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He stumps slowly away from the battle, blood matching the crimson wheels of the sharringan he has yet to deactivate. Orochimaru watches his apprentice in silence, a sadistic smile hiding the inner thoughts.
He won't do it.
Inhuman eyes watch as the Uchiha grasps his katana and disappears into the trees, to tired to recognize the chakra of his teacher. The golden irises shift away from the receding form and back onto the hole-blown, ripped-up field that suffered their battle.
A small, orange figure is prone on the ground, and even without getting closer the blood-matted blonde hair and soaked clothing tells the Sound leader who it is. And he knows now.
Sasuke won't kill Naruto.
It isn't that the missing nin can't kill the Kyuubi. The proof is the body lying face down. The avenger refuses to kill his former best friend for the same reason he betrayed the blonde,
Uchiha Itachi.
The elder brother turned kin-slayer that the dark-haired boy loved to hate. That man is both the bane and the reason for his younger brother's existence. The only other Uchiha attained the ultimate power of the sharringan by killing his closest friend. And in the demented mind behind those caged black eyes, killing Uzumaki was becoming the one he wanted to kill. And although a lot could be said about Sasuke's mental health, the runaway sanin knew he separated the difference between him and his brother by that one fact.
Uzumaki Naruto—the opposition of the two Uchiha.