And It Will Never Come Off.
Red.
There was red everywhere. Naruto couldn't see a single spot that wasn't covered in it. It covered the ground he walked upon, it stained his sandals, his entire jumpsuit was drenched in red, it was all red. He knew no amount of washing would be able to get it off. Nothing ever would. It stained his clothes just as it now stained his mind.
How did it come to this? How? What singular event could have started this? Some distant and vague voice in the back of his head told him he did know how it started and that he wasn't entirely innocent in the happenings of the events of now. Naruto desperately tried to regain a grip on his thoughts. After all, the battle was still raging on around him.
He looked up suddenly, hearing the sound of another one fall. They were all falling around him now. He knew he had to get up, to continue fighting, not just because it was him and he never backed down (never letting his opponents forget him, forget that he was still there and that he was existing and by no means would he let himself be ignored again, not if he could help it), but because he actually wanted to fight. He wanted to feel that red on him, to make others covered in it. What probably amazed him the most, however, was that, despite his awareness of these morbid thoughts, they did not bother him in the least. While dodging an attack aimed for his head, Naruto decided that he should just stop thinking and fight already.
The blonde looked around, finding more ammo to use against the other. He cursed, realizing how little he had left. This was bad. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto could already see that there would be no one to aid him in this fight. Hinata had already fallen, now sporting crimson in her ebony hair. Naruto felt a touch sympathy for her; she never had been a fighter, too kind for her own good. She should never have had to be a part of this. Sympathy was soon replaced with a bout of self disgust. He had gotten her involved in this. This situation was all his fault. And she had to pay for it.
Naruto ducked behind an upturned object, not paying attention to what exactly it was, while simultaneously shaking away his train of thought. He looked around again, to double assess the current situation. This only proved to correct his earlier thought; he was alone. Not only was Hinata down, but Shikamaru was no longer participating in the battle either (had he ever really joined in? or had he just given up, like always, thinking it to be 'too troublesome'?). Good 'ole Chouji was there too, laying next to his best friend. He was trying to talk some sense into Shikamaru, a difficult thing to do while trying not to get hit himself, though he seemed to be less concerned about his own safety now.
Pausing to catch his breath, Naruto couldn't help but to think that the condition of the battle was now hopeless. Oh how much it pained him to admit it, but even he could no longer deny these thoughts, these facts. He was tired, all his comrades were out, and the opponents weren't relenting in their attack in the least. He closed his eyes, wanting to rid the scene of all the red (all the red in the world must have been in that one area, he was sure of it). The blonde also tried to block out the screams and the war cries that filled the vicinity. Would this never end?
As he gasped for breath, Naruto suddenly opened his eyes. He had a horrible revelation. Horrible, but true. He only had one real hit left in him. One. That was all. And, gritting his teeth now in determination, he knew exactly who he was going to give it to. Whipping his head around from his makeshift barricade, he frantically looked for black hair with matching black –
"Dobe."
Black eyes. They stared at him from across the battlefield, filled with an emotion that Naruto didn't even have to try to read. Disgust was evident in those eyes. Naruto frowned in sudden anger. It was all the teme's fault anyway. It was his fault that he was here, that he – everyone – was soaked in red and having to witness this battle that seemed to last on forever (Naruto badly tried to squash the little voice that came back with a YOU were never blameless in this either, after all, YOU made the first move).
Naruto then started to seethe when he saw what the bastard did next. He smirked. The bloody bastard smirkedat him! He actually had the audacity to smirk at him when they were all covered in – No. It couldn't be. Naruto's eyes widened before he started to see red. The same red that was everywhere around, on, in him. That is, it was everywhere except on Sasuke. This seemed to drive Naruto mad. Here that damned teme was, standing right in the middle of the fucking battle, and yet he was clean as if he just changed into new clothes. Naruto decided that if he was going to be drenched in red, then the bastard would be too.
The blonde stood, still keeping azure eyes locked with dark ones. He picked up the last weapon and, with a war cry, charged. Ebony eyes widened, obviously not expecting such a full frontal assault while in the center of the massive battle. Still, shinobi senses kicked in, and he managed to effortlessly dodge Naruto's onslaught. This did nothing to deter the blonde. With another roar of rage, the blonde dropped his weapon and tackled the Uchiha to the ground. The two proceeded to wrestle with each other, trying to make the other dirtier with the red. Sasuke was winning but Naruto didn't care. He didn't care if they got in the way of wayward attacks, didn't care if the battle was still being fought, didn't care about anything except for that fucking teme and his fucking smirk that was back and getting him covered in red, and –
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?!"
Silence. That was all that met Iruka's enraged (or was it more shocked than raged? it was hard to tell) cry. Red splattered to the floor from kids' hands, still posed in the act of throwing. Naruto, too, had stopped in his assault of Sasuke to stare at the teacher.
For the first time in all his years of teaching, Umino Iruka was stopped dead in his tracks at the sight that greeted him. Red. Red was everywhere. He saw it on the ceiling, on the floor, and all over the children's clothes. How could this have happened?
Iruka closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and counted backwards from a hundred. Never again would he leave the students unattended during lunch. But seriously, how could someone expect him to believe, even with the evidence before him, that they'd actually start a food fight with tomato soup of all things?