At the Edge
The winds are howling around him, and Sasuke can feel himself being pushed back by the power of the Rasengan. Desperately he digs his heels in, forcing his hand forward, knowing that this is his last chance to gain the power he needs and he'd better not screw it up…
In a heart-stopping moment, he feels something give, and the compact ball of power bursts and sends out shockwaves that nearly send him flying back into a rock. He barely keeps his balance and closes his eyes, willing the blinding light to fade. When he can only see darkness, he opens them again.
He and Naruto are in a slowly shrinking circle of light. Naruto is felled, with a hole through his chest.
At first, Sasuke can only stare, panting slightly. His hitai-ate falls off his forehead, and Sasuke stares at it. It is covered in dirt and dried blood, and its raggedly torn ends are moving on either side of Naruto's wound as he breathes. Red begins to cloud his sight again, and he reaches for a kunai.
Above him, thunder rolls across the sky, and rain begins to pour down, cooling his rage and washing the blood from his vision. His sight clears, and his hitai-ate is the first thing he sees.
On it is a scratch.
Sasuke's left arm throbs painfully as he leans over Naruto. Slowly he reaches out a hand and rests it on Naruto's forehead, painstakingly tracing the untainted leaf symbol. After he is done, he straightens and continues on his path towards Orochimaru, leaving Naruto on the ground.
At the edges of his sanity, he can feel the mangekyo stirring.
A fallen boy lies on the ground as another fallen boy walks on, and a fallen man chases after them, too little and too late to save them.