"Sasuke, why don't you take Nakao and go play," Itachi turned his eyes on his little brother.

You glanced over to Keitaro who stood beside Itachi. His messy, brown bangs were hanging in his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest. He nodded at you.

"Come on, Nakao!" Sasuke grabbed you by the hand and you ran from the Uchiha compound.

"Where are we going, Sasuke-kun?" you asked.

"It's a secret," he grinned, looking over at you. You grinned back.

Sasuke brought you into some nearby woods. You traveled for several minutes through the trees until you saw a bridge. It was randomly placed over a small, gently flowing stream. It seemed forgotten about, as the stone bridge was crumbling here and there. Pulling you along, Sasuke led you under the bridge.

Both of you were so short you could stand up beneath the bridge without hitting your heads. Sidling on the side of the stream, Sasuke suddenly stopped. It was cooler under the bridge, damper. Sasuke turned to you.

"This is it?" you asked, your voice echoing off of the stone walls.

"Yeah! I found it!" Sasuke let go of your hand and bent down, retrieving a small, white stone from the ground.

Getting to his knees, Sasuke drew a stick figure into the stone wall. He added long hair and smiled over to you. "That's you."

"That looks nothing like me!" you pouted, sticking your cheeks out.

Sasuke pouted as well, sticking his bottom lip out in defiance. You took the stone from his hand and drew your own stick figure on the wall. You connected your hand to the new stick figure's. You then added spikey hair to the back of the new stick figure.

You turned to Sasuke, smiling. "Since this is here, we always have to be friends!"

"What? Why?"

"Because otherwise the picture will be a lie!" you exasperated like it was obvious.

Sasuke watched you curiously for a minute before smiling. You then stuck your thumb and your pinkie finger outwards. You looked at Sasuke. "This means friends in another culture."

Sasuke copied the gesture, raising an eyebrow. He looked back up to you. "Friends?"

You smiled, nodding. You then crossed your fingers, nullifying a promise. "Always. I promise."

Sasuke crossed his fingers. "I promise."

You gazed down at Sasuke's face, tears blurring your vision so much you could hardly see him clearly anymore. His face was paler than usual, and his skin was cold. There were two scratches crossed on one cheek, forming an X. A trail of blood still ran from his lips, though now it was beginning to dry.

"You broke your promise…you idiot," you whispered, hugging Sasuke again.

Carefully, like handling glass, you set Sasuke down on the ground. You got to your feet, feeling numb. You looked to Haku, who was standing, staring at you from beneath his mask. As you watched him, anger bubbled in your gut.

This boy took Sasuke's life, for no reason. Sasuke hadn't deserved this. Your body was shaking, unbeknownst to you. Your hands clenched into fists at your side. "You bastard."

"Do not blame me. We were fighting for our dreams; I did what I had to do for me to keep mine."

"Shut up!" you screamed. "Don't try and justify what you did!"

"I don't need to justify it. It is the way of the ninja. He knew what he was doing when he jumped in the way. He chose to protect your dream instead of his."

Your bottom lip quivered. Fresh tears came to your eyes, but you blinked them away. Haku continued. "Was he your important person?"

You stayed silent, keeping your eyes trained on Haku. Your mind was reeling, playing memories over and over in your head.

"Friends…always. I promise."

You looked away, teeth clenching in anger. Your fists began to shake as uncontrollable rage took over you. You looked back to Haku, letting the rage wash over you; fuel you. "Enough talking. I'm going to kill you."

"You cannot beat me."

"Shut up!" you screamed, bringing your fingers together to form handsigns.

Haku moved to step back into a mirror, but somehow, you were faster. Wind rushed from your body and expanded around the dome, blocking Haku from his mirrors. Your eyes flashed.

"You're going to die here."

"You cannot trap me forever. Eventually, you will run out of chakra before then."

"I will kill you before that happens," you growled.

Before Haku could say anything more, you did more handsigns. You took in a breath of air and breathed out. A spark caught onto your wind and fire flared to life. The fire's glow reflected eerily on the mirrors' surfaces. Haku took a chance and dashed through your fire, into a mirror.

"You coward!" you yelled.

Haku said nothing but raised his hand, needles in between his fingers. You readied yourself. Haku shot out of the mirror. You couldn't seem him traveling, but you exerted a large amount of chakra outward, causing your flames to flare up anew; the tips of the flames reaching the top of the dome.

Haku dropped to the ground, seemingly out of nowhere, before he hit you. His clothing was burning and Haku was quickly patting out the fire with his hand. You closed your wind in on him, forming a circle around him, so close the flames almost licked at his clothes. You were about to squeeze him with the fire when he suddenly began to spin rapidly into a human twist, like he had done with Sasuke earlier.

'Sasuke…'

A lump lodged in your throat and you glared. Haku stopped spinning. The velocity that he had created was enough to extinguish your fire. Now it was just your wind flowing around him rapidly. The anger you felt towards Haku was not dissipating, not in the least, but your chakra was.

You grew angrier as you realized your own body was failing you. You couldn't let this happen. You couldn't let Haku live. Not after what he did to Sasuke. And if you didn't kill him, he'd kill you and Naruto. You had gotten Sasuke killed…but you wouldn't let him get to Naruto.

'Even if I die in the process…I deserve it…'

Holding onto your rage and sorrow, guilt and self-hatred, you closed your eyes, summoning up your chakra. Your eyes snapped open and wind flew from your body. It billowed upwards to the top of the dome. Concentrating, you began to spin the wind around and around until a large twister funnel formed. It dropped around you and Haku, encasing you within the twister.

"What are you doing?" Haku asked, glancing around himself at the rapidly swirling walls.

"I'm going to suffocate you," you told the boy. You felt dead on the inside. You didn't even feel satisfaction for what you were going to do.

You were going to pull the air straight from Haku's lungs. You would do so by rapidly spinning your wind around, preventing any real air from reaching the inside of the twister. Then, your chakra would aid the wind in taking the air from Haku. Unfortunately, the same suffocating vortex was going to kill you. He wouldn't be able to breathe in the atmosphere, and neither would you. But it wouldn't matter. You would avenge your teammate no matter what.

You exerted more chakra from reservoirs you didn't know existed. Sweat began to roll down your face as you tried to maintain your chakra extraction. From in front of you, you could hear Haku coughing and beginning to gasp. You too, suddenly realized you were gasping, like you had just run several miles.

You moved your twister around faster and faster, the winds howling. You saw Haku move. You thought he was being to falter, to fall down, but then you realized, he was struggling. Your eyes narrowed, but you couldn't think straight. There wasn't enough oxygen in your brain for you to piece together things anymore.

To your utter surprise, Haku began to move. He was trying to spin again, trying to make his own velocity against yours. You couldn't push out anymore chakra. If you did, you'd die before him. You tried to move your twister inward, making it narrower, but this had the opposite effect. The wind pushed Haku forward and he collided with your body.

The wind cut off abruptly and you flew to the side, landing on the cement. You gasped for air, dry heaving. A shadow casted over your body. You looked up to find Haku moving towards you.

"H-How did you beat…my…" you gasped.

"You almost killed me," Haku stated matter-of-factly. "And I drained most of my chakra to increase my speed enough to escape. But like I said, you cannot beat me."

Haku raised a fist full of needles and flicked his wrist. You rolled away and the needles landed in a straight row where your head and upper body had been moments prior. You tried to get to your feet, but Haku was already atop of you. Just as you had gotten to your knees, Haku tried to stab you in the neck. You ducked and managed to swing your body, swiping a leg underneath Haku's feet.

Haku jumped up, giving you time to stumble to your feet. You were exhausted. You felt weak. Why hadn't you trained more?

You took out your blades, holding them in front of you. You rushed Haku, swiping at him. He held his needles in front of him to block your attack, and the two of you began to struggle against one another.

"You fight valiantly," Haku said. The bastard didn't even sound tired.

"Shut up!" you roared, shoving Haku backwards.

"I can take you to him," Haku tossed several needles your way.

You stumbled to the side, dodging the needles. You shook. "I said, !"

You dashed at Haku, slashing at his neck. He moved backwards continually, dodging every swing of your blades. You closed in again, but hadn't realized Haku moved. Haku raised a foot and connected it with your abdomen.

You gasped, stumbling backwards, feeling out of breath. Before you could defend yourself, Haku was on you. He was so close that your nose was nearly touching his mask. Everything seemed to slow down around you; the world became silent.

You felt something stab into your abdomen. Your hearing abruptly returned and you heard yourself cry out in pain. You watched Haku's mask, mouth hanging open. Your eyes shook. 'Did he…did he just…?'

You suddenly coughed. Pain racked through your body. Blood splattered from your mouth, onto Haku's white mask. Haku withdrew his hand, pulling the needles from your body slowly. You screamed out as he did so, feeling every second of the steel.

As soon as Haku pulled away, you fell to your knees. Your hands immediately grasped at your abdomen. You could feel a warm fluid seeping between your fingers. Blood. Your blood. You slowly looked down at your body. Your shaky hands were completely covered in crimson blood. It was beginning to drop from your hands and was forming a puddle in front of you.

"Nakao!"

'Oh god…Naruto…' you remembered with a start. You had forgotten all about him. Oh no, you hadn't killed Haku. Haku could kill Naruto!

"Nakao!"

You heard running footsteps. You couldn't take your eyes off of your gushing wound. The pain was even more intense now. It was agonizing; a hot, white pain that seemed to shoot all across your body.

'Is this what Sasuke went through…?'

You were beginning to feel sleepy. Was this it? Were you really going to die like this? You hadn't accomplished anything, but you had tried.

'I tried Sasuke…I'm sorry…'

You were falling forward before you even realized it. You didn't even realize it until something grabbed you by the shoulders. You were being tugged backwards. You were on your back. You could see the top of the dome. Then a face infiltrated your vision.

"Naru…" you tried to say but you coughed. You felt blood leak from your mouth. It was getting hard to breathe now.

"Nakao," you could see pain in Naruto's sky blue eyes. He was losing two teammates…how must that feel?

"Naruto…" a tear came to your eye. "Sasuke…he…saved us…"

You coughed out the sentence. You could see Naruto bow his head.

"Why, Nakao?"

"I couldn't…let him…get away with it. Sasuke…" you whispered.

You saw that Naruto was looking at you again, but your vision was going blurry. Your eyes began to close.

'I'm so…tired…'

Your brain knew that if you went to sleep, you'd never wake up. But now that your own mortality was staring you in the face, it didn't seem to matter. It just seemed weird to think you'd never wake up again. Never see Kakashi-sensei or Sakura or Naruto again. You'd never see Kiba again. Or Keitaro…

'Keitaro…'

Another tear escaped your eye. You were leaving him with no one. His parents were gone. His best friend was gone. And now his sister.

A flicker of consciousness hit you. You managed to peer up through your eyelashes. Naruto was still holding you.

"Naruto…" you whispered. You noticed that his eyes were watery. "Can you put me by Sasuke…?"

"What?" Naruto looked visually surprised. His voice was shaky.

"Please…"

Talking was taking effort now. You closed your eyes. Your body was growing numb, so you didn't feel your body move. But you knew you had because when you peeked upwards. You saw your position was moving. It seemed like an entire minute until you were being set down on the ground.

You rolled your head to the side, cheek on the ground. Beside you lay Sasuke. His body was still…so still. Tears flooded your eyes and they ran down your cheeks. Your chest heaved up and down, you couldn't breathe. A gurgling noise came from your throat.

You closed your eyes. 'I can't breathe…'

You couldn't feel the abdomen pain anymore. The rest of your body had gone numb. You were tired.

'Just let go…' you told yourself. 'Just let go.'

Was Naruto still by you? You didn't know. Your eyes were shut and you couldn't open them.

"I should probably go now, Keitaro-oniisan will worry," you said, getting to your feet.

Sasuke got to his feet too. "You should come back tomorrow. Itachi-oniisan promised he'd show me how to do that shuriken technique!"

You grinned. "I'll be here."

You moved in, grabbing your friend in a hug. Sasuke squirmed awkwardly, but when you pulled away, he You didn't even hear the outwards. "Friends…"

Sasuke crossed his fingers. "I promise."