Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Rating: T
Author's Note: I had an account with a lot of stories on this website, but I decided to start fresh. Here's to a new beginning.
The Future is Bleak
What do you say to someone who stands against everything you believe in?
Uzumaki Naruto is born a jinchūriki, trained as a shinobi, and he is of Konoha as surely as the sun rises.
Uchiha Sasuke is born a shinobi, trained as an Avenger, and more than anything he wants to see Konoha burn.
Polar opposites.
That's what Kakashi-sensei had called them once. Opposites in every sense of the word.
Sasuke fights with supreme efficiency, each motion calculated, precise, and all the deadlier for it. Naruto simply fights, his instincts serving him better than most kata.
Where Naruto is exuberant and cheerful, Sasuke is silent and brooding.
Where Naruto actively seeks as many friends as he can gather, Sasuke scoffs at the idea, for an Avenger needs no friends.
It is inevitable that two people with such fundamentally different personalities will clash.
Somehow, though, they understand each other.
He's exhausted, and his limbs are quaking with weariness, but Naruto still puts a smile on his face. "Do you remember, Sasuke?"
His only answer is a glare from across the water. Naruto expected as much, but he can't stop the sigh from escaping his lips. The sound seems to be amplified by the arch of the bridge behind him.
"Back at the Valley of the End, you told me that truly great shinobi don't need to speak to each other. They do all the talking they need to with their fists."
Sasuke doesn't stop glaring, and Naruto notices that his eyes aren't so black anymore. He wonders what made them that way. "Now, I think I finally understand what you meant back then."
He pauses when the Uchiha snorts, then erupts into manic laughter. "What, Naruto? You really think that you can ever understand me? You think that you're strong enough?"
Naruto merely clenches his jaw, and Sasuke takes that as some kind of confirmation.
There is nothing more to say.
With Kakashi and Sakura frozen behind Naruto, an unspoken signal drifts in with a breeze.
Naruto and Sasuke don't move until the wind stops blowing.
Then they're gone, tearing across the water faster than bullets. Their clothes are whipped with the speed of their motion, and water vapor stings their skin as they race alongside one another.
One brandishes a sword, and the other a kunai.
Still sprinting, they slash and parry with increasing ferocity until each blow leaves the receiver reeling. After a particularly powerful blow from Sasuke's snake sword, they stop as Naruto skids back in the water.
There is a lull in the battle, and the two warriors stare at each other again, their eyes saying far more than words alone could ever convey.
Then Sasuke's eyes narrow, Naruto grimaces, and the two rush into combat.
Sasuke's strikes are enough to put any normal jōnin in a grave with a single hit. His snake sword crackles with lightning, and the keen edge of the blade whistles as he slashes again and again.
But this time, he's sure he has won. With a roar, he sweeps his sword in a devastating arc.
The air is all he hits.
Naruto somehow dodges Sasuke's blow by twisting to the side, the blade's unforgiving edge passing harmlessly past his torso. Time stands still for a moment as Sasuke deals with the shock that he missed, and Naruto finally realizes why Sasuke's eyes are a muted grey instead of pitch black.
The world unfreezes, and Sasuke snarls with frustration and rage.
Naruto may be stubborn, but he knows when he needs to retreat.
And when he sees the back of his former teammate's throat glow a cherry red, there's no question that now is such a time.
He turns and leaps onto the face of a riverside cliff. His feet barely touch the stone when he looks up, and the world is filled with fire.
Naruto's legs tense, and suddenly he's twenty feet away, watching as the dragon-headed fireball slams into the cliffside and scorches the stone with its heat.
There is no time to rest, as Sasuke spits jutsu after jutsu, all aiming for him.
Naruto grits his teeth and dodges, weaving through the bolts of flame like it's been rehearsed. Seeing that his attacks aren't working, Sasuke stops.
Then chakra surges through his legs, and he leaps, hurtling straight for the orange-garbed shinobi.
It takes mere seconds for him to see Naruto barreling towards him as well.
Growling, the snake sword readies in his grip, and Naruto does the same with his kunai.
The blades clash, and Sasuke's sword cuts straight through Naruto's weapon, catching him off guard. Naruto stares at his useless stub of a knife, then gasps as the wind is shoved right out of him.
After Sasuke's foot plants itself firmly in his stomach, he flies.
He manages to roll to a stop at the top of the cliff, desperately gasping for air.
A shinobi is always on guard.
The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and he jumps back as Sasuke's sword passes through where he was just a moment earlier.
Slash after slash he dodges, unable to truly fight back due to his lack of a weapon. Slowly but surely, after dodging a barrage of attacks, Naruto finds himself backed up against the edge of the cliff.
There is nowhere else to run, and nothing to defend himself with.
Sasuke smirks at Naruto's desperation, then he throws everything he has into one final blow.
The sword is humming with pent-up energy from channeling the Chidori for so long with no release. This strike is something that can't be dodged, and Naruto knows it. He doesn't turn away. In the background, he can hear Sakura screaming his name.
Sakura-chan . . .
Click.
That's the sound of ivory against steel. Naruto has caught the sword with his teeth.
Sasuke's eyes widen and his mouth opens in utter disbelief, and Naruto turns his head and gives a mighty heave.
The Uchiha is hurled straight off the cliff and into the water, sword and all. He goes so fast that he bounces off the surface of the water once, twice, until he manages to flip himself upright and skid to a stop.
Naruto drops down in front of him, his landing causing a series of ripples.
Their expressions are grim as they draw upon the immense power they both hold: a lightning blade against a spiraling spear.
An unspoken command sets them loose, and they clash and their jutsu collide.
Time loses its meaning.
They find themselves somewhere else, somewhere away from the river. A place with white walls and white floors: white further than the eye can see. It's in a dwelling of the soul more than anything else.
The two teens stand there, staring at each other.
"Can you see, Sasuke? Can you see what's in my heart?" Naruto's voice is tired, on the edge of breaking.
There is no answer. Naruto knows that doesn't matter. Not one bit.
"I can see you, you know. I see you, and I understand." Naruto stops talking, and for a moment the silence threatens to swallow them whole.
"You could never understand." Sasuke's voice is firm in his denial, unyielding, but he can't fool Naruto. Not now.
The blond merely chuckles softly at his ex-teammate's answer. "You're still saying stuff like that, even now."
Without preamble, Naruto walks forward until he's next to his teammate.
"Do you really have to continue down this path?"
Sasuke merely gives him a cold, Sharingan glare. Naruto snorts. "Oh, who am I kidding? Of course you do."
The Uchiha says nothing, merely observing the blond beside him with a cautious sort of curiosity. Naruto sighs and throws his hands behind his head. "You know I have to stop you when you come. I can't let you kill anyone from Konoha."
Sasuke's glare tightens, and his anger flares. Who was Naruto to tell him any of this? What does he know?
Naruto continues, "When you come, take all of your hatred, every bit of it, and focus it on me."
Sasuke can't hide the shock on his face. But then, in this place, he can't hide anything. Neither can Naruto. The blond gives him a side-long look: the same kind of look he had given him during the infiltration of Orochimaru's hideout. It's a staggering gaze, one that pierces all defenses and homes in on the soul.
"After all, I'm the only one who can bear the burden." Naruto turns away, and Sasuke can't stop staring. "But you already knew that."
He did.