Firs of all, I do not own Naruto.
Beware of spoilers!!
And I'm real sorry for the typos and grammar errors, i did not really take the time to re-read this but with time it shall improove.
So I hope you enjoy.
I would like to say that some of the lines Sasuke and Naruto say come from a song, so I would recommend the two songs that had inspired me to write this:
Daughtry- Call your Name
Daughtry- Open your eyes.
RR.
Thank you and enjoy :)
Clouds were drifting through the thick line of the clear cerulean sky, ready for sunset, as he laid, all bloody, sticky and sweaty, panting heavily in the dirt.
He closed his eyes for the briefest moment, inhaling the sharp air, feeling to damn tired, as if all of the tiredness that had welled up throughout the years had seemingly just broken out on him.
He sighed. As he heard the still-loud panting of the bloody blonde boy beside him. As he looked at him, he could see angry cerulean eyes staring into the equally cerulean but not as beautifully shaded sky. Golden locks were sprayed out beneath his head, dirt sticking through it. As he watched the gaki, he had tried to wipe the sweat off of his forehead,only to smear some dirt on it as well. As he realized, he swore under his breath, making Sasuke laugh at the dobe.
They had fought. Their very last fight as they both lay there panting, waiting for that last breath, the last flutter of eyelashes, the last sunset, they'll get to see together, the last glance they shall share. As friends.
In these last moments, as he awaited his own death, he found himself beyond in peace with the thought.
Danzo, was dead. The elders, dead. Though, Konoha remained untouched as Naruto had been the one to stop him from destroying it. As he turned his head torwards the now orange-glowing sky, he internally kicked himself thinking about what Naruto had said to him after he had killed Danzo. When the day for their fight shall come, they will both die.
The usuratonkachi knew something that he never even anticipated. No Sharingans in the world could have prepared him for the fierce fight the two had shared like, only half an hour ago.
But now they came to peace as Sasuke had consumed himself, and so did Naruto. They were completely utterly wasted. They had had a final attempt to kill each other, which is what explained why they now laied both with a hole through them, bleeding to death in a pile of dirt and their own blood, mixing. Mixing the outcast, feared, cold- hearted Uchiha, with the monster, the host of a Bijuu, of the Kyuubi, the number one baka, the ray of hope to everyone.
It was like they were two caricatures of each other. Sasuke characterizing everything Naruto would never be, whilst Naruto doing the same for himself. But he never could help but feel the fact that Naruto was the one, who despite the fact that he totally lacked any sign of a brain, made him feel whole. And that was saying something for the Uchiha.
'Teme... You..still alive?' he heard a hoarse voice, slightly trembling in the same time he felt Naruto's hand reaching out for his own. Even tough, normally he would have snapped his hand back, he was too tired of running from his feelings, from his friend. He was just all too tired for anything anymore. Maybe it was the right thing for everything to just end there and then.
'Hai.' he said not looking at his friend as the other grabbed a tight hold of his hand. He did not look at Naruto, but instead he looked at their hands entwined. And felt a pang of happiness he hadn't felt since he was a little kid, when Itachi would take him out, training.
He always loved Naruto, from the first time he had set his eyes on him. If not as a lover then as a friend, he had come to care for him as deeply as a brother, or maybe even more, but he never really payed attention to it before. He smiled ironically at himself. Was it not ironical, how life just kept laughing at him? Even in his death it just kept making fun of him, telling him how much of a fool he might have been for ignoring some things that could have prevented them from being here in the way they were and maybe make things turn out in a whole other way.
He always hated himself for over thinking things up until the point where a little alarm like sound would go off telling him he was overheated and maybe on the verge of shutting down.
'Are you hanging on.. Naruto?' he finally asked as he forced his head as to look at the pale blonds cheeks noticing the blood that spilled down at the corners of his mouth, realizing that Naruto was probably having internal bleeding, which will take him away from the land of the living way before it took him. The thought made his heart sink into the pit of his stomach. He felt repulsed with himself, disgusted, ashamed. Not even as he learned the truth about Itachi and his true intentions had he felt such a complex inner torment as he felt while seeing his best friend, the only one who ever gave a damn, besides his brother, bleeding to death beside him, and knowing it was all his fault that the boy would die with those tear glazed eyes, hazy gaze and the thought,revolving in his head, that he never had the chance to become Hokage.
The ninja world had stolen his dreams for him, and what did he do instead? He stole the dreams of the single person, the only one he cared about besides all of his dead and burried relatives that were never going to come back, no matter what he avenged. He could have killed flies for revenge, for all the Shinigami cared. Truth was that he needed to accept, that the dead were dead. As realization hit him harder than it ever had before. He spent a lifetime, chasing the vague ghosts of his parents' thinking that avenging their deaths, would somehow bring them back, or maybe, bring an ease to his own restless soul? What had he been thinking? All those years, wasted, into thin air. All those years, training with Iruka, at the Academy, with Kakashi and their Team 7, Naruto, Sakura, Orochimaru. Team Hebi,Suigetsu, Juugo, Karin, Madara. What was it all for? For him to came to this realization in the end?
He had turned on the wrong path, and had walked many many miles into a dark forest he never ever found his way out of again. He was still the lost, broken-hearted child that once sunk on his hands and knees, on the blood-tinted wooden floors, crying out for his Mother and Father.
Even before he realized it himself, tears of rage and hatred, but this time, against himself were pouring down his own, ghost-pale cheeks as he bit his injured lips in an attempt to hold back any sobs that would escape his mouth without his will.
He did not want to cry. He did not want Naruto to see him cry. He did not want the dobe to know just how wretched he felt inside for that path of pain he had taken.
He didn't want anyone to know how sorry he was.
Yet, he wanted Naruto, only him, the only one that has ever mattered, since Itachi, to be able, to forgive him.
He turned his head back to face the idiot, who now lay staring at him, a curious gaze penetrating his own black orbs.
'Are you ..crying..teme?' Naruto bit out strengthening his hold on Sasuke's hand for a few seconds as if to ensure him that he was okay, and that he was concerned for his well being.
'Naruto...I...tell me something please' Sasuke started closing his eyes to make things easier.
' What? What do you want to know, Sas'ke? ' Naruto asked edging closer to him, so close that Sasuke could feel his breath on his skin. No longer the Ramen flavored breath, the tongue he had felt in his mouth such a long time ago, his first kiss, was with Naruto, everything revolved around the blond, he thought he blew the smell of death over him. The smell of dried blood and fresh one. Smell of earth, musk, and sweat that still in the slightest way characterised Naruto.
'When you'd fall apart..was I the reason for your endless sorrow.. Naruto?' he asked putting all of his feelings in one simple question that held so much emotion he did not know if the Usuratonkachi actually understood what he had just asked, and so he opened his eyes. Continuing. ' Did you ever hear me, when i called you name, just like I heard yours, every time you'd call mine. And i'd know, someone somewhere was thinking of me' He stated seeing as shock clearly washed over Narutos features.
' Teme..I...I never blamed you..for anything. When I..' But sasuke cut in the middle of his sentence.
' When you fall apart, Naruto, am I the reason for you endless sorrow?' he asked again, repeating himself, which he did for ..well nobody, except this exception. Naruto, who made an exception to him in everything.
Naruto seemed to gulp, not knowing what to say as he finally closed his eyes himself, tears sliding slowly from underneath them, sliding down, making their way silently down his cheeks. Sasuke wanted to wipe them off, but then again his limbs were so numb he could barely even feel Naruto's hand holding his anymore.
'Naruto..please..I need..to know.' Sasuke said, in a voice, he did not recognize as his own. He was himself drained and tired, hanging on to his hand, to those ocean-blue eyes for dear life, for he needed to know. He needed to find out how Naruto truly felt.
'Yes. My answer is yes. Yes, you were the reason, and yes..I heard you, calling my name, and I knew you were thinking of me just as often as I was thinking of you. That was what made me, never loose hope in our friendship. I knew..you did not severe our bond. Because you couldn't have, even if you wanted to.'
Sasuke felt at ease.
' Can you..forgive me? Usuratonkachi..' he asked his voice growing low with the sudden tiredness as he felt himself nearing the end. At least, he knew that Naruto, always felt him thinking of him.
'I forgive you Sasuke..' he said looking deeply into the Uchihas' eyes. ' Can you forgive yourself?' he asked in return.
But Sasuke knew it was a question that he couldn't answer. He merely nodded vaguely, not seeming entirely convincing. He wasn't convinced himself, that he would ever find peace, knowing how much he had destroyed in Naruto's pure soul.
Looking at Naruto. His friend. His love. His brother. His everything.
'Naruto.. I ..' he started but Naruto lifted his hand and shushed him.
' I love you too.' he said and smiled his toothy smile at the Uchiha.
Sasuke was content. Forcing himself to smile and squeeze Narutos hand.
'Will you do one last thing for me, Sasuke? With you last breath? Please? ' Naruto asked as Sasuke nodded tiredly. 'Close your eyes.' And he did as he was told. He knew that he wouldn't be able to open them ever again, so he took one last look at his blond friend.
The whisker marks, the tears, the dried blood, the blonde hair, the loving smile, she chapped, parted lips. He adored everything in him. He just wished he had never caused a single tear to slide down those tan cheeks, never caused a head-ache or the feeling of guilt to rise in his pure soul. He never wanted Naruto, to blame himself for what Sasuke had done. The path he chose, was his own huge mistake and no one needed to take the blame for him. Especially not Naruto. But he had forgiven him, for what he did, for the path he chose. Out of everyone that had once pretended to be there for him, Naruto was the one that stuck out for him until the very end.
He smiled. He loved him.
Then he closed his eyes, in peace, knowing that he was forgiven.
He then felt a kiss on his lips, and the taste of his friend and smiled, as a drained voice whispered into his ear.
' For the first time, you can open your eyes, and see the world without your sorrow, where no one knows the pain you left behind, and all the pace you can never find, is waiting there to hold and keep you..
Sasuke..
Welcome, to the first day of your life'
and the voice faded and with a thud he heard Narutos head hit the ground as he himself faded into the nothingness he recognized as death.
But hen he ended up in a bright place where he opened his eyes. As Naruto's last words echoed in his mind, he saw the blossoming Sakura threes and heard the birds' songs. And all the things he had never paid any need before. The fresh air and the wind that carried a shout and a laughter that made him look around.
He saw them all. Each and every one of them standing there waving at him. His Mother and Itachi smiling, even Father was smiling motioning for him to come to them.
And he saw Naruto,grinning idiotically at him, like he did when they were kids. He stood up and looked around for he last time at the scene he labeled as the world he never knew from that day on. He took the step towards them and as he reached he heard Naruto's silent laugh as he whispered in the ravens soft hair.
' Now, Sasuke, we'll be able to truly understand each other in the end..' and he smiled, his all knowing but idiotic smile.
Sasuke admitted he was right. They were no longer the Uchiha and the Kyuubi. They were no longer the outcast, the survivor and the monster that had caused so much pain, unwillingly, unknowingly.
From now on they were just Naruto and Sasuke.
And they would be together, forever.
It was the first day of eternity for Sasuke.
First day in Heaven.
And he finally found out, that the stars at least held a place for everyone that he had once loved and everyone that had once loved him.
And the time he got to spend with them, from now on was just the payment, for all the shit that he had lived through.
He had gotten from Hell, to heaven, he thought as he was embraced by Itachi.
All the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
He was happy.
And he knew then and there..that there was such a thing as a happy ending, even to him.
The one who suffered. The one who hated. The one who avenged. The one who killed. The one who hurt.
Still the blonde angel had saved him from the Hell he was putting himself through.
Naruto was the Angel his mother had always told tales about.
His saviour.
Uzumaki Naruto.
The End.
