„How dare you walk this street like nothing ever happened?"

He never answered those questions, never reacted to insults or even physical violence. He'd even been dragged into a dark alley once and beaten up. On the one hand he probably deserved this, on the other there was no way he could fight back, because that was just what they wanted and he wouldn't give it to them.

The only thing he could really do was walk with Naruto. The villagers didn't dare to say anything against him when he was with the hero of the Hidden Leaf.

When he reached his destination, he knocked on the door.

"Naruto, are you ready?"

"Just a sec", the blond shouted through the closed door.

"Hurry up!"

He sighed.

Suddenly the door flew open revealing a grinning blonde, who looked way too motivated for such a simple mission.

"Ready!"

"Alright, let's go. Hope this won't take us too long", Sasuke remarked.

"C'mon, just you and me, this'll be so much fun!"

"Yeah, I can already feel the fun", he said sarcastically.

"We haven't left the village yet and you're already a bastard!"

"Hn."

They were silent as they made their way through the streets of Konoha. Sasuke could feel the looks on his back, but as always no one said anything to him while he was with Naruto, so it was a rather peaceful walk toward the gates.

"What's our mission again?"

"Are you seriously asking me this? Don't you ever listen?"

"Gimme a break, not everyone's like you, Mr. Perfect!"

"You haven't changed a bit", Sasuke sighed and explained their mission to him again, although it wasn't true at all. Naruto'd changed a lot, he was much more mature than before and he'd become so strong.

Their target was some criminal, but they knew roughly were to find him and he was said to travel alone, so Sasuke expected it to be quite an easy mission that shouldn't ask too much of them.

"Alright, off we go!"

The blonde grinned from ear to ear, he just enjoyed being trusted with such missions. It meant that he was a useful shinobi of the Hidden Leaf after all.

By the time they found what they believed to be their target's hideout it was already starting to get dark, but then everything just happened way too fast.

Since they'd only expected one enemy, they were completely caught off guard when five people attacked them from behind.

They weren't even strong, but the element of surprise made it almost impossible to react. Sasuke could barely dodge their kunai, but he was hit by a fist instead.

He only looked in Naruto's direction when he heard him scream, but he couldn't see much, because most of his view was blocked by the attackers. All he saw was blood and he couldn't be sure whose it was.

"Naruto!"

He screamed, probably more than once, he couldn't quite remember, but there was no answer, only the sound of bodies moving around fast, although to him it felt like time had slowed down.

The situation made him mad, quite literally, it sent him on a rampage.

"Naruto!"

He called once again, while activating his Sharingan, but again there was no answer.

This time, he was attacked by all five at once, but they were stopped by black flames that began to crawl up their bodies.

Their screams filled the night for what must have been minutes, but all Sasuke cared about was looking for his partner.

He was wiping the blood from his face, just as he detected him. There he was, on the ground, bleeding, pierced by a katana.

"Naruto!"

As if shouting had ever helped in a stressful situation, but he just did it as a reflex.

On the other hand he was way too rational to wonder why the blonde wasn't moving. He knew there were things even Kyuubi's chakra couldn't cure, Naruto wasn't immortal after all. But on the other hand something in him hoped this would end well.

Sasuke collapsed right next to the blonde's body. Naruto's eyes were still wide in shock, he'd really not expected this. Stabbed. What a plain, unnecessary death.

Sasuke couldn't help but curse everything there was on this earth, while he pulled out the katana and wrapped his arms around the lifeless body. One shouldn't remove blades from bleeding wounds if there wasn't immediate medical care afterwards, but knowing all this was no use when it was already too late.

He still desperately felt for a pulse and not finding anything sent an almost unbearable sting through his chest.

All he could do was pull Naruto closer and just hope this wasn't real. True shinobi didn't cry, right? Although he felt like crying a lot, he'd been raised differently.

"What am I supposed to do now? Tell me, Naruto", he whispered desperately. Sasuke normally always had a good plan, but not this time. His breathing quickend. The whole situation felt so unreal, like he wasn't even inside his own body. He hyperventilated until he finally lost consciousness.

When Sasuke woke up Naruto was gone. Had this all just been a dream? He had difficulties figuring out what had been real and what hadn't, but his blood-stained clothing and seeing the burned bodies not far from him soon took him back to reality and he sprung to his feet.

"Naruto!"

No answer, of course, he was dead, but where was he?

"Hey, you're already up! No need to shout though."

The voice made his heart stop for a second.

"N-Naruto?"

He turned around just to see a grinning blonde standing before him.

"That's what they call me, believe it!"

"But you were- How are you-?"

"Since when do you stutter", Naruto mocked.

"C'mon, we gotta get back to Konoha. We can't take them all with us, but I guess they won't run away, before the Anbu come to collect them."

He pointed at the bodies.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Sasuke still couldn't believe his eyes. It had probably just taken Kyuubi's chakra a little longer to restore the blonde, although he still couldn't believe it. He'd held his lifeless body in his arms just hours ago.

They rushed back to Konoha and made it just before sunset.

"Wasn't the blood on your hands enough? Still needed to get it on your clothes, Uchiha?"

He chose to ignore it, as Naruto seemed to do the same, although he thought he saw the blonde clench his teeth a little.

It wasn't the only insult he received on their way to the residence of the Hokage, probably just wasn't his day or the blood on his clothes provoked them more than usual.

"You should just go ahead and report to Tsunade, I really want to go home, I feel so tired", Naruto said just before they wanted to enter.

"Uh, sure."

Must have been draining to die and get back from the dead, he thought.

"Ah, you're back", Tsunade greeted him.

"Here to report? What about Naruto?"

"He's already gone home", he began and then reported almost every detail about their mission, only leaving out the part where he'd lost it and went on a rampage, and blacked out because he thought he'd lost Naruto.

"Alright, I'll send some Anbu to grab the bodies. Please tell Naruto to get checked in the hospital, will you?"

He nodded and then left. Naruto's apartment wasn't far from the Hokage residence, so he decided to check on him once again, but when he knocked and no one responded he simply figured the blonde was already asleep, and he knew that guy would sleep through the apocalypse. He'd seen that he was fine after all, so he decided that it'd be okay to just try again tomorrow.

His apartment was across the village and the walk was pure torture, so he was more than relieved when he finally got home.

He undressed and stepped in the shower to wash off the blood that had soaked through his clothes. There was just so much of it and he couldn't seem to get it off, so he turned the temperature up for maximum effect, but it still didn't help.

He kept turning it up until his skin got all red from the heat, but he didn't feel the pain. Instead, he was satisfied when the red colour of his skin replaced the colour of dried blood.

When Sasuke dried himself and redressed, the loose fabric hurt his abused skin, but he could easily block it out as he threw the stained clothing into the hamper. He'd probably have to get them cleaned at the dry cleaner, but who'd take his clothing anyway? He could as well just throw them out, he thought, but that wasn't important now. He was just done, his body screamed for his bed, so he obeyed.

"Sasuke! Open up or else I'll have to find another way to get in!"

He was violently woken up by shouting and banging at his door.

"Sasuke, this is your last chance to open the door!"

Was this Kakashi? What was he saying?

"I'm coming in now!"

Sasuke stumbled towards the door and yanked it open, which resulted in Kakashi running into him shoulder first.

"Ow! Damn, what's this about?"

"Ah, you decided to open, I see."

"Yeah, no need to fly into me!"

"Sasuke, where's Naruto?", Kakashi turned dead serious.

"I don't know. His apartment probably. Why?"

"When have you last seen him?"

"Yesterday, our ways parted at the Hokage residence. He was exhausted and wanted me to report to Tsunade on my own, so he could go recover. Is something wrong?"

Sasuke really didn't like Kakashi's serious tone. This hardly ever meant anything good.

"Is this your final version?"

Kakashi shook his head slightly.

"What's this all about?"

"They're on their way here to arrest you for the murder of Uzumaki Naruto."

"They are what? Wait, what?"

This didn't make sense, his head began to spin.

"Naruto never returned to Konoha. They found his body only meters from the other bodies at the position you described."

This was even getting to Kakashi, who was usually emotionally detached.

"I wanted to talk to you about this, before they could get their hands on you. I just need to know this: What happened on your mission?"

But before he could answer, Sasuke fell to his knees.

"No…"

"Sasuke, tell me", Kakashi demanded, raising his voice.

"We were attacked. I told Tsunade. They surprised us. I killed them all. They stabbed Naruto. Naruto's dead", he barely muttered like he was on the brink of losing all sanity.

"He never recovered. He's dead."

It was more like he needed to tell himself in order for the message to sink in.

Before Kakashi could say anything else to him, Sasuke fell forward, digging his nails into the wooden floor painfully.

"He's dead", he repeated and started sobbing.

"So, this wasn't you?"

He still had the audacity to ask this. How dare he? Anger shot through Sasuke's body, but he couldn't get it to move.

Instead, he could only look at him uncomprehendingly, piercing him with his now bloodshot eyes.

Kakashi, of all, knew him best among Naruto and Sakura. He couldn't really think he was capable of such a thing now, after all the past was behind them. Or wasn't it?

As he wondered if his former Sensei really thought he could do such a thing, Kakashi knelt beside him and placed a hand on his back.

"I'm so sorry", he simply said.

"I should have known better."

Sasuke couldn't hold back anymore.

There's two types of crying; the cute one that involves a few tears but is always over soon and then there's the ugly one that includes gross sobbing, tears streaming down your face like waterfalls and the most pained look you could ever have. The last one can go on for hours, way beyond the point at which you still have tears left to cry.

This was the ugly one. It was loud and it hurt, it just hurt.

His teeth were clenched to the point his whole jaw ached from the pressure, his fingernails were still digging into the floor violently and had begun to bleed.

Sasuke hadn't even noticed Kakashi sealing off his apartment.

The minutes passed and it all just felt so empty. He would have felt numb if it hadn't been for the intense headache. Instead he felt detached from his body, from reality, he didn't even notice the Anbu trying to break into his apartment, because he felt so far gone from reality that nothing could get to him.

Kakashi even stayed by his side as he curled up into fetal position, but this all didn't help. Naruto wouldn't come back. Naruto wouldn't come back. Naruto wouldn't come back. Naruto wouldn't come back!

This wasn't one of those things that sounded less awful the more you said it in your head, it actually sounded worse each time.

The thought alone sent his mind into total overdrive to the point he just screamed in pain.

Sasuke's tears had run dry way back, his mouth was still open, but he didn't make a sound. Had he been screaming for so long? He didn't even know.

"Why?"

"I wish I could tell you."

Kakashi'd kept his composure all this time. That was what he always did after all.

"Why him?"

"You'll never find those answers I'm afraid."

It made him angry, so fucking angry, but he couldn't do anything else than curl up more and dig his fingernails into the skin of his arms.

"Sasuke, stop", his former Sensei ordered and simply took his clenched hands in his.

"This isn't helping."

"But nothing is!"

It came out way louder than he'd intended.

Instead of flinching, Kakashi just came closer and embraced him in a tight hug.

"It's okay."

He didn't say what was, but it was obvious he hadn't meant Naruto's death. He'd meant Sasuke's emotions; the sadness, the anger, the desperation, feeling in general – that was what was okay.

It also assured Sasuke that his former Sensei didn't think he was guilty.

That alone was enough for him to feel a little at peace with himself.

Naruto'd been everything to him, now he just hurt. A piercing pain went through his heart that was almost exploding inside of his chest. He felt so sick he wanted to throw up.

There was cold sweat on his forehead and he was panting, as the Anbu broke through Kakashi's seals. Slowly the world around him turned black. At first around the edges, then completely and he was gone.

Cardiac arrest.