Part II
It was during the start of winter, around the time when the huge black birds cross the sky to migrate to other lands, that Sasuke noticed the changes in Naruto. The boy spoke less and less and spent his time looking either up the sky or beyond the valley. He spoke little of Konoha, and only mentioned it when talking about Sakura. Sometimes, he would not even finish his stories, and simply space out, following the flight of the black birds with his eyes, his words left hanging in the air like a story with no ending.
Sasuke had tried asking the blonde what he was worried about, but Naruto simply gives him a smile, in his eyes an emotion Sasuke didn't even see the moment he had almost killed him: fear.
At times when Naruto spends the night at Sasuke's, the blonde would cling to his partner, as if not wanting to let go of the other. Naruto would often ask Sasuke to hold him, like a child asking to be put to sleep. Finally, one night, after making love, and both of them still awake, Sasuke asked Naruto a question.
"It's winter already. Didn't you say your village has a festival around this time of the year?"
At Sasuke's words, Naruto shivered. He began crying and clung hard to Sasuke.
"Sasuke… please… take me away."
Alarmed at the boy's reaction, Sasuke held him tight and asked, "What's the matter, Naruto? Tell me, what's wrong."
"They're going to kill me." Naruto sobbed.
"What are you talking about?"
Naruto tried to calm himself down before talking again so that Sasuke could understand his next words. "This mark you see on my stomach, is the mark of a sacrifice. I was born with it so that on my 18th year, at the Feast of the Kyubi, I will be offered to the fox god to be eaten alive.
"There is no way out of the village but this place. It's the only place that they fear barging into. I have not gone back to the village in days. The times I say goodbye to you, I stay in the forest. But I fear that since the day of the feast is near, they will risk going even to the Valley of the End just to retrieve me."
"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Sasuke said, confused. "And what's this about sacrifices anyway? This is ridiculous!"
"The only way to calm the Kyubi is through a human sacrifice, or else the village will be destroyed," Naruto said with a sad look on his face.
There was silence between the two, and for a moment there was nothing to be heard but the troubled whirring of the waterfall and the cawing of the black birds.
"Tomorrow at dawn, we'll cross the valley. There is a narrow passage behind the waterfall that will lead us to the other side."
"But that's too dangerous," Naruto exclaimed.
"It's a risk I'm willing to take," Sasuke said, kissing the blonde to silence his fears.
Early in the morning after, the two packed what little belonging they had, and set out for the valley. When they had arrived at the narrow passage, Sasuke warned Naruto, "We cannot walk together, the passage is narrow, but you go ahead, and I'll be right behind you."
And so, the two started crossing the valley, Naruto, a few steps ahead of Sasuke. The blonde feeling uneasy, kept looking back at Sasuke, that when he tripped over a sharp stone, he almost fell. Sasuke reached out for the boy's arm in time for Naruto to regain his balance. "Don't be afraid, I'm right here," is what he said. "See those black birds? They make it to the other side just fine."
It was noon when they reached halfway their destination, and Naruto, once again, perhaps due to extreme heat and too much walking, almost fell. This time, Sasuke had to hold Naruto's body and press it against the valley, so that the boy regained composure. "Just a little more, we're almost there," is what he said.
Alas, it was almost dusk when Naruto had finally stepped foot on the other side, his eyes brimming with joy upon his triumph. "Sasuke, over here!" he waved at the young man, still in the passage, just five or six steps away from the goal.
Sasuke smiled at him too, happy that the boy earned his freedom, but just as he was about to take another step, the winds, as if making fun of them, suddenly went into a wild rage. The black birds panicked and flew to different directions.
"Sasuke!" Naruto called out.
But the raven-haired young man could not hear him. He was flailing his hands as he took cover from the wind.
"Sasuke!" Naruto called out once more.
Sasuke struggled, and as he did, he hit one black bird that flew to his direction. The bird grew angry and began attacking him.
"Sasuke, look out!" Naruto screamed, horrified at the nightmare that was taking place.
The bird kept attacking Sasuke, cawing loudly. Soon enough his companions heard him, and began attacking the young man as well. From Naruto's point of view, he could see how the birds preyed on Sasuke. Until finally, one bird, with its fearsome claws, took out the young man's left eye. Screaming with pain, Sasuke lost his balance, and fell into the water.
When Sasuke woke up next, his whole body was in pain. With darkness taking over the other, Sasuke could only open his right eye. He was lying on a bed, in a hut that he did not recognize.
"Naruto," he uttered in a voice that almost cannot be heard.
"I'm sorry," a high-pitched voice responded, unfamiliar to Sasuke's ears. He looked to his side, and there he saw an unfamiliar face – a fair young woman with pink hair.
"My name is Sakura. I'm sorry I cannot take you to the village, nor can I take you back to the valley for I fear that place."
"Where's Naruto?" Sasuke asked, but the girl shook her head.
"He made it to the other side, didn't he? I saw him," Sasuke said in a voice as loud he could.
Sakura looked surprised for a moment then spoke, "The villagers found you both floating in the waters. They took Naruto away, and while they were busy with the feast, I took you here. It was the only thing I can do."
"No, no…" Sasuke said, sitting up. "He made it to the other side!"
"Then he must've jumped into the water to save you."
"That's stupid! That's stupid!" was all Sasuke could say. "Wait, where is he? We have to take him away from the villagers!" Sasuke said, grabbing Sakura and shaking her violently.
"The feast… is over, Sasuke." Sakura said in pain.
Sasuke let go of Sakura and trembled in disbelief.
"I'm sorry… I tried to talk to the villagers, but they wouldn't listen to me. I couldn't do a thing. The last words Naruto told me was to take care of you."
Sasuke remained silent.
"Did you know? That boy wasn't really afraid of death until he met you. Although I only knew him after he had asked me how to cook ramen, that silly boy, he told me all about you. And he told me about the valley. And I guess, the legend is true, after all."
Sasuke lay back down on the bed and turned away from Sakura.
"There is nothing more I can do for you," Sakura said. "You can stay here as long as you like, nobody will bother you. There is plenty of food on the table, and plenty more outside, when you've regained enough strength to gather them for yourself. In three days, your right eye will be healed. Until then, do not take the cloth off. I must return to the village, now."
And just before the pink-haired girl left the hut, she left Sasuke these words."Though blood and flesh gone and had become one with the fox god, Naruto's still always with you."
Three days later, just as the girl had said, Sasuke's left eye healed. When Sasuke gained enough strength, he left the place. He did not go to Konoha to take revenge, nor back to the Valley of the End. He simply traveled, until finally one day found a village far from any body of water, for he had learned not to love it. He became a farmer, where he cooked and produced food for the village, just as what he would have done for the boy if only he were still alive.
It was hard to live on with only the memory of the boy, yet with even without Naruto, his days were never again too dull nor too pallid. They were bittersweet, and at best peaceful with little longing. It was, as what that girl Sakura had said, as if the boy had never left him, always reminding him how beautiful the world can be if one would only learn to look at with his eyes. For if only Sasuke had looked at himself in the water for even just a moment, he would have noticed, that even though his right eye had glass in it, the other one was bright blue.
In another world, in another time, yet strangely in the same place, these two will meet again, though the circumstance different. Yet nevertheless the legend holds true, that those unfortunate enough to come to this place shall lose the thing dearest to them, perhaps this time, not by death, but a far more painful separation of two friends, of two lovers – where one holds on, and the other lets go.