Author's notes
Hello everybody! I have written [yet another one-shot based on Sasuke and Naruto. Right now I have so many ideas I can't type faste enough! This is just a re-doing of something I wrote awhile ago, so it's not be great, but i think it's worthy of being posted...
Warning: character death, angst
Disclamor: Do you honestly think that if I owned NARUTO, I would allow Orochimaru to put those stupid little bow things on everything?
Author: Obsessive
There was always something between them. Whether it was a girl or a man, there was always something. Something keeping them from being friends, something that kept them nothing but rivals.
At first it was Sakura. From the beginning, her school girl crush was fuel on the fire. From Naruto's point of view, her unwavering admiration was devotion, and it filled him with envy. From Sasuke's, it was an unwelcome hindrance, just an obstacle in his way. Her "love" had caused countless disputes, and the distance swelled further every time. Then Orochimaru and Itachi had entered Konoha, and things just got worse. They're talks of strength and weakness touched Sasuke's insecurities nicely. Every step he took pushed the two never-quite-friends even further apart. And Naruto fought hard to get him to turn back, to make that distance reduce, but it was futile. No matter how much he spoke of their home and their family, nothing seemed to get through, and when it was all over, Naruto couldn't help but cry.
Three years passed. Three long years, filled with intense work, new teammates, old memories. Those years were intense for both, for all, because no one could escape the shackles of their pasts. They met again, the last time, and one look told you all you needed to know. Those boys, who had everyone's secret hopes and fears in their hands, weren't even the slightest bit close anymore. They weren't even on the same planet. Sasuke's eyes had a permanently glazed over quality, the kind you get when you've been trapped in your head for months, all your memories on permanent replay.
The group's eyes, which had been alive with hope, suddenly dimmed with sadness as they looked at Sasuke. Naruto couldn't see it though. He still saw the boy who he had admired, respected, even feared. He did not, could not, see the shell that stood before him until it was too late.
It took until the blade swung down, and Naruto could literally hear his flesh being ripped away, that the realized what the others had before. It took until the splatter of blood was heard, and the screams of those near by echoed through the canyon, that he saw the horror that was before him, all wrapped up pretty with a little bow. Sadly enough, it took until his vision faded, blocking everything but the cold face of the Uchiha and the flicker of emotion's not quite there, and until all the sounds in the world beside's his own stilling heart faded, that the blonde finally knew.
The distance would never close, and Sasuke wasn't coming home.
So...review please? Reviews feed our souls...