He waits.
He breathes in the rained air, his head tilting upwards.
He watches the shadowed sky through half-lidded eyes of dark.
The wind rolls past his cheeks in waves.
With the tips of his fingers, he touches his forehead. "Nii-san…"
His eyes snap open.
He's here.
Sasuke watches, expressionless, as they come face to face. Finally.
A beat.
Another beat.
And another—
"It's not real," Naruto chokes out, voice barely heard over the rain. "It isn't real."
Behind the blonde, Hinata breathes shakily, her eyes ever so wide and aghast.
He only stares back, silent.
Naruto shakes his head wildly. "It can't be real! There's no way that this can be real!"
Wordlessly, Sasuke tosses the item in his hand to the ground before them.
Both Naruto and Hinata stare at the pink-headband and forehead protector. Of the Leaf.
Sasuke stares, apathetic. "Isn't it?"
Trembling, Naruto reaches for the battered metal plate, but his feet just won't move.
Two beads of tears roll down Hinata's cheeks, mingling with the rain.
"Th-that's a lie," Naruto chokes, a lump in his throat, wobbling on unstable footing. "This…it can't…it just can't…"
"They wanted to protect you," Sasuke says, holstering the strap of his blade. "They were willing to do anything to give you a better chance. I wonder. Does this make it your fault as well?"
Naruto simply stares in disbelief.
"You've forgotten, Naruto," Sasuke continues. "You've forgotten the meaning of true strength. It is forged in the pains of solitude. These severed bonds. They're what made you strong; what makes me stronger."
"You promised," Naruto hacks out. There is blood in his clenched fists.
Sasuke tilts his head up. "Have I now?"
Naruto simply stares at the puddled grounds, his features twisted in fury and grief.
The Uchiha narrows his eyes. "Do you want to know what she said? Right up until the end?"
Sasuke watches as Naruto flinches, an unhappy grin parting his lips. "She said—"
A blur passes by Naruto, who gasps in panic. "Hinata!"
Like liquid wind, she moves through the rain and closes the distance in less than a blink. Tears trailing behind like suspended crystals, her byakugan pulses.
"Give them back," she all but whispers, for the roar is in her hands, both of which now hold the fierce powers of raging lions.
Sasuke responds equally quickly, the sound of metal on metal slower than the draw of the blade. He is ready to kick, to punt the girl as soon as she ducks to advance within his guard.
Except she doesn't. Instead she times her leap cleanly over the blurring beam of sharp metal, and pushes.
He back-dashes in the last second, to avoid or at least lessen the force of the impact. He is partially successful, for he is only grazed on his sword arm.
It's still enough to almost tear his joints into dislocation.
Through the pain, he…laughs? "Figures," he grunts, stumbling back.
The girl continues the pursuit, a despaired grimace upon her features. She dashes in, and aims for the neck.
She thrusts into thin air. Her eyes widen as Sasuke speaks from behind her.
"So, even you can muster killing intent," he says, looking at her, tomoe spinning.
She twists wildly around to—
Sasuke grasps her by the arm, charging a merciless chidori through both of them.
Hinata cries out in pain as the lightning chakra practically chokes her entire body and nearly lights her byakugan aflame. But through the pain, her eyes narrow, and she thrusts her fingers towards—
She flies backwards from the push of the kick, landing painfully on her back.
Sasuke is upon her almost immediately, his blade raised vertically. "Perhaps her last words will be a satisfactory alternative."
Naruto watches all of this, his feet somehow rooted to the ground in panicked betrayal. He watches, in slow motion, as layers upon layers of tunneled visions of something overlaps the image before him and passes through his mind and he sees her bleeding through lifeless eyes, a black stake through her heart and he screams.
Sasuke thrusts downwards, and impales flesh.
Hinata blinks away the white flashes, and gasps. "N-Naruto-kun!"
Stiffly, his fingers clench around the blade that pierced cleanly through the hand, blood already washing with the rain. Eyes flashing in blue and red, Naruto glares into impassive spinning tomoe.
The sound of a thousand birds shrieks from his left hand, and so Sasuke pulls back to—
He's barely able to blink before a sudden sun-flare nearly blinds him and his blade snaps like a twig.
Trying to see through spots, he aims for what he believes to be a vital, and thrusts at thin air. The next moment, he is sent barreling through rain and mud. He grimaces and quickly recovers through a roll to his feet.
He spats the blood that pooled in his mouth as Naruto walks forward. It's as if golden flames coat his entire being, flames that whip to and fro, like dancing ghosts and smoke.
Naruto grits his teeth, the gaping hole in his hand already nothing but a thin line. "SASUKEEEEEEE!"
BAM!
He's sent flying again. He couldn't even see.
"NARUTOOOOO!"
In a flash, Susano forms in midair and black flames bursts forth in a ring of fire.
Landing in a crouch, Sasuke pants as pain wracks through his chest, and a trail of blood pours from his left eye. He looks up, up, at Naruto, who stares down from atop a mound of earth. Practically a hill that the jinjuriki made by braking.
"That's it," he laughs, his shoulders shaking as a grim grin forms. "That's it, Naruto. Show me everything that you've got. Fight me with everything that you have, and I'll do the same."
Naruto glares.
Flash!
In an instant, he reappears, head-butting Susano's armored form and pushing it back, and back, and back ever more until their foreheads are separated only by mere inches of solid chakra.
Sasuke stares into the pair of fierce, golden blue eyes, and smirks.
Susano spins, forming a clawing typhoon and Naruto flashes away, but Sasuke watches carefully this time, and a split moment later, takes aim, and fires.
Naruto catches the speeding projectile within his hands, but the momentum of it overwhelms him, and takes him on a ride off into the distance.
Sasuke lowers his hand, the blood dripping through his smirk and down his chin, watching as a golden flash bursts in the faraway. "Do you think you're ready?"
It's raining still.