One-shot
Naruto
Title: Victor
Sauske slammed the kunai home, panting as Itachi fell to the snow covered ground. The poison in the blade was working through his bloodstream, searing his entire being. The poison was extremely rare; it had taken the younger Uchiha a year of searching to find the finished product. A year that was now bearing fruit.
The form of Akutsuki's Leaf member blurred, then coalesced behind Sauske, wielding a blade two feet long, a relic from ANBU days long past. The elder slashed, blocked, parried, a lifetime of violence guiding his movement. The Avenger retaliated- a product of a life no less violent- and so they danced, a dance of fragile tranquility, a tragedy well played out. Their entire lives revolved around this struggle, this mêlée of unequaled beauty. One sought to find peace, justice for kin slain, the other redemption by blood. No quarter would be given or asked for; they had each waited too long for this, sacrificed too much for less than complete victory.
The titans could have dueled for eternity, so great were their power, had not the Younger landed the first blow. The poison, so ironically called fan-bane, was the death of Uchiha Itachi. As their great combat drew on, the Weasel stumbled, and was thrown off guard long enough for his only clansman to wound him mortally.
Sauske stood over his soon to be late-brother, knowing that his tormentor would never again rise
As Itachi stared at the boy- no, man who had felled him, his mind began to wander of on inconsequential things, such as how things used to be, back when he had been the apple of everyone's eye, from the lowest villager to the Hokage himself.
When he realized that his brother was speaking to him, he noticed that the words came out not as one who was relieved, but as one who was surprised, one who saw an outcome but still did not believe it.
Lolling his head so that he could look at his brother's features, features so similar to his own, from the long raven black hair to the worry lines along the face, even the disgraced forehead protector-Did I give him that?- and managed a feeble grin, remarkable for the white fire lacing through his veins, and triumphantly declared "Saus-Sauske. I-I win." And thus passed the Great Uchiha Itachi.
With the demise of the elder, Uchiha Sauske, last surviving member of the Uchihas, closed his eyes, weary and lonely. When he opened them, he saw things in a new light, things that revealed their greatest secrets to his gaze, and noticed the sky opening it's steel grey arms and let the gentle drift of snow, pure and innocent, obscure the battleground. Puzzled, Sauske tugged the great Akutsuki cloak from the corpse and stared into the newly falling snow with new sight.
