Chapter 30

"My patience is wearing thin, boy!" Kou screamed, the blade flashing as he swung it hard through the empty air between them.

Naruto shut his eyes, enraged and disturbed as droplets of his own blood hit his face. Already, the blond could feel his limbs getting cold and spots danced in his vision. A steady crimson stream was pouring down on Luka, who lay silently between their feet. Naruto quirked his lips, nausea in the pit of his stomach as he examined this scene.

"Man," He thought. "This is really messed up."

Kou bristled at Naruto's smirk. He grabbed the front of Naruto's bloodied Jounin vest, leaning in so that their noses were mere inches apart. "It seems you still can't comprehend the situation you're in, beast!" He cried, "The fate that awaits you will be worse than death! As long as I possess your body, I shall use it as I please! And you, who will be completely conscious, will be forced to watch as I destroy everything you love! Starting with all those who accompanied you here today!"

A dozen faces flashed through Naruto's mind. His lips pulled back in a feral snarl, instinct screaming in his veins. "Over my dead body! I'll never stop fighting you! You won't even have time to attack anyone else, because you'll be so busy fighting me! Step into my head right now, Kou, and then we could have a fair fight, you know!"

Kou laughed, shaking his head. "Do you think me ignorant?" He asked. "I know that in order for a Jinchuuriki to gain control over their Tailed Beast, they must fight and defeat them within their "Inner World", and in doing so achieve mastery over their psychological plane. If I accepted your challenge, you and the Nine-tails would join forces and destroy me!"

His green eyes narrowed, the daylight gleaming in them as he concluded. "That is why I shall carve the seal of the Jinchuuriki into your very flesh! That way, the Kyuubi will be forced to follow my orders, if it wants to live! Even without your Jinchuuriki powers, you are more than strong enough to help me accomplish my goals."

The rage that boiled within Naruto was intense, but he was growing weaker by the second. If it weren't for the seal that was holding him in place, he knew that he would no longer be standing. A strange resignation settled in him as Kou raised the sword again, coating it with chakra as he prepared to carve the seal.

A sudden sigh behind them made him freeze.

"Shut up, would you?" An icy voice commanded. "I can't stand guys like you, babbling on all the time."

Kou's emerald eyes widened. He began to turn, but slipped in the blood that was pooling around his feet, falling backwards as a thin blade of pure lightning slashed through his torso. The leader of the Kou didn't even have time to scream: his mouth was slack as his body fell in two separate directions.

Sasuke lowered his arm. For a moment, he studied his opponent carefully. But then he sighed, cursing. "Damn, he fled to another body."

Naruto realized that his mouth was hanging open. He quickly snapped it shut. "Sasuke!" He yelled, relief and joy in his voice. "You're okay! Wait. How long have you been awake? Why didn't you help me out earlier, jerk!"

Sasuke felt a vein in his forehead twitch. "Is this the kind of thanks I get, idiot-blond? I only just woke up and the first thing I have to do is save your sorry ass! I should just let him have you."

Movement caught their attention, silencing Naruto's retort. They watched as the body of one of the unconscious Kou began to seize and contort, writhing upon the floor. Sasuke watched carefully, his sharingan piercing through flesh to observe what was happening beneath.

"As I thought," He muttered. "He's going through the process of possessing that body."

Naruto's eyes widened in alarm. "Dammit Sasuke!" He snarled through his teeth. "Get out of here before he's finished!"

"Not without you, moron."

The conviction in Naruto's eyes wavered, his voice faltering. "I don't deserve to be saved. Especially not by you."

Sasuke's crimson gaze softened, the slightest smile touching his pale lips. "That's my line, idiot."

Naruto sighed, knowing that there was no getting through to Sasuke once he'd made up his mind. They returned their attention to the eerily writhing body, watching it for a moment in silence. Sasuke shrugged. "Whatever," He said. "I'll just keep killing him, not matter how many times he runs to a different body. I've seen his technique once, and with my eyes, once is all I need."

Naruto's awareness began to fade, but he managed a smile. "Sasuke," He muttered. "Come here, and I'll-"

A sudden pained howl rattled their bones. The writhing body jolted into a seated position, its flesh stretching and flowing grotesquely to the likeness of Kou. His arm snapped upwards, his voice mad and screeching as chakra flowed from his fingertips.

"Arise!"

Five of the bodies around him stood immediately, their eyes rolling back in their heads as they floated like demented puppets. With a flick of Kou's fingers, they came flying forward, lifting their weapons in strangely limp hands. Sasuke prepared himself for their attack, but they avoided him, charging at Naruto instead.

Sasuke's heart stopped, his eyes widening in horror. He twisted desperately, managing to seize one of the corpses and sever its head with a swipe of lightning, but it wasn't enough. Unable to move, Naruto could only stand helplessly as four swords were thrust into his chest. For a moment, the room was breathless and still.

And then a deafening roar tore through Sasuke's throat.

Lightning erupted from his tensed limbs, the flashes of light adding to the look of utter madness in his eyes. The ninja puppets that surrounded Naruto were blasted away, their limbs spinning through the air and hitting the crumbling walls. Sasuke stumbled over the ruined ground towards Naruto, whose normally deeply tanned skin was now a sickly white. Blood splashed onto Sasuke's bare chest as he reached Naruto, grabbing at him roughly, desperately.

"Naruto!" He cried. "Hang in there, Naruto! Don't you dare leave me!"

The Sage smiled weakly, his voice rasping out so silently, it was barely audible as he said, "Kick his ass, Sasuke."

And then, he bent his head towards Sasuke's shoulder, his lips gently brushing across alabaster skin. Heat immediately erupted down Sasuke's spine. The air around his feet began to churn wildly, and without warning, a year's worth of pent-up chakra tore through his body. His limbs trembled from the force of it, the wind roaring as it surrounded him in a small typhoon. Unable to contain it, Sasuke directed the energy upwards in a beam of blue light.

It collided with Kou's barriers with such force that the intricate web of symbols shattered, shimmering away into nothing. As the Jinchuuriki seal was broken, Naruto's body went limp. Sasuke caught him as he fell, his limbs quivering from the surge of energy that poured through them.

Disbelief rattled noisily in Sasuke's mind as he looked down at Naruto's pale face, hardly daring to breath as he searched those familiar features for signs of life. But then movement within the blond caught his attention, his sharingan piercing through Naruto's damaged body to the hidden world within. Kurama, freed as Naruto was from the seal, howled in pain and rage as his chakra bubbled around him like lava.

"Oi, Uchiha brat!" He barked. "You focus on that maniac Kou, and I'll try to get this bleeding to stop. Go!"

For a moment, Sasuke remained still, his arms resisting the idea of letting Naruto go. Then with a slow exhale; Sasuke carefully lay the blond down, pausing to brush his long golden bangs away from his face. He placed his fingertips upon Naruto's forehead protector, his eyes stinging as he whispered, "I thought I said you didn't have to be a hero for me, Naruto."

A sickening crunch disturbed his reverie. Kou stood crookedly in his borrowed body, the limbs growing disproportionately to adjust to his preferred appearance. "Oh dear!" He exclaimed, his voice high and piercing. "Did the beast finally perish?"

Sasuke tried to ignored him, but Kou's words struck a chord in his memory. His mouth turning sharply downwards, Sasuke traced over Naruto's clammy lips with his fingers, already longing to hear his voice again. "Wasn't it you who said that, if you died, we'd both die?" A shudder that had nothing to do with the chakra coursing through his veins rattled Sasuke, his proud features crumpling as he whispered, "I never took those words to heart, until now."

Kurama roared. "Boy!"

Turning so quickly that the motion itself was invisible; Sasuke caught the weapon-toting wrist that Kou directed towards him. The ancient man stopped dead in surprise, only to howl in pain as Sasuke's grip tightened and bones began to snap like twigs beneath his fingers. Even as the short sword clattered to the ground, Sasuke inhaled deeply and his cheeks puffed out. A torrent of fire blasted from his lips, burning the body to a crisp.

Dropping the charred wrist in disgust, Sasuke watched as Kou's essence fled to yet another vessel. Rather than attack him immediately, Sasuke turned his attention to the other bodies lying around the room. Summoning chidori into his fist, Sasuke stood tall and silent as he directed lightning into the potential vessels, not ceasing until they were all inhabitable.

He returned his crimson gaze to the body that Kou was struggling to possess. "It would be easy for me to dispose of you." Sasuke thought, "But you don't deserve an easy death. I'll see to it that you suffer. I'll see to it that you burn."

A gravelly laugh bubbled and choked out of the new vessels throat as Kou forced it to rise, his eyes wide and bloodshot. "Are you upset because I killed the beast, boy? You should be thanking me for his death. He was your keeper, your ball and chain, was he not?"

Sasuke snarled, his messy bangs concealing his face as he stepped forward. Chakra crackled around his body, pouring out of him in flashes of white-hot lightening. Kou began to flit about the room, avoiding the striking lightning as he tried to complete his possession of the new body. Sasuke, refusing to be baited, stayed by Naruto's side, defending him while Kurama labored to heal his many wounds.

"Don't you dare die," Sasuke muttered, forming a blade of lightning that he stabbed at Kou from afar. "Not now. Not when I've finally realized…"

Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke thought he saw movement. He glanced over, only to cry out in surprise and joy as Sakura stirred, using her arms to push herself upwards slowly.

"Sakura!" Sasuke cried, turning his attention back to Kou. "Naruto needs you!"

The kunoichi blinked a few times in confusion, her eyes unfocused as she took in the destruction around them. But then, her gaze fell upon the pool of crimson that surrounded Naruto, and she gasped in horror. "Naruto!"

She struggled to her feet, feeling weak and disorientated after taking a direct hit from Kou's lightening. Sasuke guarded her back as she stumbled to Naruto's side, kneeling down in the blood as she channeled healing chakra into her palms, setting about patching up his wounds.

"Guard him as best you can, Sakura." Sasuke ordered. "I have a rat to exterminate."

It would be easy, tremendously so, for Sasuke to destroy Kou in his moment of vulnerability. His high-level eye techniques would seem like mere exercises with the amount of chakra that was currently coursing through his body. But a feral, primal rage had taken control of Sasuke's mind. He didn't want to kill Kou from a distance; he wanted to tear him apart with his bare hands, torment his spirit with genjutsu until he was on the brink of insanity. Sasuke wanted Kou to feel death coming, wanted him to drown in his dread of it.

He wanted Kou to feel the way he was feeling now.

"If I die, we both die, Sasuke." Naruto had said, so long ago. And now, Sasuke was struck dumb by how right he had been. A sense of disconnect fell over him, silence pressing against his mind as a vast emptiness gripping his heart. Without Naruto there was nothing. Without Naruto, Sasuke was nothing.

"He can't be gone. He can't be."

Wetness shone in the corners of his crimson eyes, accumulating until it fell onto his cheeks. But rather than blood, real tears dripped out of Sasuke's eyes.

He continued blasting lightning at Kou, corralling him into a corner. "What have you done?" Sasuke screamed, over and over. "What have you done? What have you done!"

Kou's back hit the wall, his eyes widening with fear as he struggled to finish possessing the body. But Sasuke advanced on him quickly, his delicate hand snaking out and catching Kou by his contorting throat. Leaning in close, Sasuke murmured in a sickly voice, "If he dies, I swear to every damned god there is, that I will chase your soul to hell and back if I have to."

A high, hissing laugh snuck between Kou's teeth, his tongue flicking out towards Sasuke's face.

"I can't wait." He crooned.

Something in Sasuke snapped then, and without seeming to realize it, he pulled Kou forward. And then, with brutish strength, he began slamming his body into the wall repeatedly, his eyes flat and vacant as the body in his hands became as limp as a ragdoll. Sakura, who was still healing Naruto, watched with growing horror as Sasuke's insatiable wrath destroyed the body Kou was inhabiting.

"Sasuke!" She cried out tearfully. "That's enough! He's dead, Sasuke, please stop!"

But her words didn't reach him. Sasuke was somewhere far away, wandering through the emptiness of his childhood. How confusing for a child, to be alone so suddenly. That is what people had whispered. Sasuke had hated them all bitterly, those people who looked at him with pity and yet made no effort to help him. He had felt like the loneliest person in the world.

But then there was the boy - the boy with the blue eyes. The boy who was just as alone as he was.

The boy who had, seemingly overnight, grown into the Caspian eyed man with sadness in his smile; a man whom Sasuke had grown to love passionately, desperately, irrevocably. A love so consuming that even the thought of those deep blue eyes, jeweled and distractingly lovely, was enough to torment Sasuke's dreams.

Sudden clarity made Sasuke freeze.

"I love him." Sasuke realized. "More than anything in this world. I love him."

Sasuke blinked twice, then snarled in disgust as he dropped the bloodied body held fast by his trembling hand. Scanning the corpse quickly, Sasuke sneered as he turned back to Sakura, ignoring the tears of horror which were still streaming down her cheeks.

"I knew it couldn't be that easy." He muttered as he walked towards the kunoichi, who still labored over Naruto's body. "He fled to another body before I could kill him."

"But how?" Sakura asked, looking around in alarm. "You destroyed all the bodies around here!"

Kneeling down at Naruto's side, Sasuke replied in a flat tone. "Yeah, but I'm sure there are plenty of vacant ones lying around outside. Unless…"

Without warning Sasuke stood, violet light appeared around his feet, rising like a torrent of fire. The dusty air began to rush as Susano'o formed around the trio, growing larger and larger until it broke through what remained of the ceiling. As the building crumbled around them, Sasuke peered through the dust towards where Konoha's forces battled with the remaining Kou.

"Nara!" Sasuke yelled. "Kakashi, Nara, get over here!"

He ignored Sakura's concerned gaze as he waited for the two shinobi to disable their opponents. As Shikamaru and Kakashi ran towards them, Sasuke shifted impatiently and glanced over his shoulder. His senses told him that, somewhere, hidden in the mountain, Kou was taking root in another vessel.

Shikamaru reached them first, climbing over the rocks while clutching his side. When he caught sight of Naruto, he stopped dead, his jaw dropping. "Naruto!" He exclaimed, rushing forwards. Kakashi landed beside them silently, his brow tight with worry when he saw the state his old team was in.

"Sasuke, what happened?" Shikamaru demanded, gesturing wildly at Naruto's chest. Sakura had managed to stop the bleeding so that she could pull the swords from his chest, but the gaping holes in his torso were difficult to look at.

"Kou was ready for him." Sasuke explained. "I've never seal such a complex combination of seals and barriers before. Even Naruto had no chance of breaking free alone. But don't worry about that now."

"Even if you say that…" Kakashi began, but his voice trailed off as he continued to stare at Naruto's wounds.

"I lost Kou." Sasuke said, immediately drawing their attention. "I can sense where he is now, but if my suspicions are right, then right now he's back in his original body. I have no way of knowing this until I face him, but in his original body Kou's strength could increase tenfold. I need your help."

Kakashi and Shikamaru exchanged a look of surprise.

"Are you sure?" Shikamaru asked. "I mean, what about Naruto?"

"Sakura and Kurama are taking care of him!" Sasuke snapped, his impatience peaking. "I'm asking you to help me destroy the person who did this to him!"

After a moment of silence, Kakashi nodded. "The others can handle themselves, Shikamaru. Especially since we're getting some inside help."

"Inside help?" Sasuke took off at a run, his comrades flanking him. Luka's face flashed through Sasuke's mind, and he wondered idly if the heir had formed a rebellion right under his fathers nose.

He turned sharply, leading them along a mountain path that snaked further up the cloud-covered mountain. Following Kou's chakra with single-minded determination, Sasuke had to resist the urge to go racing ahead of the others. He felt as if he was going to shatter at any moment. The empty feeling inside him was so vast, that not even the realization of love or the burning desire for revenge could fill it. There was only one thing to do to satiate this feeling: kill Kou or die trying.

Either way, he would eventually return to Naruto's side. He would gladly give up his life if it meant saving Naruto's life, or ending his suffering.

"He's close," Sasuke growled, slowing to a jog as they pressed onwards through the clouds. "Let's end this now."

Sasuke steeled himself, prepared for whatever lay waiting for them. Prepared to do anything –anything – for the boy with the blue eyes.

Hi hello friends it's been a long time! I hope you're all doing well, and I want to say thanks for waiting so patiently for this chapter!

Enjoy!