Naruto didn't believe that one fight, one that he was, in all honesty, pretty convinced he would win... Could really settle things.
"Not here, though." Naruto said. "We're too close to Nagato."
He extended his hand to Sasuke.
"Hmpf. Have it your way." Sasuke retorted, not even stopping to question whether this could be a trap or not. He apparently decided he knew enough about Naruto after seeing his memories to do so. If he weren't... well, Asura... Naruto would think it foolish. "Itachi… Shisui. We'll talk later."
Sasuke took the offered hand before either could protest.
They reappeared somewhere in the land of Earth.
There was nothing here but vast rocky expanses, and no traces of civilization anywhere close.
They wasted no time.
Sasuke pulled his sword out. Then the second one, as well. The shorter one, that had belonged to Toru, once.
Naruto matched him, summoning twin swords.
Neither of them said anything else. They took their fighting stances.
Sasuke blurred forward with a left hand stab that brought with it a wall of fire.
Naruto grabbed his right-hand sword in a reverse grip and deflected the incoming weapon by stabbing down. He slashed with his left sword, and Sasuke brought his other weapon up to block it.
Sasuke kicked, flames trailing behind his leg.
Naruto flipped away from it, in a show of agility that would have taken Sasuke by surprise if he hadn't already known what Naruto was capable of.
A flash, a reflection of light and Sasuke dodged the sword that had been thrown at him with barely a flick of the wrist.
Sasuke dashed after him. Naruto seemed to disappear entirely for a second. When he came back, close to the sword and Sasuke whirled around to face him, Naruto smashed a knee into his face.
He was faster than him, even without using his damnable Cloak, Sasuke realized.
Naruto was already slipping behind him again.
One hand seal.
"Fire Release: Shield Flare!"
A dome of flame exploded around him. Naruto interrupted his attack and blurred away.
Steel hit steel.
Sasuke could barely keep the rhythm up. It was obvious that Naruto had more experience fighting with dual swords than he did. No wonder, considering it had been less than two months for him.
Knowing how fighting against Naruto's twin swords usually went for the people who went for a single weapon, Sasuke wasn't willing to do that, still.
Half-tiger seal, wrapped around his swords.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball!"
Naruto matched him.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Strike!"
The orb of searing fire hit the bolt of lightning and they canceled each other.
Naruto kicked him in the gut.
"I thought you wanted to fight me." He said, following with a wide sword swing.
Sasuke dodged, clenching his teeth.
"You're not taking this seriously, either." He shot back.
"Oh, I am." Naruto deflected his strike. "But I don't see the point in going all out if you don't."
Naruto twisted, flipping upside down. He knocked him to the ground with a shattering kick.
Then he waited.
"Very well…" Sasuke muttered. "Let's take it a step higher, then."
Sasuke closed his eyes, and gathered his chakra. He let his emotions feed into his strength.
Flames erupted in a pillar around Sasuke.
The inferno raged around him, a wall of almost solid fire, whose heat and anger didn't burn him. Even when the flames licked him, it was only a comforting glow.
Malevolent wind chakra spread from him, feeding into the flames. There was no one in the world who wouldn't take him seriously—
Naruto grinned.
"There we are. The Living Flame, right?."
Sasuke's Mangekyo Sharingan was spinning wildly.
"Well." Sasuke said, eyes burning. "Let me show you why they call me that, then."
Searing flames burst in every direction, exploding from him. There was a sound like keening.
Naruto's eyes turned serious. He blurred away before the flames could reach him.
In midair, Naruto drew one of his swords back, and lightning shaped itself around it.
"Lightning Style: Crescent Fang"
He slashed his sword forward in a wide, arching slash, and the chakra extended, shaping itself into a wave of electricity, rushing toward Sasuke.
He raised his swords, and the wall of fire followed, blocking the attack entirely.
Sasuke's leg rose and an arc of solid flame wrapped around it, shielding him from Naruto, who had appeared behind him, in a movement he had barely seen coming.
A flash of blue and Naruto was meters away again.
Sasuke thrust one sword forward. The other, he buried into the ground.
More fire exploded from the earth, rising from behind Naruto. It surrounded him entirely.
The wave of fire swallowed him, rushing to the earth again.
With a mighty crash, the landscape turned into molten glass.
"Because even if he didn't kill Toru himself…" Shisui said, tone hard. "And this bastard Danzō might be the one who had him killed, but Uzumaki Naruto needs to be stopped anyway."
Sasuke knew how Shisui felt, even though he didn't fully agree.
To his cousin, thanks to these two… Danzō for possibly having given the order, and Uzumaki Naruto for involving him in this mess…
Toru would never come back home. He had died before even turning twenty. Alone. And all of Shisui's efforts, the sacrifices he had made, and the weight he had carried… would be all of naught. He had failed. And he blamed himself for it.
Shisui was not some infallible golden boy, like most of his clan — and the village — used to see him. Like any shinobi, and worse, any excellent one… he had a closet full of skeletons. Sasuke could tell as much.
Danzō was dead.
Uzumaki Naruto wasn't.
To Shisui, having someone to share the blame with him was the only way he could manage to go on, it seemed.
"Yeah." Sasuke sighed. "I know."
Naruto had killed Kakashi.
Maybe if Sasuke focused on that, he could bring himself to actually complete the mission that he had already accepted to undertake.
But then again, he was not going to miss an opportunity to clash with Asura.
Naruto stood up.
He was not entirely unharmed, but there was no worry on his face. There was a blue glow around him. Was it pure chakra, or his lightning armor…?
"If that's your best, it won't be enough." Naruto said.
He closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he was surrounded by an intense, flame-like purple aura. Violet sparks surrounded him, and the air was crackling with electricity. Naruto was wreathed in it, as though he had become the thunder itself.
Sasuke could see the amounts of chakra he was outputting. There was no Bijū touch to it, it was only his own.
The clouds seemed to gather, and for a moment, it looked as though a real thunderstorm was about to start.
Naruto drew his own chakra in.
The clouds blew away. His Sharingan saw—
Naruto disappeared.
Something smashed into Sasuke, launching him into the air.
He closed his eyes in pain, before he was slammed back into the ground again. He went through it. Naruto followed.
"Storm Release: Tracking Fang."
Tracking fang…? Wasn't this a minor lightning jutsu…?
Sasuke wasn't sure what happened exactly. He had to close his eyes. But he was screaming.
It felt as though every atom in his body was being rattled. He couldn't move, at all.
He was starting to see strange patterns—
"Susanoo!"
The pink chakra shaped itself around him.
Naruto released another jutsu.
"Storm Release: Storm Blade."
He summoned a large sword of thunder and wind, high up in the sky. Sasuke rose out of the hole he had been trapped in.
The sky, that had become cloudless again, was filled with turbulent winds. Sasuke could smell ozone in the air.
Naruto brought his weapons down, and the great sword in the sky followed.
"Shield of Shukaku!"
A deafening crack.
"That's an interesting technique." Naruto said.
The Susanoo had shaped itself into something that looked like the One-Tail itself.
Layers upon layers of dense chakra had shielded Sasuke from Naruto's attack. Instead, he was left panting, having expanded way more chakra than he had hoped.
"But it took a lot from you, didn't it?" Naruto frowned.
His flames could not reach him, then. A full transformation would be a mistake, too, he was sure of it. Shukaku was simply too slow.
To think bringing out a Bijū's full might sounded like the worst thing he could do.
That only left one option.
Sasuke stood still.
Naruto watched on with renewed interest, his ringed eyes watching the entire process.
He seemed to know what to expect, and so he waited.
"Maybe you shouldn't show me how Sage Mode works." Naruto said with a small smile.
Of course would know about it already.
"How else am I going to beat the shit out of you?" Sasuke grunted.
"By all means, then."
Natural energy swirled around Sasuke, like an invisible hurricane.
The colors became brighter, filled with colors he didn't perceive usually, even with his Sharingan. The sounds became clearer, and the smells sharper. He felt the chakra in the air.
And Naruto…
Naruto was surrounded by a true maelstrom of power. He was the eye of the storm.
If Sasuke closed his eyes, the chakra aura almost looked like a dragon. But that was just his imagination, because it flickered, and he thought he saw a tengu for a short instant. Sasuke barely held back a shiver.
Sasuke focused, and blended in his own chakra, the natural energy… and Shukaku's.
"So you don't need the toads themselves, then." Naruto cocked his head. "Either Orochimaru's info was out of date… or you're better than Jiraiya."
"Was that so obvious?" Sasuke shot back, ignoring the ice pit forming in his stomach upon hearing his late teacher's name.
"I thought that each summoning clan had their own version of it." Naruto shook his head. "Apparently it's pretty much all the same."
Naruto paused, before grinning.
"Good."
Sasuke opened his eyes and they were golden. The Sharingan's tomoe still swirled inside them, he knew.
Fire spread around him. Turning from red to orange. From orange to white.
Sasuke's form danced with flames, white tongues of fire flickering up and down across his body.
The fire shaped itself around him, in a humanoid shape that shimmered around him. It flickered. It covered him entirely, flickering, sometimes hovering a bit above him.
All of his power was focused into that smaller form.
He wouldn't be caught by Naruto's speed. Not like last time.
"White flames… I thought only Yugito…" Naruto muttered. "No matter."
Their chakra coiled inside them.
They blurred forward.
"Kakashi-sensei is a fucking dick." Naruto muttered.
"I thought you wanted to train hard." Sasuke shrugged, bending over the tall grass once more.
"What is weeding gardens supposed to teach us, exactly?!" Naruto grunted.
"…Patience? I have no idea, really." Sasuke admitted.
"Regret, I'd say." Toru said quietly. He didn't want Kakashi to hear.
Knowing the man, he probably heard them anyway and found it amusing.
"Someday." Naruto muttered dangerously. "Someday I'm going to make him regret this."
"I'm sure you will, Naruto." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you will."
"A bit faster, boys, we're not paid on an hourly basis, this is a fixed-price contract." Kakashi said from where he was perched, reading through some undoubtedly unrelated scroll. "Besides, we still have some dogs to walk. Well, I say we but I mean you."
"You know what…?" Sasuke said quietly. "I'm in. Whatever it is you're planning."
"Same here." Toru whispered.
It felt as though it was in their blood, after all.
"Blaze Release: Infernal Torrent!"
Sasuke slashed, his weapon engulfed in flames.
A wave of pale fire followed the swing. The air turned scorching.
"Storm Release: Falling Sky!"
Naruto slammed both of his swords down.
White met Purple.
A mushroom cloud of light blossomed. The two of them bounced away, tumbling.
They were at each other's throat the next moment, engulfed by their elements.
Smoke, fire, and broken earth surrounded them.
They didn't notice.
Steel found steel again. The earth shook and the battlefield progressively disintegrated, as the destruction that followed each clash chewed through rock and glass altogether.
"You've gotten better!" Naruto called.
He spun, weaved and danced around Sasuke's sword strikes, seamlessly. His movements were swift, sure and graceful at the same time.
"So did you, asshole!" Sasuke shot back.
"If we had fought earlier on, maybe you would have stood a chance!" Naruto laughed.
He was the one with the Sharingan, but it didn't feel like it, today. Even Naruto's more half-assed strikes were enough to cleave through a grown man like butter. Where was the Sarutobi boy who did his best not to crush anyone's skull with his staff…?
"Oh?! Do you think I'm not good enough, now?"
Sasuke ducked to avoid having his head taken off by an offhand blade swing he had barely seen coming. The air crackled. Naruto was still faster, this much was clear.
"Sure seems like it!" Naruto answered.
Sasuke threw a blaze-enhanced sword at Naruto.
Chakra gathered into his hand. It blended with white tongues of fire.
"Blaze Release: Rasen—"
"Rising Dragon."
Naruto spun and his kick smashed into his chin. The jutsu faded away.
Sasuke weaved hand seals.
"Blaze Release: Multiple Fireballs!"
Three gouts of white fire escaped his mouth, aimed at Naruto. Sasuke saw Naruto go through a hand seal sequence, chakra held in its focused form — Toru. The process was completed three times, before the fire balls even reached him.
"Storm Release: Faded Lightning!"
Naruto shot three beams of violet electricity forward. Each was faster than Sasuke could even see.
With a terrible tearing sound, they went through each fireball, detonating them.
Two swords flew at Sasuke, who was forced to dodge them. They released flashes of bright light… and Naruto pulled himself to them.
There he was, in midair, holding a single ōdachi, from which a ribbon flowed. Sasuke recognized this weapon. Naruto had carved through Shisui's face with it, after all. And cut through his arm.
He barely noticed the hand seals.
"Storm Release: Vacuum Blades!"
Naruto slashed left, then right, before slamming his sword down with a downward strike that sent Sasuke hurtling down to the ground.
Then the air seemed to displace itself and he was pulled up again.
What…?
Only a partial Susanoo had saved him.
"Lightning Kick!"
Sasuke still slammed into the earth after this, and Naruto was already upon him.
Naruto twirled his sword in front of him, the ribbon's twist making it look like a full circle.
He darted to Sasuke in a zigzag pattern, leaving only flashes of purple electricity behind him.
A diagonal strike.
Cross slash.
A wide swing from behind.
Upwards.
Left and downward.
From behind.
Falling.
Sasuke lost count.
It was a flurry of slashes, each of them carrying Naruto's dangerous elemental chakra.
Sasuke's Susanoo was breaking. It felt like facing a storm god.
He reached inwards at the same time Naruto brought his sword down one last time.
"Storm Release: Blinding Pillar!"
A large rib cage shaped itself around him, and the white fire turned back to orange again. Shoulders and arms shaped themselves around the ribcage.
Naruto's blade slammed into him.
The Susanoo held.
Naruto dashed away from it.
"You're fast. Much faster than I am." Sasuke admitted. "But you can't attack from far away."
Naruto just lifted an eyebrow. "This might have been true… in the past."
"I want to see for myself, then." Sasuke said between clenched teeth.
"Is this a fight or a dick-swinging contest?"
"Enough fooling around! Fight seriously."
Naruto shrugged. "Suit yourself."
Sasuke kept throwing his mousy haired classmate strange looks.
He wasn't the only one, as he noticed the Yamanaka girl did the same. Did she also get the same sense of familiarity Sasuke got whenever they were close…?
"…Why do you keep looking at him like this?" Toru asked, scrunching his eyebrows.
Sasuke almost jumped.
"I don't know. He's… weird." Sasuke replied.
"Weird how? You're the one staring at him." Toru frowned.
"Don't you get this weird feeling when you look at him?"
Silence.
"Are you in love with him or something…?" Toru cocked his head.
"What?! No! Hell no." Sasuke hissed. "But since I beat him… I get this sense of… I don't know. Like I know him."
"Well… He is our classmate."
"Not like this." Sasuke threw his hands up in frustration.
"Like what, then?" Toru squinted his eyes, trying to look thoughtful. He mostly looked the exact same way he did when the sun was blinding him.
"…Forget it. What's his name, anyway?"
"You don't know…?" Toru grinned.
"Do you…?"
"Of course." Toru smiled proudly. "Cause I listen."
"Tell me, then."
"Sarutobi Naburo." Toru nodded. "You should pay more attention to what Fugaku-sama says during our lessons."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Sasuke muttered.
Naburo, then? He would remember the name.
Sasuke's Susanoo extended his hand, and Naruto paid attention.
With a roar, Sasuke began to gather chakra into its hand. He was going for a Rasengan, then. Naruto had never really felt any affinity for the technique, because his swords usually got the job done, but it had its uses. Karin liked it much more than he did, really.
Naruto watched the entire process.
Sasuke shaped his chakra into a whirling sphere of violent energy.
Wind.
Fire.
Natural energy.
Naruto saw that his Mangekyō Sharingan strained to hold it together. The large, white orb of pure destruction. It shone like a sun, and it melted the rocks around him.
Sasuke had made it as strong as he could make it.
"Blaze Release: Spiralling Sun." He called, gritting his teeth.
"Interesting!" Naruto grinned. "My turn, then!"
He summoned his forged bow, the metal gleaming from the light the white flames emitted.
More purple chakra exploded around him, gathering around both of his arms.
In his right hand, the bow was surrounded by a raging violet storm.
In his left hand, he summoned the arrow he had forged for this particular occasion.
Tongues of orange danced around him.
Wind-Lightning-Fire.
Storm-Fire.
Fire was much weaker here, but there was no reason for Naruto not to call upon it. It would still enhance the arrow's destructive power. Naruto matched Sasuke's chakra levels.
He was the eye of the storm.
Naruto nocked the arrow.
"Storm Arrow!"
They both let go.
The sky exploded in a shower of lightning and flame.
Sasuke's dad was busy at the Hokage tower, likely doing… Hokage things.
What that meant exactly, Sasuke wasn't entirely sure. But his mother brought him to school, and Itachi came with them, so it was okay, anyway. Toru didn't come, but he would only be starting school next year anyway. Knowing how competitive he could be, Sasuke knew he would do everything to skip a grade and join him.
He saw the people that would be his classmates for the next few years. Some he knew already, like the Hyuga boy and girl, the Akimichi boy and Shino, too.
An older woman — who had to be at least a hundred — brought a reluctant boy with mousy brown hair to the academy. She had to nudge him forward.
"Come, Naruto." She said sternly.
"I don't think I want to go anymore." He grunted.
She sighed.
Sasuke tried to say hello, but the boy ignored him entirely. He disappeared in the crowd.
Sasuke folded his arms.
"I don't like him." Sasuke muttered.
"Ah." Itachi said with a slight smile. "Maybe he's just shy."
"You would know about this, wouldn't you, Itachi?" Mother laughed.
"Mother!" Itachi reddened. "I'm not—"
"I'm sorry, Itachi." She covered her mouth to hide her smile. "I meant to say that you're an incredible little shinobi already."
"Yeah… Maybe he's shy." Sasuke muttered.
Mean, rude boy.
There was only the sound of silence and Sasuke's own breathing.
Until Sasuke heard footsteps.
"You're still…" He growled.
Naruto's clothing was in tatters, and blood was running down his face. His wounds were already healing, though, and he was walking toward Sasuke, without his shroud of lightning. And he was not showing any signs of slowing down.
"Stand up, then." Naruto called. "If you really insist on having a clear winner."
Sasuke did so. He didn't even have the strength to maintain his Susanoo, and he knew he was in worse shape than Naruto.
Naruto didn't bother summoning a sword, so Sasuke let his own fall away, too.
Sasuke countered Naruto's punch with a rising kick. The Uzumaki grunted, grabbed Sasuke's ankle and… threw him away like a ragdoll.
Sasuke fell again with a growl. Naruto ripped away the rest of his tattered clothing. No wonder he threw him so easily. He looked strong.
Sasuke managed to kick Naruto in the chin.
Naruto countered with a haymaker that made him see stars.
Then a kick.
An uppercut.
Naruto grabbed his collar and headbutted him.
"You fucking ass—" Sasuke grunted, his nose full of blood.
"I thought this was a shinobi fight!" Naruto cackled.
Sasuke deflected the next punch and landed one of his own into Naruto's gut.
Naruto grinned, something that looked eerily similar to Sarutobi Naruto's boyish grin, the one that had come out from time to time, and more and more often as time passed..
Despite himself, Sasuke couldn't help the rising feeling of nostalgia that rose through him.
"You can't win." Sasuke growled. "Not today!"
"Save that until you win, I'd say." Naruto said evenly.
Naruto crouched, his leg extending behind Sasuke to trip him. Sasuke countered it with a knee strike to the thigh.
"Not bad!"
"How many years has it been since we fought like this?" Naruto asked, in between two strikes, looking as though he were enjoying this.
"There was last time." Sasuke growled. The time Naruto had killed several shinobi, and—
"I did not forget." Naruto waved it off. "This wasn't a proper fight."
"And why not?"
"Because you lost…?"
Sasuke shook his head, trying to push down on his rising anger. "...You're right on one thing. It feels different, this time around."
"I wonder why."
"Does it really matter?" Sasuke muttered.
"Not really, since I am going to beat you up anyway!" Naruto suddenly grinned.
"No fucking way." Sasuke growled. The next words came out of him unbidden. "I will!"
"Oh yeah?"
"It's on!" Sasuke raged.
"I thought it already was." Naruto chuckled. "No wonder you're losing."
Naruto's chakra extended around him, until it felt as though the entire area was permeated in it.
Sasuke threw himself backwards and barely managed to dodge Naruto's flurry of attacks. A fist shrouded in lightning still smashed into his stomach, sending him flying into a rock spire that had managed to survive their battle.
His back hit it first, and Sasuke fell to the ground, feeling as though he were on fire. Jinchuuriki or not, the pain was starting to catch up to him.
"Got enough yet?" Naruto asked.
Sasuke growled, and he slowly pushed off the floor.
"Hell no." Sasuke grunted, standing up again.
"As you wish." He laughed.
For what seemed like a long, long while, the only sounds that echoed from the devastated landscape were that of flesh hitting flesh. Something that felt like fate.
Everything was getting blurry.
He could barely think. He—
He fell to his knees.
"…I give up." Sasuke wheezed, every breath taking way too much effort.
"Fucking finally." Naruto was only lightly out of breath, by now. Did he go all out at any point…? Sasuke didn't know much about his Rinnegan, but he'd wager that he didn't.
...Wait. Had he even used it...?
They didn't say anything for a long, tense while.
His mouth was dry, and his heart was still thumping.
Anger still boiled in his gut, too.
"...I can't even win in a fair fight anymore." Sasuke said in frustration, staring at the sky. He felt hollow.
Naruto chuckled lowly. "Guess not."
Silence stretched.
"...You've gotten strong, Naruto." Sasuke admitted, and it felt like pulling teeth.
"You sound like it pains you to admit."
Sasuke gave him a dry look. It rankled.
"You too." Naruto said, sitting down. "By the way… Remember that time in the Chūnin exams?"
"Yeah… I do remember." Sasuke said. "What about it?"
Naruto gave him a wink. "I went easy on you."
Sasuke stared at him for a moment. He turned his head away from Naruto and let out an angry chuckle.
But then again, fate was only a guide. Something that they were doomed to repeat only if they couldn't learn from their mistakes.
"The villages. They won't change, will they…?" Sasuke asked at last.
"Probably not."
Sasuke stayed silent.
"But…" Naruto continued. "We're both in places where we can do something about it. I see the value in that, now."
Naruto took a long breath.
"And I'm sorry… for everything."
"I… know." Sasuke said tightly. He had seen it. All of it. He knew exactly how Naruto felt. "That's not enough."
"I know. And you were right. I should have trusted you. Or tried at least."
Sasuke stood up abruptly.
"I don't trust you." He finally said. "I can't forgive you, either. You… killed — When I look at you, all I see —"
"I didn't expect you to." Naruto shook his head. He looked patient, and something about it pissed Sasuke off. He breathed in, breathed out.
"Maybe with time…" Sasuke hesitated, scowling. "No, even then — I don't know… Uchiha…ish insanity or not... You still..."
"That's fine." Naruto said, nodding.
"But—"
"But what?"
Naruto knew, just looking at him, that Sasuke would have come with them to fight Nagato anyway. No matter what he had said. Win or lose; or even no fight at all. Naruto withheld a small smile.
Sasuke schooled his face, pushing his own anger at Naruto down.
"You're not alone." The Uchiha said at last. "You can count on me for this."
And there were more important things at stake.