Prologue-Sunset
The blood seemed endless. It was splattered like decorative flowers across the grass and trees in slash-shaped marks, a story of the immediate events that had happened there. A teenage boy, trying to take in all the hatred of his best friend and failing, now at his opponent's mercy as he stood panting and barely supporting his own weight. Only his immensely strong willpower and his need to fulfill his promise, his nindo, kept him upright, swaying… One moment, his ex-friend and teammate was in front of his eyes, and the next, a quick, sharp pain hit his chest as the other ninja disappeared…
I wish… I… wish…
And suddenly Naruto Uzumaki lie on his back, his bright cerulean eyes staring into the light of the dying sun. The colors bled over the grasses of the horizon, seeping into the trees, the sky… a rattling breath forced its way into his remaining lung, the other filling rapidly with his own blood. Sasuke's katana had made a neat puncture wound right through Naruto's left lung and the life-giving arteries of his heart. He had seconds to live, at most… even Kyuubi couldn't fix this, what with Sasuke's new ability to separate Naruto from the demon fox internally. Not this time.
Naruto fell into despair as he lay dying, his eyes filling with tears and memories of his past… Sasuke and Naruto as small children, wanting to become friends but too proud to be anything but rivals… the two of them as teammates, working together to take down their enemies, secretly longing to be like one another… Naruto's pleas for Sasuke to return, to come back to the light of the village… Sasuke's shocked face as Naruto claimed their friendship, even in the face of the Uchiha's horrifying crimes and plans for revenge against Konoha… and now, Naruto's failure to take all of Sasuke's hatred upon himself, to shoulder the burden of Sasuke's grief by using his own death as the missing-nin's outlet.
And… Naruto's promise to Sakura—whether or not she'd changed her mind about making the jinchuuriki keep it—was broken, forever. His last act in his own life was to break her heart, to fail the one that he loved.
I wish I could have a chance… to do it all over again… I could have saved him…
Sasuke stood over the jinchuuriki, and for once, the crazed, cold look was gone from his face, replaced with an unreadable stare. The Sharingan had long since deactivated during the two young men's intense battle, and the Uchiha's eyes were back to being their flat onyx color. Naruto reached a hand upwards towards Sasuke, his glassy eyes pleading, asking…
Please forgive me. I'm so sorry… forgive me… Sasuke… Sakura…
With a last gurgling breath, the blonde's arm dropped to the soft grass. Sasuke stood there for a few moments, the wind playing with his ravenesque hair. Then he vanished, the cold, vengeful chakra permeating his soul once more.