''Dobe…''

The blonde did not have to turn around to know who had gotten him. Just the coldness in the guy's voice felt like thousands of burning daggers. His back started to feel the numbness from the loss of blood occasioned by the embedded shuriken thrown by the enemy. Naruto breathed slowly. He didn't move. A hit then connected with the back of his head. He did not resist and was easily thrown to the ground. A dark figure stood above him. The coldness of the night gripped his bones and made him shiver. He turned to lay half on his back in order to face his opponent. A raven-haired ninja stared back at him, his killer intent tangible in the air. A slight grin crossed Naruto's face. He had expected so much from the Uchiha.

''Out to take your revenge, Sasuke?'' he said almost playfully. Sasuke pierced through him with his dark glare. He was in fighting mode, probably with the intent to finish the blonde off. Naruto didn't move or seemed to intend to run away. He didn't even try to defend himself. He just lay there and stared at Sasuke, waiting to see his next move. Sasuke gripped a kunai until his knuckles turned white.

''You'll pay for what you said'' he finally whispered, his voice as cutting as the wind. Naruto didn't flinch. It was as if he waited for his opponent's next move. Sasuke kicked the blonde in the gut. Naruto yelped out in pain as air ran out of his lungs quickly. He panted heavily to somehow try to fill back the cavity of his chest with oxygen. On his side, Sasuke wasn't the one who was intending to let Naruto regain his breath as if they were in a child's play. This was no fun and game. He wanted to destroy the blonde. He kicked him again and again. Naruto bit his pain away and tried to resist from letting tears run out. He bit the insides of his mouth to not let Sasuke retrieve any fun from it. Sasuke stopped kicking Naruto as he was out of breath and stared at him as if he were a broken animal on the road.

''You're such a failure, Naruto! Why don't you just die? Everyone would be better off!'' Sasuke spat. Naruto lay on the ground. He hardly moved or show signs that indicated that he would. Sasuke got even angrier with the blonde.

''Dammit Naruto, fight back! Are you a wimp? Or is it that you really have gotten weak?'' Sasuke wondered. Naruto coughed up droplets of blood and smiled.

''You got what you wanted?'' he whispered. Sasuke was pissed at winning effortlessly. It didn't feel like winning to him. He felt more as though he was cheating because Naruto wouldn't fight back. Sasuke started laughing coldly.

''Is that what I wanted? To beat you down while you didn't fight back? That is too easy! I could've done that while you slept but that would've been no fun.'' Sasuke growled. Naruto shrugged and just curled himself up around where he'd been hit. Sasuke got even angrier, if that were even possible. He ran to where Naruto laid, kunai held tightly.

''Stop ignoring me! What is wrong with you? The guy I know is an annoying idiot who screams around and cannot be tamed down! Why are you giving up?'' Sasuke yelled. He activated his sharingan and when his eyes connected with Naruto's, he ended up in a dark place. The raven-haired tripped but caught himself up just before hitting the floor. He came face to face with a monstrous figure. The beast smiled with all of his wrath. Sasuke didn't understand at first. Then he saw Naruto on the side, looking weak. The demon then laughed coldly at the blonde's weakness.

''You get beaten up so easily, brat?'' asked the beast. Naruto looked down. Sasuke finally understood. He went closer to the monster. ''You're the nine-tailed fox, aren't you?'' he wondered. The demon started laughing.

''So that's the source of your strength, Naruto? That beast keeps you alive when you mess up?'' Sasuke reflected. The Kyuubi stopped laughing and stared at the Uchiha's eyes.

''An Uchiha… it's no wonder you can come in here. I know those eyes'' the beast started. Sasuke grinned. ''Remember them well, monster!'' he spat. He then threw the kunai with all his might towards the beast. The monster exploded when the kunai connected with him. Sasuke started giggling. ''There goes you're indestructible strength, Naruto!'' he spat.

Seconds later he was outside again and Naruto looked weaker than ever. He was now nothing more than a limp heap on the ground. Sasuke laughed coldly and kicked him a couple of times again. Naruto had lost the strength and the will to scream. He just choked on his breath after each hit, occasionally coughing droplets of blood.

''Look at yourself, Dobe. You're pathetic!'' Sasuke spat. ''You're just a weak failure!'' he added. Naruto's eyes were empty. He just stared at the ground. A slight smile crossed his face once more.

''You're the weak one'' he breathed. Sasuke froze. ''What did you say?'' he asked. Naruto repeated a little harder. He somehow kept a smile on his face. Sasuke saw red.

''You call me weak, when you're the one on the ground? Spare me your crap! You're the weak one because everybody hates you!'' Sasuke snapped. Naruto laughed.

''And you hate everybody… How's that even better'' Naruto asked. Sasuke clenched his fists and punched Naruto in the face. ''At least people recognize my strength! They don't call me dead-last!'' he teased. Naruto panted heavily. His vision started to blur from the pain and dizziness took over him.

''You will always be alone, Sasuke. It's impossible to stand around you without wanting to die!'' Naruto spoke. Sasuke grabbed a kunai and punched Naruto again and again. ''You want to die, idiot? Then take this!'' he snapped. When he stopped, Naruto's eyes were closed. He lay unmoving and covered in blood. Sasuke took a step back to look at the broken figure.

''Such a loser. He couldn't handle that much?'' Sasuke wondered. He poked Naruto on the side but the blonde didn't move. A heavy silence fell upon them. Sasuke finally regained his cool. He looked up at the sky to see that the clouds had gotten out of their hide to cover up the stars. Only a fragment of moon light remained. A cool wind blew and droplets of water started to pour from the sky. Sasuke looked down at Naruto as if debating if he should leave him there or cover him. He bent down to check on him when he fully realized what he had done. Naruto was limp and cold. There were no movements coming from him. Not even the slightest rise and fall of a broken chest. The raven-haired checked for a pulse or something that would testify that his friend was still alive. He didn't find anything. To him now, Naruto's was nothing more than a bloody corpse. A lifeless corpse. And the worst thing that occurred to Sasuke is that Naruto seemed to have wanted this all along. There was still the shadow of a broken smile upon his bloody face.

Sasuke started to panic. What was he going to do now? The only place he knew was Konoha and now how could he go back and pretend that nothing happened? He could always lie and say that Naruto had been attacked by enemies. But the village would know soon enough that no enemies of the leaf would have been around long enough to do such a thing to the blonde hyperactive ninja. Besides, said blonde could have defended himself if such a thing happened. Sasuke did not know what to do. He started hyperventilating at the idea of being thrown out of town or even worse, being sent to the special forces of ANBU who would slowly kill him by torturing him. This had to stay his secret. He had to buy time until he figured out what to do in that case.

The idea struck him and it scared him to have to think of that. He had to find a place to hide the body and then return to the village. He dragged the heavy corpse for a couple of miles out of town and managed to find an old sewer on the side of the road, hidden behind bushes. He dropped Naruto in the hole and ran off towards town. This would have to be his secret.

THEinvisible

The next morning, Sasuke was the first one to arrive to the team's reunion spot. He hadn't been able to rest at all over the night. The thought of what happened made him want to vomit. He was overall nervous about being caught. As much as he wanted Naruto to regret the things he said, he never wanted to go as far as to kill him. Sasuke would turn over hundreds of scenarios in his head. In those scenarios he either got caught by the special forces or the Hokage himself. He even thought once that Naruto would come out as a zombie and take the Uchiha to the grave with him. Sasuke was starting to feel paranoid. His whole body went stiff when Sakura arrived. He didn't know she was nearby and panicked when he heard her voice call out to him.

''Hey there, Sasuke-kun! You're early!'' she pointed out. He froze on his spot but wouldn't let her see that. He tried to act as cold as usual when he just wanted to run away or to tell her about what he did so she could kill him too. Instead, he shrugged her comment off and acted as usual even though for once it didn't feel natural.

''Sorry about yesterday'' she continued. ''Naruto was just being a pain as ever but I'm sure he didn't really mean it'' she added. Sasuke was processing every word now. He hadn't expected her to talk about the blonde so early. His heart beat so fast that he was afraid Sakura would hear it. He didn't want to talk about this. Not now. But he knew that it would have to come because there was no way Naruto would make it to the meeting. They would soon start searching for him.

''Hey Sasuke, are you listening to me?'' Sakura said, snapping him out of his thoughts. Sasuke turned to her in disbelief. ''You seem…distracted. What's on your mind?'' she asked. He shrugged it off quickly.

''Nothing, I'm just tired'' he admitted. Sakura frowned. Sasuke didn't usually complain about such things but she thought that if he said it, it must be true. ''I lectured him about annoying you anyway'' she started again. Sasuke turned to her confused.

''Who?'' Sasuke asked. Sakura sighed as if she was getting that he wasn't listening to her at all. ''Naruto! We were just talking about him'' she shrieked. Sasuke shrugged and considered this new information. So Sakura had seen him too. If the villagers knew that they would wonder about her too. She would be a possible suspect until Sasuke came up with a better idea to cover his crime.

Kakashi finally appeared to them. He wasn't as late as he usually was but the guy would never be on time in his life, Sasuke was sure of that. The jounin joined them with a grin.

''Good morning, students! Where is our third member?''Kakashi asked. Both teens looked at each other. Sakura shrugged.

''For once he could have been on time since even you were, sensei!'' she said. Kakashi blushed at the mention of him always being late.

''Haven't you guys seen him this morning?'' Kakashi asked. Both shook their heads. Kakashi frowned.

''It's strange. I went to lecture him yesterday at Ichiraku but he seemed out of mood'' the silver-haired explained. ''I didn't push it, I guess'' he added. Sasuke shivered. So Kakashi too had gone to lecture Naruto. That somehow put him at ease to know that they had all been angry with him the past day. This gave him a chance to remain innocent until anyone found out what really happened.

''Maybe he's too ashamed to come to practice?'' Sakura proposed.

''Ashamed or not, you guys need to be a three men's team in order to take on a mission. Without Naruto, we can't do anything'' Kakashi explained. Sakura started shouting all kinds of insanities while Sasuke remained passive. The less time he spent in missions with the team, the farther he got from being discovered. His blood went cold when Kakashi turned to him.

''And you, Sasuke? You haven't seen Naruto, have you?'' the teacher asked. Sasuke shook his head stiffly. Kakashi studied him for a few more seconds and then shook his head. ''Then we can't go on a mission today. You two can train if you want'' he simply said. Sasuke looked down at the ground and decided to leave.

THEinvisible

Naruto came out of the bushes, somehow wondering how he managed to get there. He swept the dirt off his clothes and went down the road towards Konoha. It was early morning and the sun shone brightly in the sky. He passed the main gate and waved to the guards at the entrance who didn't send him any greetings back. He thought that they must have recognized him so he didn't need to check in. At that time, people started to get up and to wander around. Some stores were already opening their doors. He could smell the fresh scent of tea and rice as villagers had an early meal. Young kids ran down the streets and almost bumped into him. He took a step back just in time to avoid it. He started walking towards the small bridge where he always met with the team. Ahead of him, he saw two boys preparing to leave. One was a little chubbier than the second whom wore his hair in a pineapple fashion. Naruto recognized them from being members of another team and waved to them. They looked in his direction then went back to their conversation before leaving for training.

Naruto stayed there puzzled then continued on to the bridge. As he was getting closer to the bridge, he was bumped into and fell down. It took him a second to realize what happened when he saw two men wearing green spandex who were taking a run on their hands. Not once did they turn around to apologize. Naruto was startled but thought that maybe they were too busy to notice they had crossed his way. He got up and went on. As he got to the bridge, Sasuke and Sakura were talking together, which seemed unusual to him.

''Hey guys! Since when are you two interacting together?'' he joked. They didn't turn to look at him. He sighed. ''Come on, it's just a joke. There's no need to ignore me'' he said. Once again, they didn't turn. Sakura was wondering why Sasuke was there so early.

''Come on, Sakura. You know Sasuke is nothing of an early bird!'' Naruto joked again. Once more they acted as if he weren't there. The blonde started to feel irritated.

''Ok sorry for yesterday. I didn't mean it'' he apologized. They kept talking. Sakura then apologized for the previous day. Sasuke didn't seem to know what she was talking about.

''Naruto was just being a pain as ever but I'm sure he didn't really mean it'' she said. Sasuke shrugged. Naruto was confused.

''Yes, that's what I just said, but why are you repeating it?'' Naruto told Sakura. She went on as if he weren't there. ''Hey Sakura, are you listening to me?'' he asked louder. He got no response. ''Sakura!'' he yelled and put himself in between her and Sasuke. He then waved to catch her attention but she really didn't seem to turn to him.

''If this is a joke, it's not funny!'' he spat. ''Hey I'm right here!'' he yelled. Still nothing. Then Kakashi appeared and started asking where he was.

''I'm right here, sensei! Hey, in front of you!'' he screamed. Not knowing anything about him and his whereabouts, they all went off into separate ways. Naruto stayed there puzzled and scared.

''What's going on? They don't see me!'' he realized. He then ran off to town and tried talking to anyone who crossed his way. No one would reply. He accidently scratched his arm, only to see that his scar was gone within seconds. He bumped into people only to realize that they went on as if they never met any resistance. At the end, he climbed up the Hokage Mountain and jumped down. After a few seconds he was back up without a scratch. A long shiver crossed his entire body.

''It's as if I were a ghost. It's as if I were…dead''

THEinvisible

Now the story is settled. If anyone is reading this, please let me know and tell me what you think! You might check out the movie as well. It's pretty good and I guess I'll inspire a lot from that.

Thanks for reading and especially for reviewing!

TBC