**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. This is the sequel to "Friends 'Till The End", hope you like. :)
If you were content with the way "Friends 'Till The End" ended, then I don't recommend you reading this. I just couldn't bare the thought of leaving it where I left off, it was way too sad and I'm the one who wrote it. xD Not that this one won't be sad, too. I mean, it's Naruto and Sasuke's relationship we're talking about here, and that's not a light topic. They've been through so much. ;_;
Warning for yaoi, and of course lots of SasuNaru action.
My sincere wish is that they'll all be smiling one day. :')
Friends Forever
Crack.
"Darn it!" Sakura muttered in annoyance. She bent over to retrieve the treasured picture frame that had taken a freefall from her nightstand, light pink bangs brushing gently against her eyelids. A depressed sigh escaped her pale lips as she gazed at the cherished photo of Team 7. Beautiful memories of a time full of innocence, happiness, laughter and love, flowed over her emotional reservoir that kept them at bay. They re-opened old wounds, and welcomed the pain that Sakura tried so hard not to feel. All of those precious moments were in the past. Nothing would ever be the same now.
Naruto's face instantly filled her mind, reminding her of the promise he had made to her five years ago. The promise that he would bring Sasuke home. Her annoying blonde team-mate had left on a solo mission to search for Sasuke again without telling anyone. She had known why he left as soon as she became aware of his departure. He would never give up on Sasuke, even if it meant giving up his dream of being Hokage. It tugged at her heart; she ought to have the same faith in Sasuke as Naruto does, afterall, they were all members of Team 7. Comrades. Friends. But the heart that was once filled with hope and love, was replaced with one filled with loss and helplessness. Sakura was tired of hoping. All it ever did was crush her in the end, and after five long years without Sasuke she had given up on her hope. What remained was the memories, but those seemed unreal, like a fantasy.
Her sea-green eyes darted to a crack in the glass over the picture. It upset her greatly, and for some odd reason caused her stomach to churn uneasily.
"Oh, no! This crack runs right through Sasuke-" She gasped, her hands beginning to shake. There were two ugly cracks in the glass; one that went right through Sasuke, while the other went straight through Naruto. It distorted their faces making them nearly unrecognizable, even mangling their bodies. The only clear people in the photo now were Sakura and Kakashi-sensei.
This was a bad omen.
Eyes wide and welling with tears, Sakura turned around slowly to peek out her bedroom window. The sky outside was dark and ominous, a thick blanket of black clouds hovering over Konoha. Rain pounded against the window pane, and she could hear thunder rumbling angrily behind the clouds.
Something was wrong.. very wrong.
Fearing the worst, she placed a trembling hand over her mouth as she emitted a loud sob, failing to contain the tears gathering around her thick eyelashes.
"Naruto.. Sasuke..."
There was no warmth left in the clearing.
The sky above bubbled and boiled furiously, a large, roiling mass of black clouds like tar and lava as one. Thunder roared through the pounding of heavy rain, causing the earth to tremble. The droplets that fell from the sky were freezing cold, adding an additional chill to the already icy air in the valley.
The cold, lingering presence of death.
Blood stained the sharp, jagged rocks below the waterfall, stains that even the rain could not wash away. They would remain there permanently, forever, for all eternity; like battle scars or tattoos, serving as a morbid reminder of what happened there. The Final Valley was filled with destruction, from a final clash of rivals, intent to kill. And there they lay, side by side, under the dark, stormy sky.
Two boys who loved each other.
Their pale, lifeless faces were turned to face one another, their hands intertwined tightly. They had died that way. The raven-haired boy who had followed the dark path of revenge, and the blonde boy who had stopped at nothing, even death, to save him.
The heavens were crying, mourning the loss of the two boys that had killed each other. The silence was heart-breaking.
But deep within the blonde boy, something was stirring. An evil, ragged growl, that was inaudible to the rest of the world, echoed inside the lifeless body.
"I will not die."~
Very slowly, the hole in the blonde boy's chest began to heal. Not completely... but just enough.
Tissues re-attached, the wound no longer a hole, but a very deep gouge of flesh. The Nine-Tailed Fox spirit refused to die; but to live, it had to save the human in which it resided. Its powerful, ominous red chakra flowed through the blonde boy's body, all the way down to the bloody tips of his fingers, determined to spark life in the corpse.
"I will not be defeated so easily."~
It forced its chakra through the blonde's veins and into his heart. It hated the boy and being trapped inside him, but their lives were tied together as one. The Nine-Tails didn't have long before it too, would die. Red chakra pulsated through every fibre of flesh in the blonde; the fox refused to die and give up, a trait that it shared with its keeper.
"Get up!"~
The bloody corpse remained eerily still. But the Nine-Tails was a powerful demon fox afterall, and had plenty of chakra to spare. It pushed and pushed for life; using all of its might and energy to get the blonde boy's heart beating again. The situation seemed hopeless. Hours passed, until finally...
B-bmp.
B-bmp, b-bmp, b-bmp..
"Gyaaaughh!" Naruto gasped in agony, sitting up. He coughed up blood, wincing at the pain that shot through the deep, gory gouge in his chest. Wait.. gouge? His big blue eyes widened as realization hit. The Nine-Tails... He couldn't believe it; he was sitting there in the valley, the rain falling gently on his face, breathing.. "I'm alive.." Naruto said in wonder and shock. But then he froze. No...
His hand was connected to someone else's. The other hand was cold and limp, but was somehow still gripping Naruto's tightly. The skin of the other boy was paler than usual, a shade of ghostly white. His choppy, black hair was splayed across a lifeless face. The beautiful black orbs that were the boy's eyes weren't visible; they were closed, dark eyelashes caressing the ivory cheeks, while the black bangs brushed his eyelids. That face was turned towards Naruto...
"Sasuke!" Naruto whispered in anguish, as tears fell upon his beloved rival's corpse.
He hadn't made it.
Hey guys! =^_^= I hope you're enjoying the sequel so far, don't worry it's nowhere near done yet. ;) I promise to have lots of SasuNaru/NaruSasu fluff stuff soon, just keep reading and waiting for updates! Please review, it'll make me happier than Naruto getting a lifetime supply of Ichiraku ramen. ;D
Also, if you didn't get the beginning with the picture breaking ting, it's common in Japan that if something like that happens it's a bad omen that something bad has happened to that person. It's another superstition kind of like when you sneeze it's because someone's talking about you. XD