"You aren't getting away so easily, you bastard," Naruto's breath washed over Sasuke's face. The proximity was daunting, but the Uchiha betrayed no emotion. His face remained pallid, eyes red and clouded. The blade of his katana whined against Naruto's kunai.
"You won't be able to stop me," Sasuke finally spoke and though it was no more than a hushed whisper, it seemed to echo through the forest. "Still too weak, even after all these years? Pitiful."
Naruto's eyes flared and everything was bleeding red, red, red. Around him, the forest seemed to ignite along with his body and everything burned with such ferocity that for a heartbeat he feared he might be lost to it. But this wasn't the time, and certainly not the place. He needed to bring Sasuke back, but on his own. This time there would be no borrowed strength.
"No. I won't lose, not this time," he growled dangerously, leaping backward from their stalemate and allowing his eyes to roam over his enemy. Taller than he remembered, certainly. But now there was hardly any trace of the Sasuke he was looking for, the Sasuke of five years ago.
The Uchiha smirked. A cruel gesture void of all humor. With infinite slowness, he sheathed his blade and took a step toward Naruto. Perhaps his own mind playing vicious tricks on him, Naruto swore he saw a flicker of desperation in his best friend's face but the next second it was gone.
"I told you long ago that it was too late," Sasuke said, cocking his head slightly to the side. "And yet here you are. It's pathetic, you cannot win. You mean .. nothing to me." He sneered at the blonde and before sight, before sound, Sasuke was driving the katana's blade directly though Naruto's chest.
Naruto sank to his knees with a strange grace, supporting his body with his palms clutching the dirt. He coughed, blood spilling from him lips but he didn't feel any of it. Already, a burning had started low in his stomach. Sasuke's gaze never left Naruto as he withdrew the blade, something peculiar reflecting in his crimson eyes. Naruto noticed it, he always noticed such subtle things about the dark haired shinobi. Even now as blood, thick and warm leaked from his abdomen he saw the uncertainty in the Uchiha's stare.
"What wrong, Sasuke? Can't even kill me, bastard?" Naruto choked out his words, digging his nails into the soil. He couldn't help it now, fire was invading his mind. The air around him smelled of burnt leaves and Naruto knew that Sasuke was wary.
The Uchiha didn't return the taunts. He was carefully watching as a red haze enveloped Naruto's body. It surged across his frame quickly now, and Sasuke wasn't sure as to what he should do. Blood, dried and dusting, faded away from the blade's exit wound and it seemed as if nothing had ever been there.
Sasuke was not surprised when the first tail twisted into existence, nor was he when the second whipped back and forth. By now Naruto had his face buried in his hands, still on all fours. The fox was making a horrific screaming noise and Sasuke could only assume that it was Kyuubi healing all the wounds on Naruto's body in seconds.
A few minutes later and everything fell back into a strange silence. Naruto slowly lifted his head from his arms to look at Sasuke. When he smiled, it was all fangs. 'Sasuke,' his voice came rough and biting. "What have they done to you?" Naruto glared at Sasuke through demon eyes.
But the Uchiha gave an even stare back, stepping toward Naruto. He didn't stop, even when he could feel the heat radiating off of Naruto's body, flames seeming to lick at his outstretched finger tips.
And suddenly, everything was dank and wet. Sasuke stood ankle deep in murky water. The barred prison of the Kyuubi was burning, flames consuming so much that he could barely make out the figure of Naruto at the base of the cage, head in his hands. Behind him, Kyuubi gave a ferocious roar that reverberated throughout the enclosure.
Naruto didn't move, even as Sasuke slipped between the bars and knelt in front of him. Only when the Uchiha's hand hovered hesitantly above his shoulder did Naruto glance up.
" .. Sasuke?" he whispered, surprised at how unsure his voice sounded. He was looking at the ghost of his memory. The Sasuke that had occupied Team Seven, the Sasuke that Naruto had vowed to bring back. And there he was, twelve again, with his outrageous blue training outfit and charcoal eyes.
Sasuke redirected his stare. "You have to let me go, Naruto. It's over, and I have no reason to kill you," he said with a steely voice that made Naruto tremble.
"What do you mean by that?" Naruto looked up at him defiantly, blue eyes weighed down by too many battles fought and blood spilt. "I promised them I would bring you home and that's what I'm going to do."
Sasuke looked pained when he turned back to Naruto. "Itachi is dead."
As quickly as it had come, the flames vanished and both of them were standing back in the forest. Naruto stood silent, cerulean eyes wide and staring. He felt just like a child in that moment, taken backward to stumble through all those times when Sasuke swore vengeance. And now he had it. Thinking about it, Naruto found it made sense. He no longer traveled with Sound ninja, he had discovered him alone in this deserted forest.
"Itachi is dead," Sasuke repeated after some time, as if trying to convince himself. His voice came off shaky, though no one but Naruto would have noticed. Just like Naruto was the only one who could catch the sudden wave of despair well up in his old friend's dark eyes. His sharingan faded, as did his aggression and it struck Naruto that he looked out of place in that kimono. Like he had shrunk and it hung loose from his body.
The missing nin was the one to fall to his knees this time and Naruto found that he had never seen Sasuke so vulnerable, never spilling so much emotion. And, admittedly, it wasn't much. Sasuke seemed frozen, perhaps trapped in a Maneyko Sharingan of his own, hands laying useless at his side.
This left Naruto feeling uncomfortable. He wasn't sure how to react to a Sasuke that wasn't composed. Every time he had ever seen the Uchiha as far back as he could remember he had been poised and deadly, always alert and moving with an easy grace the blonde had yet to see in any other ninja. Any except Itachi, perhaps.
"Sasuke," Naruto said, eyes helpless. "We could go home, I'm sure that Tsunade could work something out. We could be on a te --"
"No!" Sasuke snapped his head up, still bowed on his knees. But his eyes were livid and wild. He didn't bother to hide the distain on his porcelain face. "Don't you understand?! It's done! He's dead! There's nothing left!" And to his horror, Naruto watched wetness built up in the corner of Sasuke's eyes. It never fell, even as the seconds passed, but remained there for Naruto to cringe at.
Above them, the sky stretched on a yawning, unending grey. Naruto felt heavy, like it was pressing down upon his chest. He had always been the most emotional out of his graduating class and it showed now.
"I .. I promised I would bring you home," Naruto mumbled and dropped to his knees in front of Sasuke. The two ninjas sat there, an awkward tension in the air until Naruto brushed past it and leaned forward, wrapping a tanned arm about Sasuke's delicate neck. Carefully, he reached his free hand and grasped Sasuke's own, holding onto it tightly.
Sasuke stiffened under his touch, but Naruto chose to ignore it. He rested his chin in the crook of his friend's neck. "Please let me do this for you," he whispered, eyes closed and breathing in the metallic scent of blood and spice that clung to Sasuke's clothes.
The dark haired shinobi said nothing, but leaned slightly into Naruto's arms. He would never admit weakness. No Uchiha was so weak as to cry. But even as he told himself this, made a mantra in his mind and chanted it over and over again, it didn't stop a lone tear from sliding down his cheek and landing on their clasped hands.