Not even long enough to be a drabble, and not even what I wanted to write. Oh well.


Naruto's voice is soft, the kind of softness that comes from having raged and screamed until something broke. "I wish I could still forgive you."

Sasuke's voice matches his, quiet and full of jagged shards under the flash of tenderness. "It's okay," he says, and his wry little smirk belongs to someone else, a cocky little brat who hadn't killed yet, who's been dead for so long. "I can't forgive me either."

They strike together, mirrored, perfect synch.

This time there isn't anyone left to stop them.