"Sasuke" said Naruto while roughly shaking his former teammate and friend. "I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing it for Sakura…and for you, too."
"Shut up!" yelled Sasuke. 'Can he really do it? He's been chasing after me for close to six years now. Will he be able to let himself do this?'
He sneered at his captor. "You can't do it."
Looking at the onyx eyes were deep blue pools of sadness, broken hope, and…pity?
'Why does he pity me?' Sasuke wondered. "Why?" The question came out of his mouth before he realized it. He looked back at the bottomless depths of blue.
Naruto looked a bit startled. "Why what?"
"Why do you waste your pity on me? I'm going to kill you and then Itachi, then I'll become truly powerful." Sasuke's voice trembled a bit as it rose in volume.
"You…you don't understand. You've never seen Sakura cry or sit by herself on the dock where you used to spend your time, all alone. You weren't there to see the injuries of the brave shinobi, our classmates, who risked their lives for you."
"I don't give a crap about them!"
Naruto continued, oblivious to the salty water that streamed down his face. "You'd never understand the amount of pain you caused the leaf, especially Sakura. She suffered when you left. She was always waiting for you, Sasuke. She has been suffering for the past six years, and all because of YOU. You don't understand the extent of the pain you've caused in this world, pain that affected those people closest to me. I pity you for your ignorance, and in that sense, you are the most pitiful shinobi."
They stood there, much like it had been at the battle between the Kyuubi and the curse seal, except this time it was Sasuke who dangled helplessly from Naruto's powerful grip, and tears ran freely down Naruto's face, rolling down his cheeks and dripping onto the grass where they mingled with Sasuke's blood. Tears that Naruto didn't shed when he was hanging by his neck; tears that Sasuke didn't deserve.
Completely depleted of chakra, Sasuke hung limply and fought the realization that he was never going to achieve his goal, and that his life was going to end far too soon. With his eyes clenched shut, he fought the darkness that was approaching.
"Sasuke."
Sasuke opened his eyes.
"When I kill Itachi, I'll make sure he knows it's from you. Forgive me, Sasuke. Forgive me."
Sasuke felt a sharp pain in his chest, felt warmth spilling out of his torn heart, then…nothing.