Disclaimer- We do not own Naruto. We do own the non-anime characters.

Chapter 7

Unexpected Reasons

Naruto noticed the water to his left and slowly started to walk on the water and waved for Sasuke to join him, as he took in his surroundings, it seemed a good place for the battle not like he could go anywhere, he was trapped in there with Sasuke. He was sure the bubble would dissipate when this fight ended. He only hopped that it would end on a good note not with one or both of their deaths, though he had long decided he was expendable.

Looking up the bluish sky he sighed, it was such a nice day and he doubted that any of their enemies had taken the time to just breathe, to appreciate what everyone had taken for credit, the earth, nature, the elements. He smiled, he lived for this, the quiet moments before battle, it was the one time that a warrior was at peace with himself, and his smile faded as he looked at Sasuke and wondered what the battle was to tell. Looking around he saw his fellow teammates arriving but werestill unable to reach him because of the shield, he also wondered how their battles went, although there was no sign ofNeji and he couldn't seem to find Shikamaru either.

"This is your last chance come with us Sasuke, we want you to come home with us, to enjoy Konoha, and a certain pink hair ninja would love to have you as well." Naruto pleaded with a hint of resignation in his voice. He was hoping Sasuke would settle for a peaceful solution to the fight but knew that most likely he wasn't probably going to get one.

"You think it will be that easy for me to go back, I knew you were stupid but not this stupid. I would have thought you would have learned by now that I have chosen my path and that includes killing my brother, even at the cost of my Konoha headband, besides Sakura never loved me, she loved the attitude I had." Sasuke countered as he looked at Naruto and sneered with no little amount of venom in his voice.

"Hahaha...You are calling me dumb after saying something like that, then you are truly lost and there is no hope for you. She loved you more then anything in this world and when you left, part of her died." Naruto said growing slightly angery as he looked at Sasuke who looked mildly surprised by the statement,. 'At least he isn't a complete bastard' Naruto thought as he followed suit and slipped into a battle position much as Sasuke did while Naruto spoke.

Sasuke couldn't believe that he had shown some emotional recognition to Naruto when he said that Sakura missed him, he serious had hoped she would get over him, he needed her to hate him, it made leaving easier, it made it all easier, he needed to kill his brother and he couldn't do that if he was tied down, it just wasn't possible.

(A/N: by request of the readers, we are putting the fights between the other Anbu members here... Hope you enjoy...)

Before the sound barrier was erected...

Elsewhere Neji was fighting Sukon and Ukon the brothers that shared the same body it seemed that he was suited to handle this battle more then the other since he wouldn't let them get close enough to do to him what they had tried to do Asuma-sensei when he had come after Sasuke the first time. Neji was tiring fast and needed to finish this battle quickly, he needed to use his own trump card NOW. Neji started to summon his element and its powers, Ukon looked around as the ground started to rumble and some weird colored water of a dark and dank color seeped from the ground

"You two are probably wondering why I was fighting only hand to hand but making sure you never hit me, well because I know you can enter my body and I don't think that would be smart of me if I let you and frankly I can end it now with my elemental powers." Neji said as he smirked and raised his hand and made a sort of upside-down cage with his fingers and shouted: "Suiton: Yami Mizu Tanki (Water release : Dark Waters of Death)".

Neji watched as the dark water rose and started to rush at his opponents and filter its way into their throat and nose slowly suffocating them and seeking out there heart, Neji brought his other hand up and waited as he sensed the water closing in on the heart after ripping a fiery, painful path through their lungs in search of the life essential organ.

Closing his other hand the water bound itself to the brothers hearts and slowly compressed, squeezing and slowly crushing their hearts, the brothers were writhering on the ground as the felt the immense pain not able to cry out because of the water filling their throats."For Sasuke indeed..." Was all Neji said as he walked back toward the valley limping as he went knowing he needed a good rest or atleast a couple of soldier pills.

With Shika...

Shikamaru walked into the shadows with a smirk as Kidoumaru thesix armed nin looked back and forth, afraid for the first time in his life. Even with the second stage of his curse activated, he still felt like a sitting duck. His opponent's ability to hide in the shadows only further enshrined his opponent as a true horror and a terror of battle.

"Why do you hide from me, scared aren't you boy, I would be if I were you." Kidoumaru taunted from his place in the shade of a near by tree trying to keep up his impression of indifference. Shikamaru just smirked as he watched as the man left himself open for the attack that was coming, Shikamaru with the power of his element, quietly appeared behind the boy, pulling his two Vorpral blades he pressed them against the older man's throat and growled out: "This is the end of the line for you, you could have just surrendered but you became to troublesome and for that I will end the pitiful example of a life you have for good."

Kidoumaru tried to move but couldn't seem to even twitch. Knowing that he was finished, he let out a scream so primal in its intensity, that birds took to flight from the surrounding areain a radius of almost a square mile, but the scream was cut off as Shikamaru used the daggers of his line and silenced the man. He watched the head of his opponent fall to the ground and roll to rest against a tree and he also watched as Kidoumaru's headless body fall limp to the side, he looked at his blades and was barely able to withhold his tears, the power that he was gifted with was turning out to be so troublesome and he because of that he had killed someone. Why was he chosen and why did he have to kill?

Watching from the shadows the elemental sovereigns inspected the battles of their chosen and were very pleased over all about what had happened, and they were also pleased that someone cared enough to question why he had the power and why he had to kill with it.

"He is a very interesting choice, but it seems I made the right one, right boys and girls." Shadow said as the others started giving him their opinions about his choice, water smiled smugly he had worried at first about his choice but the battle of his chosen had shown him that maybe he had made the right choice, ground was very pleased as well, and nature well the boy hadn't used any of his elemental jutsus yet, but he thought the boy was also strong and right for the job.

Back at the fight Naruto stood waiting for the attack. He could feel his team getting closer and was glad that they had survived but he knew his battle was just starting. From the city of Konoha, a team consisting Jiraiya and Anko and the rest of the rookie nine and team Gai headed for the battle. They were hoping against hope that they would get there in time to catch the fight and hopefully save Sasuke and Naruto from destroying each other.

Naruto moved first, he disappeared and reappeared above Sasuke and brought his leg down trying to deliver a crushing leg kick to the shoulder of his opponent, Sasuke side stepped and muttered "Sharingan" as his eyes changed from onyx to red with three commas. Naruto seeing this did several back flips and landed a fair distance away. If Sasuke felt it necessary to activate his blood limit then he would do the same thing.

Naruto looked to the sky and started to collect chakra and call on his element, Sasuke watched as Naruto's eyes went blue on him, the electricity that was collecting around his body was amazing, the sky started to collect clouds like a storm was moving in, Sasuke watched as lighting struck the ground and water around them sending out ripples of electricity as it ran its way over the water. Naruto held his hand out and with a clash and a flash of lightning, a Glaive appeared in his hand with red runes glowing all over the shaft of the weapon. After applying chakra to the weapon and having the two blades at the end appear from their sheath, from the previous battle that Neji was in the elements felt Naruto tap into his power and quickly disappeared hoping to catch the fight before it started, the team from Konoha felt the chakra spike as well and started moving faster.

Naruto yelled is first attack as the elements appeared "Since you wont listen to some sound advice, I guess I will just have to BEAT IT INTO YOU!" "DANSU ZANA HEKIREKI JOUTON (Dance of the Thunder God)"

Naruto moved faster then Sasuke could see, bring his glaive around he slashed Sasuke and watched as the power exploded from the blade and propelled Sasuke back almost 20 meters. Running to catch up to him he brought the blade up and underhanded Sasuke. With a snap, up went Sasuke, air born. Naruto appeared above him and hit him a third time knocking the newest missing nin in to the water. As he put the blade away, Sasuke gathered himself from the water, and prepared for the next stage of the fight.

Sasuke was lost, for the life of him, he couldn't figure out how this boy could be more powerful then him, he had trained relentlessly for years to become as strong as he was. Knowing that, Sasuke he did the only thing he could, he activated the second level of the curse seal. He grinned evilly as he felt the giant hand-like wings rip from his body and as he felt the surge of power. The elemental leaders looked at the boy with disgust, such a perversion to and of power the boy was, all except fire, the most hot-headed of the leaders, counted the boy a loss, he was to be his holder and the boy would come around one way or another, he would make sure of that.

Sasuke started attacking Naruto faster then the fox-boy could track and soon found his way, back-first into a big tree groaning from the impact and the pain that rippled through his body, He stood all bet, a bit shakily, and smiled.

"Hey Sasuke, seeing as we about equal in power, how about we finish this for good your Chidori against my Rasengen, winner takes all.", Sasuke didn't answer he just stood their and made a quick series of hand seals and started to gather chakra into his hands, Naruto like wise started to gather chakra into his hand, and soon enough the sound of swirling air and a thousand birds and bees filled the air as his ANBU team and the Konoha team arrived. As the two teams looked on, both noticed the amount of power that both boys were putting out and couldn't help but shake at the magnitude of it.

Anko looked on as the two teens charged at each other, going faster then she had thought possible for a human. Sakura, who stood behind Jiraiya, couldn't believe her former teammates were down there fighting like this, not like this, not with the intent to kill. Jiraiya, who was worried for his son, prayed he knew what he was doing and wouldn't do anything that everyone including himself would regret.

As Sasuke and Naruto neared and thrust their attacks forward toward each other, Naruto looked to where he had sensed Sakura and Anko, and all the other people that had come to help him, landed and smiled letting the Rasengan dissipate back into his chakra pool. With the same foxy grin, that had for so long been used to cover his real emotions, plastered on his face, Naruto took the Chidori right through his chest. It destroyed everything that it touched, he slouched forward as blood began to pour from his wound and to leak from his mouth. He was lucky that it missed his heart, but he still knew that he was going to die. The damage was to great to be healed like always.

Looking up from the gaping wound in his chest, Naruto looked at the man responsible and smiled. He smiled because he knew that he had accomplished what he had come to this place to do and for him that was enough. He only hoped that the other people would forgive Sasuke.

"It seems we both got we wanted huh Sasuke.", he wheezed weakly after Sasuke ripped his now blood soaked hand from his former teammate and friend's chest.

Dropping onto his knees, Sasuke reached out and caught his slumping friend before he hit the ground. Holding onto his shoulders, Sasuke looked into Naruto's dimming blue eyes and asked: "Why… Why did you let me hit you?".

With a small sad smile, Naruto dipped his index finger into the pool of blood that was on the ground and with that same finger wrote: 'BECAUSE SHE LOVES YOU', on his ex-opponent's chest were a rip from their fight was showing the other boy's chest. With a gasp, Sasuke looked down and read what he had written and with out thinking of what he was doing, he put his hands on his chest and tried to fight back the tears. Having been released from Sasuke's grasp, Naruto fell backward and watched his teammates and friends as they tried to bring down the barrier to reach him. With a small smirk, Naruto lost consciousness, well on his way to the afterlife.

Meanwhile outside the barrier...

Chouji was busy trying to bust the wall down with his war-hammer but with little sucsess. Anko, who was pissed, was trying to get to Naruto but Jiraiya had an iron grip on her arms.

In the barrier…

Sasuke was gripping his head in pain as his eyes went through their finally evolution. As the pain subsided and he fainted, the barrier came crashing down. The people that were rushing into get him and Naruto, stopped in their tracks when white light enveloped the fox boy's body and with a flash both the light and the body vanished. Anko fell to her knees crying and in despair. She was crying because she was sure the one man she had ever really loved, and the one man that had truly understood her, had died just moments earlier and she had been unable to do anything about it. Jiraiya, who had lost a son, was fighting back his tears because he knew that he had a job to do and because he would have plenty of time to do that later. Unknown to the people outside, the great nine-tailed fox that lived inside the down vanished boy was laughing like a maniac. "Do you really think that I would let you die that easily?", he said to the small blonde haired body that lay before his cage. "After all you have done for this village and for me, I give you me parting gift.".

A/N: Thx to all our faithful readers and we sincerely hope you continue to enjoy our story. THX. PS R&R plz.