A/N: Hey, just a quick preface—new chapters will be out on Wednesday, every single week. I've plotted out the first 3 Parts/Arcs of this fic—which will themselves consist of several chapters within them. At the conclusion of each Arc, I'll be taking a two-week break and returning the following week with the beginning of the next Arc (as is normally done in the official Shonen magazine too). Feel free to message me if you have any questions about the release schedule or anything in general about the storyline, characters, pairings, etc.
End of preface. Please enjoy!
Part One
"DEPARTURE"
Chapter 1
"Naruto & Sasuke"
Rain-clouds loomed solemnly in the background at The Valley of the End, where two comrades mutilated each other beyond reparation—of their wounds and their relationship—draining themselves dry, utilizing every last drop of chakra in their wealthy reservoirs; their willpowers driving them to their ends.
They were brothers, once. Now, they ceased to be anything but broken.
Naruto, the hopeful boy, and Sasuke, the vengeful soldier. They decided their fates, wrote their destinies, didn't care much about what the consequences would be. They would endure. It was what being a shinobi was all about.
Finally, the skies caved, exploding with light, and cloudbursts thundered all around them—the rain pounding against the still waters of the reservoir they stood on, thrashing waves forcing their balance off. They leapt from the waves onto the statues of their predecessors—Naruto, upon Hashirama's, and Sasuke, on Madara's.
The rain masked Sasuke's tears, but it couldn't hide Naruto's anger and frustration at his best friend's betrayal.
"Sasuke!" Naruto said, wiping blood off his cheeks—unintentionally digging it deeper into the whiskered scars he was born with. "Why, Sasuke!? WHY!?"
Sasuke said nothing. He simply watched the rainfall and the cloudbursts and let his tears flow freely. He knew what he had to do—Itachi had told him. He didn't think he had it in him, but he was too far gone now—too deep in this—that he had no choice. Konoha would put him to trial for his actions, strip him of his rank, and imprison him just because they didn't think that he reserved the right to murder the man that murdered his family.
He did reserve the right. And he would kill Itachi. Orochimaru would give him the power he needed to do so—but first…he would have to kill Naruto.
"Answer me, Sasuke!" Naruto said, flailing his claws haphazardly, slicing through raindrops and his own misty breath. The red cloak of chakra radiated off him like flames, as if his blood had been set on fire. It was the Kyūbi's power, and he did not welcome it, but at this very moment, he needed it. Without it, he wouldn't be strong enough; with it, he could bring his brother back home. He had to…for Sakura-chan…for the sake of his promise—and for the sake of all their dreams they had yet to live out together! He couldn't let Sasuke get away.
"Naruto," Sasuke whispered, swaying from atop the statue, drunk off his own power, imbibing the darkness that it promised—for he knew that without accepting true darkness into his heart, he could never hope to do what was necessary. "I'm sorry that this has to happen—"
"What are you saying, Sasuke!? None of this has to happen if you don't want it to! Just stop acting stupid, get off your high-horse, and come home with me! Sasuke—Sakura-chan is waiting for you. Kakashi-Sensei, Baa-chan, the villagers. You're their hero, Sasuke! You are their prized champion. They care so much about you!—"
"What do you care?!" Sasuke shouted, his fists balled in deep frustration. "Why do you give a damn about them anyway?! They hate you!" Naruto flashed surprise and a hint of shock. Sasuke pressed on. "They hate you because they're all too stupid to know the difference between you and that thing inside you! So why do you give a damn at all about any of them?!"
Naruto quieted, shed a tear for his friend who had wandered off the right path. He put his hand out, reaching for Sasuke. "Because they're all my family, Sasuke. Every. Single. One of them. Because they are not one of us and they should never have to be. We endure this crap so that they don't have to—isn't that the damn point?! Isn't that what Iruka-sensei taught us in the Academy?! And you're right—they don't know the difference between me and the stupid beast that's inside me, but that's okay. That's why I fight. Every day. So that one day, they'll look at me and see that I'm just Naruto. So that one day, they will know the difference…"
Sasuke stared at Naruto's open palm and whispered, "Naruto…" He was stronger than he could ever hope to be. "I'm sorry."
He flapped the wings on his back, the cursed seal bolstering his every muscle—increasing the capabilities of his jutsu ten-fold. He felt the lightning crackling in the air surrounding him—and he didn't really think it, or do it, so much as it just happened. He formed a chidori within his palm, kept pumping more chakra into it, and it enveloped his whole arm, like a giant blade made of lightning. And then, the cloudbursts became his to command.
Lightning struck, arcing towards his arm, joining it—and his arm burned but he bit back the pain. He kept on muttering, I'm sorry, under his breath, tears free-falling off his cheeks—his sharingan, juxtaposed with the ever-darkening skies.
Naruto understood Sasuke's intent. They didn't need words anymore. They ascended and became true shinobi in that moment. He stared at his held-out palm—the bubble of red chakra encasing it sizzling every time the rain touched it—and focused all his pain and his misery and his anger and his hurt…and a rasengan bloomed to life in his hand—one that hurt to hold and felt so heavy. All that pain, Naruto thought. All my pain.
"So this is it, huh," Naruto said. He crouched low to the ground, feral, like the beast inside him. "I loved you like a brother, Sasuke. And no matter what happens…I always will."
"Me too, Naruto. That's why you have to die. I need to see through Itachi's illusions."
"Hah. You think you can kill me? I would have to let you kill me, Sasuke."
"Shut up!" Sasuke spat, wiping his tears and preparing to launch himself. The lightning became one with him then, and enveloped his whole body in a sporadic, saw-toothed cloak of pure chakra.
"Let's get to it then, Sasuke," Naruto said.
"Hn."
They both leapt off the statues with such force that they left permanent scars on the heads of their predecessors. Sasuke was faster. Naruto summoned a seal-less clone to hurl him faster, matching Sasuke's speed.
Sasuke war-cried and channelled every ounce of his strength into the jutsu, the lightning singing his skin deeper and deeper. He outstretched his hand, his target locked—a straight jab and the chidori would cut through Naruto's heart.
Naruto smiled as they neared each other—a mere handbreadth apart—and chuckled at the look of utter shock and exasperation on Sasuke's face when he cancelled his rasengan and cast the Kyūbi's chakra aside, tossing the bubbling, red cloak into the thrashing waves.
Sasuke's chidori pierced through his heart. A clean strike. Naruto spat blood, feeling his body shutting down, hearing the Kyūbi cursing him from within, and his smile grew wider. Gravity took over. The two plummeted toward the water.
Sasuke cancelled his jutsu, shut off the cursed seal, and caught Naruto's limp body within his arms. He landed on a dissipating wave. The cloudbursts came to a halt and the rain stopped altogether. No more thrashing waves—only still waters—and now it was Sasuke who was thrashing and writhing on the inside, feeling his own kind of wave—of emotion—of immediate onset regret. He was sorry. He had just killed his best friend in cold blood. This, he could not take back—and that feeling would last forever.
He cradled Naruto in his arms, hugging the boy tight against his chest, screaming and yelling. "You idiot! WHY?!"
Naruto smiled and his body twitched. Sasuke thought his best friend had returned from the dead, but he only came back to say his last words, to answer his why.
"B-be-c-cause y-you're my b-b-bro-ther," Naruto whispered, his voice wavering and cracking with each syllable. "B-be-c-cause I'll d-do any-th-thing it t-takes to h-help you win. And b-because I made a p-promise to someone th-that I would b-bring you b-back—and whether that happens n-now or l-later, it has to happen eventually."
Sasuke stared, wide-eyed and filled with rage, angry at the boy for deciding his life for him.
Naruto took a deep breath, collected all his words. "Don't give me that look." Sasuke turned his face away from him. "Go find Itachi. Go kill him—and when you have your revenge, come back home…to Sakura-chan…"
Sasuke snapped to Naruto's face. He wasn't speaking anymore, nor was his body moving. Shit! Shit! Shit! he thought. He listened for Naruto's breath, couldn't hear it, felt his heartbeat and found that he didn't have one. Sasuke clinched his body tight and cried out in pain he had never known before—it was as if his family had died all over again.
In Japanese there is a word for men like Itachi and Sasuke, and it is called Uragirimono. It means, Betrayer. That was what they had ceased to be. Good for nothings who pissed pride with every step they took, never appreciative of the resources that were available to only them. And at the end of it all, they stabbed the backs of the ones who trusted them most—but Sasuke felt utter regret at being that man—that friend—except, he realized then, it didn't matter, because it was too late anyway.
When he opened his eyes, he saw things differently—in darker and lighter shades, in clearer hues—somehow knowing confidently that the truth was in his sights, that this was not an illusion anymore, and that Naruto was dead.
Sasuke stared at the reflection of his eyes in the water, saw the change in them. They were redder—bloodier—filled with a deeper sense of hatred and pain then they had known mere moments before, and he wondered: Is this it? Is this what He talked about? The eyes he told me I had to obtain. This sight…?
His sharingan had evolved. A fuma-shuriken, swirling endlessly, its edges curved, and within its inner-edge bloomed blood-red flower petals. It flashed Sasuke back in time, back to their co-operative attack against Zabuza, and he chuckled, happy that his eyes could honour his friend's memory in some way. Unpredictable—you got that right, Sasuke remarked.
He hugged his comrade one last time, then let his body go—allowing the water to engulf him whole—providing him with some semblance of a burial, then turned his back and fled from the valley, his will a thousand times stronger. His eyes saw everything now…
He unknotted his headband and gripped it tight in his fist as he pounced from treetop to treetop. He didn't etch a line through the village symbol—the signature tell of rogue ninja. He was a shinobi of konohagakure yet. He would bring his clan justice, and that meant Itachi's head on a silver platter.
Sasuke yelled out Itachi's name in bloodlust, his mangekyou sharingan spinning madly, the fuma-shuriken whining into a dull headache, and the flower petals blooming gracefully. One day the petals would overshadow the blade, but that day was far ahead of him. That day…his eyes could not yet see.
