Aduuuurrr, I had this chapter written out for MONTHS but just got around to uploading it now. I know. My laziness is my Achilles heels ; - ;

Warning: Nothing but fluffy fluff~

Chapter Nineteen: Unbreakable

"I don't care how. I don't care when. I just need to see Naruto. This separation is killing me."—Sasuke Uchiha, age 18.

Four days later and Sasuke was standing before the line that separated the outside world from the Soleil Kingdom. He never thought he would see this place again... but he has. Only under terrifying circumstances.

Kakashi came up to him and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Nervous?"

Sasuke peered at him from the corner of his eye, scoffing. "Not at all." his insides told a different story. His heartbeat was erratic, unsteady, unstable. His fingers curled, clenched, and tightened to grip onto something—preferably Naruto. 'Calm yourself, Uchiha.' It was so much easier thought than said and done. The Kyuubi had apparently been unleashed and Itachi was missing. Everything Sasuke had the honor to call his world was breaking and crumbling and decaying all around him...

Kankuro kicked a stray pebble to the side and sniffed the air. "I don't smell any death around. That's a good sign."

Temari nodded and whipped out her fan. "Doesn't mean we should be any less cautious. Remember what the guard said? The prince went psycho. No telling what he could be up to right now."

The raven's heart clenched and twisted in unbearable places. "Naruto... he would never put anyone in danger. All this destruction," Sasuke walked up to the resting place of what used to be a small clothing store and brushed his hand over the bumps an scars of rubble, "it couldn't be at his hands."

"I don't know what to tell yah, Kid." Kankuro said. "From what I heard the Kyuubi's one reckless demon. If it did take over, I highly doubt the prince had any rationality left."

Sasuke bit his lower lip. Disbelief coursed through his system. No... Naruto couldn't have done all this. It had to be the same demons who attacked his country that came over to Soleil and caused destruction. Naruto couldn't even hurt a fly. But... if he really was under the Kyuubi's influence...

"I have to find him." without any warning Sasuke dashed off for the castle. Naruto would be there, probably teary-eyed over the destruction and furious at the bastards who wrecked his city. He'd be waiting there, and Sasuke would scoop him up into his arms, and they'd defeat the tyrant responsible for these attacks together.

Because that's how this is all supposed to end... right?

The others had finally caught up to the frantic, raven prince when he stopped right in front of the castle. Well, what was left of it. The whole right wing was obliterated, leaving an empty skeleton of what was once there in its wake. People were scattered here and there. Some trying to fix the damage, other people adding to the damage with their physical appearance; battered, bruised, and lost hope. Such a sight left everyone stunned beyond words.

'Naruto... are you really the cause of all this?' Sasuke gulped, silently switching over to his Sharingan in hopes of catching Naruto's aura. Nothing. Nothing but a dead, cold silence. It made Sasuke shiver.

Finally, Kankuro was the one to break the silence. "Demons these days. Crazy, bastards they are."

Kakashi and Temari both shot him looks. Kankuro raised his arms in defense.

"What? I so called this! The prince went psycho now half the city is in shambles and his castle is blown to bits—Ouch! Fuck, Temari! You didn't have to punch so hard!"

"Shut up!" Temari hissed and hit her brother again; harder. "Can't you see you're being a nuisance!" she turned to Sasuke with an apologetic smile on her face. "I'm sorry. Once again my brother's an idiot who can't keep his trap shut."

"I'm just stating the tru—Ouch! Stop punching me, you witch!"

Kakashi shook his head at the bickering siblings, 'Children,' he glanced at Sasuke who still stood at the edge of the scene, probably chasing around disjointed thoughts in his head. "Sasu—"

"I'm going to look for him." Sasuke cut him off. Kakashi opened his mouth to say something again, but closed it and nodded.

"Be safe and don't do anything stupid."

The only response he got was a scoff before Sasuke disappeared to find his prince.

+Eclipse+

Blue eyes stared up at the cold, dripping ceiling lifelessly. Lifeless. It was a new word forever imprinted into the blond's vocabulary. Everything around him was lifeless. His last sliver of family was gone. His home was gone. His humanity... he could feel it slipping away with each breath the Kyuubi took inside of him. For now he was back to normal. And he praised God for this little piece of serenity he could enjoy. But he could feel Kyuubi's aura clashing with his own, addicted to the sense of freedom and yearning to obtain it again.

'No...' Naruto stopped the urge—barely. 'I can't let you go again. I can't. I... I don't want to disappoint Dad.'

Pein's words had left a heavy scar on Naruto's heart. His father would be ashamed to see him like this, chained and caged like the animal he was meant to be... No. He wasn't meant to be this. He couldn't have. This wasn't his fate... was it?

His eyes started to flutter to a close, boredom mixed with exhaustion calling on their ally sleep, when he heart footsteps. His nose flared and his whiskers twitch—an added affect of Kyuubi's aura mixing with his blood. He knew the aura coming down the hallway. It was faint but... Naruto took a big whiff and shivered as euphoria danced through him.

"Sasuke..." he moaned.

The raven stopped in front of the only cell located in the hallway. Long, continuous minutes of running had led him to these iron bars that imprisoned his prince, his blond... his... love. Sasuke swallowed, taking shaky steps to grasp onto the iron bars. His eyes silently traveled and studied the nearly foreign body in front of him. Naruto's hair was unruly and spikier, jutting out at wild directions and angles. His eyes flickered from red, to blue, to red, to blue again in a matter of seconds. His whiskers were thicker. He could nearly see the blond's fangs threatening to pop out and tear skin, pierce, and make something bleed. And if he squinted and searched hard enough... he could see the beginnings of a tail forming in the darkness.

So it was all true...

"N-Naruto...?" Sasuke's mind flashed back to the destruction. The images of broken bodies with no ounce of hope. They were all linked back to Naruto... the literal beast trapped inside the cage. Sasuke's heart still didn't want to believe the facts... but they were right in front of his eyes.

The blond blinked. Stared... A smile crept lazily onto his face as his eyes fluttered a close and a soft whimper escaped his lips. "Sasuke..." he moaned.

Sasuke gulped again. "Are you... Are you okay?" He wanted to snap these bars in half and scoop Naruto in his arms, yet the blond's aura was menacing, terrifying. It wasn't the same. It was tainted and defiled. Sasuke knew the sense of an aura that was clearly dipped in a paint bucket of black. It was a familiar and unpleasant sensation. After all, his aura used to be the same.

Naruto's eyes snapped open. And he grinned, exposing his fangs in the darkness. "I dunno. What's exactly, okay? By okay, do you mean emotionally? Because I feel like someone ripped my heart out of my chest with their hands. But if you mean physically... well... I've got this cool new tail." he flashed his new appendage; it was yellow and tinted with streaks of orange. Naruto caught the raven's shocked face and smirked, "Pretty cool, huh?"

"I'm going to ignore that comment because I'm pretty sure you're not all there at the moment." the aura around them suddenly grew tense and dark. Sasuke had stepped on a mine, he knew that. It was a purposeful statement. Only so he could gauge some reaction through Naruto's eyes. When he first entered this hallway he had sensed Naruto lingering around, but there was something else hidden away. Beginner's luck told him it was Kyuubi's aura trying to bleed through to break out again. Sasuke didn't know that the boy had lost his father. Or that everything around him would slowly start to crumple. All he saw was a boy who had somehow lost control of the very thing he wished to never let loose.

Naruto growled deep in his throat, his whiskers turning feral. "I'll have you know that I'm thinking with most of my brain capacity right now! So come a little closer, Sasu. I missed youuu~."

"I missed you, too; minus the tail." he ignored the whine Naruto shot his way. 'How in the hell am I going to get through to him?' Sure, Naruto was acting rather docile. Nothing unlike his broken form a few hours ago. But this... this boy... he could see the insanity seeping through the small, cracked parts of stability. One foul move and Naruto could probably kill him. Without any regrets (in this state). That not only scared the raven... but made his heart physically flatten. "So tell me. How did you grow the extra features?"

The blond stiffened. The words 'LIFE' and 'DEATH' attacked his soul, made it bleed, caused it to die a little with each letter. He snarled. Visions of his father's dead body. Cold. Lifeless... that word. Lifeless! A flash of red aura started to tendril around his body.

"Oh you know... the usual." his voice was low and cold, hiding back fiery bursts of anger. 'Don't lose it. Don't lose it. Don't... Not... In front of...' "My father. The man who brought me up in this world. Was murdered. MURDERED! He left me all alone! He left me all alone with a kingdom filled with people who want me dead! So... So... I..." his body shook. It trembled. Kyuubi was pushing at his weak points, feeding off his insecurities. And he was winning. "There was so much... so much... destruction..." when he looked up, Sasuke felt his heart break in two. That cold fury still laced Naruto's orbs but he had tears running down haphazardly like waterfalls.

"Naruto..." Sasuke slipped his hand through the bar, wriggling his fingers. He just wanted to touch him. Touch Naruto. Show him how much of his humanity he still had left. He saw the battle Naruto was fighting because it was the same battle Naruto had helped him win. The battle where you feel like you no longer hold anything remotely human. Where you've just hit rock bottom and you're coated in darkness too much for you to bear, so you're swallowed up whole. Naruto... Naruto couldn't live in that world. He didn't deserve it like Sasuke had. Naruto had only lost a father. Sasuke had killed a father. Naruto was the light; the sun. He deserved to shine. To be happy. He had the strength to move mountains and make people love him. How could he not see that? How...

Naruto looked at the extended fingertips. His heart cracked; right in the middle. After all this... After knowing what tragedies Naruto was able to commit if provoked enough... Sasuke still wanted to touch him? Naruto couldn't believe this. This had to be a dream. All of it. When he opened his eyes again it would be to shadows and the wind... Sasuke's voice cut through his thoughts.

"Naruto. Grab my hand. And I promise you... you'll be okay." Sasuke smiled—the smile that was only reserved for Naruto's beautiful eyes to see. Only meant for him.

The blond swallowed past his hesitation and slowly... he began to reach for those fingertips.

"I'm so scared..." he remembered saying those words to Pein, and the comfort he received afterward. In that moment, he thought he could at least climb this hurdle all by himself. But seeing Sasuke... remembering all the mayhem he caused because he couldn't control his emotions... every single lie he told himself as a comfort blanket started to shred away.

"That's fine." their fingertips were so close. Just a few inches apart. "We're allowed to be scared. That makes us human."

"Please... Sasuke... promise me you won't leave me... if I look like this?" so close...

Sasuke smiled brighter, "You could look like a grizzly bear and I'd never leave your side, Naruto."

The sun and the moon touched that day in the lowly cell thousands of feet beneath the earth. Their crossing was electric. It changed everything, the momentum, the course of events—fate. The books were being rewritten. The story started to change. Two princes, a fox and a raven, had become unbreakable.

Naruto's claws started to retract along with his tail, his whiskers tamed, and his eyes stayed that beautiful shade of blue Sasuke loved so much. There was still a chain held around Naruto's ankle—just in case—but that didn't stop the two from intertwining their fingers and connecting their lips. They kissed. And they kissed. Their lips moving together in perfect harmony. When they pulled apart, the lack of air between them was irrelevant. All they could see was one another.

"Dobe, you nearly scared me." Sasuke chuckled softly and leaned his forehead against Naruto's.

The blond pouted slightly, "I really thought the tail was cool, though..."

"Of course you would. But I thought I would never see you again."

"Are things bad on your end of the line, too?"

"Half our city's destroyed. Itachi's gone missing. And I nearly lost an arm."

Naruto's eyes bugged out of his head. "Holy shit! That's... that's a lot..." he deflated at the thought of Sasuke having to go through his own ordeals while he was sitting in a cold cell, sulking... like a brat. "Itachi's really gone...?"

Sasuke nodded wordlessly. Words would mean having to say the truth aloud. The truth burned.

"I can't believe it..."

"Neither can I."

A few droplets of silence... and then...

"Sasuke..."

"Hm?" Sasuke cupped the blond's cheek in his hand and their eyes clashed.

"W-What... do you think is going to happen next?"

"I..." Sasuke was at a loss. What was going to happen next?

"Yeah," Naruto cut him off short, "I don't know either. When I was sitting here, I thought about taking over the throne and becoming king. Then maybe finding you so we could conduct a battle plan, to find out who k-killed my dad... But I still have doubts. The people... they can't accept me now. Not after all of the trouble I caused..."

"Naruto, listen to me. You didn't cause all of the trouble above us. It was the Kyuubi. You couldn't handle your emotions, no human being can. You just lost your father and the loss became too much so Kyuubi used it to his advantage. But... if there's one thing I know, and I'm sure numerous people in this city can relate to it, is that you're not him. You were born to be king. This opportunity came so you could seize it and take your rightful place as heir to Soleil."

Naruto could feel his heart swell, threatening to burst. When he looked into Sasuke's eyes all he could see was the truth, all forms of belief, and a sense of pride. He believed Naruto could do this. Could overcome the Kyuubi inside of him... because they were two separate beings. They weren't the same. Naruto had more control... and he could win. He could become king... and he would.

"Thank you, Sasuke." he leaned forward and rubbed his nose with Sasuke's.

"Are you still scared?" the raven whispered.

"Not anymore."