"Rain..." Kakashi thought as he and Pakkun continued their relentless leaping from tree to tree. A rush of panic went through the jonin's mind as the tiny, occasional droplets soon became a thunderstorm beating down on them. Any tracker with some common sense knew what it meant, and it was something Kakashi absolutely couldn't afford. Not know, not with the two of them at stake.

"Their scent, do you still have it?"

"It's alright!" Pakkun shouted back. "I still have it... They're here!"

Allowing himself to hope, Kakashi pushed himself onward until the seemingly neverending forests of the Fire Country gave way to that place. The site of one of the greatest battles in all of shinobi history, the Valley of the End. With the deft practice of decades, ninja and animal both leaped from the final tree trunks and, moments later, descended to the bottommost level of the valley, at the feet of Hashirama Senju. As the downpour continued, Kakashi and Pakkun both looked around frantically until they saw them.

Naruto and Satsuki, floating in the water right next to one another, their forehead protectors cracked, and their eyes closed. When he saw the fist-sized hole through Naruto's right ribcage, Kakashi felt a horrible, momentary flash of his own past then set it aside. He had to get to his students first, not wallow in memories of his own misery. The instant he placed them on solid ground, he went about checking their pulses.

"Well...?" Pakkun asked as Kakashi pressed his fingers against their necks. He checked once, twice, and then at least twice more, until he was satisfied. Until the cold knife of fear, he was usually so good at ignoring, was finally pulled out of his chest. Letting out a single, pained breath, Kakashi felt the weight of the world leave his shoulders. He couldn't help but smile like an idiot under his mask at his trusted tracker dog.

"...They're alive..."

Sitting down next to Satsuki, Pakkun smiled too, and the old grouch even let out a short laugh. It was then, once his own fears and worries were put to rest, that Kakashi noticed they weren't the only ones doing it. Despite looking tired, beaten, and bloodied, Naruto smiled in his sleep too. Satsuki wasn't, but she looked... Not peaceful, but more at ease than he'd ever seen her before.

"It's amazing, don't you think?" Pakkun said, lifting his head toward the statues towering over them. "Those two duking it out here of all places? Just like Madara and the First Hokage?"

"The irony didn't escape me," Kakashi admitted, gazing up at the two men who built Konoha. Those who began as enemies became comrades and then enemies once more, warriors whose battle-scarred and created the very place where they all were. A fight from which only one of them walked away and Kakashi was glad that part of history, at least, didn't repeat itself. He looked back to his students, feeling another surge of relief at Satsuki's presence before looking at Naruto.

You always were one to pull off the impossible, Kakashi admitted with no small amount of pride directed at the former dead last. You have no idea how lucky you were here today, Naruto. Precious few of us save a comrade as you have...

It was almost over.

The mission they'd set out on was on the verge of success or complete failure. Everything the whole team had done up until this point was riding on what happened next. Naruto's promise to Sakura was on the line, and so was the life of the first person with who he'd ever felt a connection. Before even Iruka-sensei. Satsuki watched him with that Sharingan of hers, eyes that scared and left him speechless a million times. She'd saved his life with those eyes in the Land of Waves. Now, she was going to use them to kill him. Sever the bond.

Like hell... Naruto thought, watching as she knelt in the crater, working through the Chidori's hand signs. Sure enough, it appeared, and Orochimaru twisted even it with his damn curse mark. The lightning bent in bizarre ways, turning black around her left hand. There was absolutely no hesitation in her face. It would've hurt less if she was actually as cold as she wanted to seem. Naruto knew better. The fact Satsuki was turning herself into a monster was worse than a knife in the chest. He couldn't stomach it anymore.

But she was right about one thing, words weren't going to change anything.

Listen up, Naruto growled at the monster inside him, raising his hand for a Rasengan he shouldn't have been able to make. I'm not losing here, got it?! You help me win this thing already, or I'm gonna go in there and kick your ass myself!"

"I have no intention of dying from your incompetence, brat," The fox surprised him by answering, sounding even more pissed off than Naruto himself felt for some reason. "Certainly not to a damned Uchiha..."

If Naruto didn't feel like his whole world was about to crumble, he might've laughed at the two of them agreeing on something. In the palm of his only useful arm, Naruto idly felt the accumulation of chakra in his palm. It spun and formed the Rasengan for him perfectly with a mind of its own. Naruto could feel the weight of all the extra power put into it. If Satsuki cared or was scared, she didn't show it, playing it cool as usual. The act pissed him off even more.

How, how can someone like you... Be such a dumbass?!

Blasting off from the statue, Naruto pulled his arm back as Satsuki did the same, soaring through the air with those freakish arms sticking out of her. Neither one of them said anything as the Chidori and Rasengan smashed into one another. Neither one of them so much as flinched as their own attacks ballooned around them, encasing them inside an orb of chakra so thick it was impossible to even breathe. To even see from the glow, at least, for one of them.

As fast as lightning, Satsuki's fist smashed into Naruto's chest, the sudden jolt of pain-causing his whole body to freeze up. His arm hovered just above her forehead protector. All he had to do was scratch it, and he would prove her wrong. She wasn't that far above him. The thought was almost enough to make him feel better about the fact he was definitely about to lose. Almost. But as the blood rushed through his throat and tears in his eyes, feeling more miserable in that instant than he had in months, Naruto wanted to punch himself.

All his big talk about his ninja way, about never giving up, and this is what it amounted to? Letting everything the whole team had worked so hard to go to crap? To let down Kakashi-sensei and Sakura? To let that slimy, murdering creep Orochimaru take Satsuki? The person who pissed him off and who he admired like no one else? The only girl he'd ever...

No... No!... This ain't over yet!

Satsuki Uchiha thought her completed Sharingan and curse mark had secured her victory. It allowed her to peer past the blinding flash of light from their Jutsu smashing into one another and score a devastating hit on Naruto. She could feel the blow tear right past the cloak of chakra, muscles burying themselves inside his torso. With detail, Satsuki observed Naruto's whole body freeze then twist in response to the hit. Any second now, blood would come rushing out of his mouth, and his only functioning arm would completely miss its mark.

That wasn't what let her know it was over. It was Naruto's face. For a single, satisfying instant, Satsuki saw the resignation there, an acceptance of defeat. She watched tears form in the corners of his eyes, and his face changed from furious to pained to finally desperate. He looked even more miserable than when she'd run him through earlier. As the image burned itself into her memory with the Sharingan's copy abilities.

Finally, She smiled predatorily. The loser knows I've won.

And with that victory would come finality and even more power. Satsuki could practically taste it already, the Mangekyo Sharingan. That hidden strength of the Uchiha clan, acquired only by those who had the will to take it for themselves. With Naruto's death, those eyes would be hers, and every single troublesome bond with Konoha would be severed forever. Nothing would hold her back anymore.

Just you wait, brother, Satsuki's smile widened as she looked past Naruto to something beyond, a dream of the future soon to become a reality. Her big brother, frothing at the mouth at her feet as the genjutsu worked its magic. Next time we meet, it'll be your mind getting ripped to pieces, you worthless bastard-

Before she could savor it longer, Satsuki's attention was brought back to the present. There was a change in Naruto's face, slow and hypnotic. The expression stayed, of bottomless regret and sorrow, of absolute unfathomable misery. The same pitiful look he'd sent her way before she impaled him. Except it wasn't on Naruto's face anymore, it was on... His. With a mesmerized look of horror and fascination, Satsuki found herself flung back years to the night of the massacre, being looked down upon by Itachi.

It was a position she'd herself a million times, in waking hours and horrible nightmares. No matter how much she tried, the overwhelming sense of helplessness crashed down on her. Leaving her that same, useless child, lying in the dirt, exhausted, at Itachi's mercy while he loomed over her.

Not this time, She snarled, grinding her teeth, a righteous fire burning in her chest. You won't do that to me again, not when I'm almost... What...?!

Satsuki had been mistaken. The vision of the past happening before her was almost the same. There was only one difference: Itachi was crying, looking at her with the same expression as Naruto.

What is this...?! She thought, as quiet as a mouse in her own head. I-I've never...

Itachi was many things to her throughout her life. Someone to admire, to despise, to surpass before and after the massacre. But one thing Satsuki could never fathom Itachi being... Was vulnerable, human. He looked less of a mass murderer and more of just a boy, barely older than she was now. Lost, miserable. It was... She had no words for it.

The image burned itself into her memory forever, thanks to her Sharingan. Except it didn't, Satsuki was keenly aware of a particular sensation within her own eyes. Small feelings within the Sharingan that let her know when something was being copied into her brain. This wasn't that one of those instances.

W-What does this... Suddenly, a hand snapped around her neck in a grip so tight her breathing was cut off immediately. The image of the weeping, remorseful Itachi faded and was replaced by a sobbing, snarling, and fanged Naruto. Staring at him, their faces inches apart, Satsuki stared as he changed again. Not the teenager with fangs and red eyes. But the small, sad little boy who from years ago come back to her as her own body felt smaller, lighter too. For a moment, Naruto smiled at her warmly, offering his hand in the gesture of reconciliation.

Satsuki looked at it, then him, and realized she'd gone back to that day too. Pretending to stare at the water, trying not to lock eyes with a loudmouth loser doing an even worse job of it than her. After everything that'd happened, past the anger boiling off of him and the resentment that should've been there was Naruto's warmth. For her, banishing the mess all-around them until they were just two kids again.

Satsuki stared, her heart thumping as loud as an exploding kunai. She wanted to swat his hand away, but her body didn't listen. Tentatively, she reached out to him for some unfathomable reason, completing the gesture. Naruto's eyes lit up, he gave her his biggest, toothiest grin. Satsuki stared at it, feeling the warmth wash over her even more potently. It was like being back in Konoha, just lying on the grass with the sun shining down. Eventually, hesitantly, she smiled back.

Then Naruto's head pulled back and, with all the force he had left, smashed his forehead against hers.

Satsuki didn't feel anything, not from her own body. Not the blinding pain that rushed from her brain, leaving her numb all over. She didn't perceive the receding of the curse mark as its power faded away from her. Or even the deactivation of her Sharingan. The only thing Satsuki Uchiha felt as she and Naruto both plummeted to the ground was what ran through that boy's head.

I...I care about you, you stupid bastard! Naruto practically shouted in her head. Feeling something for her, he wasn't able to articulate, but Satsuki knew quite well. She'd lost it a long time ago, and never for a second thought, she'd feel it again. Everything he'd done with her, for her, was painfully clear. Everything she would after this? Just the opposite. This was the last thought she had before the two of them fell onto the ground and into unconsciousness.

Kabuto observed from the doorway in complete silence as Lord Orochimaru went through one sequence of hand signs to the next. With each failure to perform a jutsu, the already present pit in his stomach widened. A cold sweat threatened to break out at any moment. Even with his master's back turned, Kabuto knew his rage was immeasurable and growing with each failure. Even with the physical damage of the Reaper Death Seal repaired, new flesh couldn't fix a literally carved spirit.

Perhaps he only needs time... Time to acclimate to this new body...? Kabuto tried to rationalize, and each repeat of the same thought rang all the more hollow. An empty little bit of hope to make himself feel better on the eve of reporting more ill news.

"Has he arrived yet, Kabuto?" Lord Orochimaru's voice hissed from the almost pitch-black room, illuminated by a sole candle on the table next to him. His words almost seemed to echo through Kabuto's very skull, turning his blood into ice. Even after all their time together and his many years of practice, he still wasn't able to fully steel himself in the Sannin's presence.

"... No, my lord," Kabuto knelt, bowing his head as Lord Orochimaru's hands fell at his sides, his posture rigid like a statue. "Thus far, our agents have reported no crossings from the Fire Country into our territory."

"Not even from the Sound Four?"

Kabuto ignored the bead of sweat running down his neck. "We've received no word from them either."

With an almost imperceptible motion, Lord Orochimaru's fingers curled. He could practically hear their muscles groan under the tension of the clench. His master made no other motions, but he didn't have to. Only an imbecile could miss the growing possibility or, more accurately certainty, of what transpired. Satsuki either returned to the village or was captured and brought back by force. Kimimaro was a dead man a while ago. The rest of the former Sound Five either joined him in the afterlife or Satsuki in Konoha captivity.

Kabuto could guess who was the likeliest culprit for Satsuki's failed arrival. Not for the first or last time, he felt a very seething disdain for Naruto Uzumaki. A sentiment no doubt shared a thousandfold by his master. Not sweeping him from the board was continuously becoming a dangerous thorn in their side.

I should have gotten rid of him when I had the chance.

"We are leaving, Kabuto," Lord Orochimaru spoke, his hand unclenched and voice carefully neutral. "This place has outlived its usefulness. Make the necessary preparations."

All who are of no further use are to be disposed of, He remembered quite vividly what that entailed the first time Kabuto, and he left a hideout behind. A most bloody initial execution of the order, but the process of elimination had become as easy as breathing for him by this point.

"... Of course, sir," Leaving his master to his private considerations of the future, Kabuto went about promptly ensuring the execution of the command. Would he abandon all notions of capturing the Uchiha? He found it unlikely, and though they'd just bought themselves a few years, Kabuto knew there were other forces far more terrible than just Konoha to deal with eventually...

"So, Orochimaru has once again failed to acquire his long-sought-after Sharingan eye?"

"It would appear so, no doubt he's fuming in whatever hole he's slithered into, hehe," The white half of Zetsu spoke, taking no small amount of understandable joy at their former associate's failure. "That works out just fine for us, don't you think?"

"Only if you're a fool with no grasp of the bigger picture," The other, black Zetsu, quite expectedly grumbled, ever critical. "Satsuki Uchiha's lust for power could have made her useful to the Akatsuki, now she's back in Konoha's hands."

"You're both correct in your assertions," He drawled from the shadows, hidden in a place known to few and visited in person by even fewer. "Orochimaru's every setback is a boon for us, yet, Konoha will no doubt use Satsuki's recovery to bend the girl to their foolish ideology. However, I believe things will work out for us either way."

"You sound so sure of that."

"I am. Either Satsuki sees the error of her ways and bends to the Will of Fire, suffocating her true potential. Thus becoming a dull blade to be used by our enemies and worthless to our purposes regardless. However, hatred is not so easy to snuff out from an Uchiha," The man's sole visible Sharingan activated, glinting from the darkness. "Nor is the pursuit of power at all other costs. Who better than I to know this for a fact?"

A/N: So ends the first of a handful of chapters I'm planning to write for this AU of mine. The idea of a female Sasuke or Naruto appealed to me, adding in more romantic elements to what is already a very emotionally charged relationship in the series proper. Sadly, there aren't many good fics about that floating around, and I hope mine makes a small contribution to fixing that problem.