months ago by my older brother. I'm all alone now. I wake up every morning wondering why he did it and go to sleep every night wondering why he didn't kill me too."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki." The first boy said introducing himself.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha." The second boy replied.

"Sasuke," Naruto said sounding very serious. "I acknowledge that the death of your family after living such a happy life is a pain I could never imagine since I've never known mine."

"Naruto," Sasuke spoke up as Naruto finished. "I acknowledge that being born without parents and having never known their love in the first place is a pain I could never imagine."

They both nodded.

Naruto gulped, "Do you…want to be friends?"

"…yes," Sasuke agreed.

Naruto held out his hand and Sasuke took it. They smiled at each other and walked off.

Everything was different.