Author's Note: Perhaps this will make up for the last cliffhanger. An early upload for your enjoyment!

Chapter 5: Reunion

The room was dark, save for the steady stream of light that came in from the broken door. It swung back and forth a few times on its hinges, adding a quiet squeaking noise to the light clink of steel before falling silent and still. But despite the lack of light, Naruto could make out Sasuke's face perfectly. Through his years of undoubted hardship—what with ducking various hidden villages' ninja and plotting his revenge and whatnot—his face hadn't lost what the kunoichi of the village would have considered to be his good looks. His face was slightly more angular than it had been in his youth, but it was still as pale as ever and devoid of scars. Sasuke's eyes, though, had been much more affected by the years. They were hard, unyielding, and filled with such a clustered myriad of emotions that it was difficult to discern anything from them. Those same eyes ran over his mask and dissected his appearance with unwavering intensity.

There was a long silence as they studied each other, and then:

"Come to kill me, Naruto?"

Naruto smirked underneath his mask. As always, Sasuke's face was calm and hard, but his voice held a certain nostalgic ring of a challenge that made Naruto feel as if they were back on the training fields of Konoha. He half expected him to finish his question with the insult of 'dead last.'

"No, not kill you," Naruto assured him, but kept the pressure behind his kunai constant. "I have a proposition."

As Sasuke seemed to digest this information, Naruto glanced to his left. Sasuke's bed was made—always one for neatness—but it was littered with old, bloody bandages. A clear bottle of clear liquor sat on his bedside table, and just as Naruto had expected, less than an inch of liquid was missing. It would be just enough to clean the worst of his wounds.

"Really? You never give up, do you?" Sasuke asked, as if he expected anything less. Gripping his sword handle with both hands, Sasuke pushed against Naruto's weapon, and the two quickly broke away from each other. Naruto half expected Sasuke to lunge forward and take a swipe at his neck, his stomach, anything . . . but he didn't. Instead, he stood calmly with his back to the window. His sword hung limply in his right hand, the tip hanging an inch above the floor. The quick movement of their exchange had caused his kimono to slip towards his shoulder, exposing several bandages wrapped around his shoulder and torso. A fresh spot of red disrupted the otherwise white linens. "If it's the same fairy tale that you've been spooning me for years, I'm not interested."

Despite Sasuke's lax posture, Naruto kept his muscles tense, his knees bent, and his kunai poised in case of a sudden attack. Sasuke surveyed him with disinterest. Something was off about him. Though Sasuke had always claimed—or aspired to be—emotionless, he had always had a burning fire behind all of his actions. And though his words towards Naruto were unquestionably degrading in meaning, they were flat. It was as if he had lost the energy to even pretend to give a damn anymore. Perhaps that could explain his stance as well. He had no time for Naruto and his games anymore, so why even bother?

"If you would just listen . . ." Naruto implored him, doing his best to keep his emotions in check. "I want to help you. Konoha wants to help you."

"Konoha," Sasuke scoffed as if it were some sort of vile disease. But then he went right back into his placid state. "And what does Konoha intend to do with me?" he asked. Suddenly, Sasuke's face grew strangely reflective, and he turned slowly to face the window. His sword scraped across the wooden floor in a relaxed arc. "Hang me? Force my clan to suffer even more at the hands of those bastards?"

Sasuke's tone had grown soft and contemplative, and quite honestly, it scared Naruto a little bit. Was this all part of his plan? Lull him into a false sense of security and then correct the act he had made on a whim so many years ago? It didn't seem like his style. But more than that, Naruto's couldn't help but feel as if Sasuke seemed drained. True, he had been wounded in his fight with his brother, but Naruto had been sure that he would have been so elated by his accomplishment that not even the gates of Hell could stand between him and his next goal. But he seemed so . . . lost.

Again, Naruto had to stop himself from getting too emotionally involved in the situation. If Sasuke didn't want to fight, then fine. Actually, he should have been happy. Isn't this what he wanted, for their meeting to lack bloodshed and be non-confrontational? Yes, he had hoped, but he had never expected to be so lucky.

Naruto didn't fully understand the last part of Sasuke's comment—hadn't his brother been the one to inflict pain on his clan?—but he decided that it didn't matter. He needed to get on with this before Sasuke's mood worsened.

"No, Konoha doesn't want you dead, Sasuke," Naruto assured him. He didn't bother to explain that he had been the one to thank. He had been the one to negotiate the terms of his sentence to ensure that Sasuke could return from this situation unscathed. He had been the one to ensure the postponement of Sasuke's status as a missing nin so that a price would not be placed on his head. He had been the one to look out for Sasuke's best interests, even after having his hand burst through his chest. Somehow, none of it seemed relevant.

Naruto waited for Sasuke to respond, but he continued to stare ahead in silence. He took that as a sign to continue. "You can stop running. If you come back with me, Konoha can offer you protection. You can live your life." By this point, Naruto understood how farfetched it all seemed. Sasuke was right; it was nothing more than a fairy tale. But he had one more angle that could work for him. "You can finish your second goal."

At the indirect mention of his desire to revive his clan, Sasuke's shoulders tensed. But just when Naruto thought that he had been able to prod some of the old Sasuke out into the open, they deflated once more. "I don't need Konoha's protection," he murmured to the shutters. Turning his head ever so slightly in Naruto's direction, he continued, "Besides, do you expect me to believe it will be all sunshine and rainbows like you describe it? No prison time? No probation? They'll just let a guilty man walk free?"

This had been the point Naruto was hoping that they wouldn't discuss. In his original plan that he had formed with Tsunade three years prior, Sasuke would have undergone a mild form of house arrest for approximately one to two years, depending on how he cooperated. In this time, he would have been supervised by a trusted Konoha shinobi and been given small, trifle missions—nothing above a genin rank. This, to Naruto, still didn't seem fair, but Tsunade had assured him that this was the best option. Of course, when he had last visited her, she had dropped the bomb on him, and all of his hard work and deliberations had gone to shit.

"Well . . . there'd be a brief stint," Naruto regretfully replied. Sasuke let out a single humorless chuckle as if to say, 'I knew it.'

And just with that, that single chuckle, Naruto had enough. He was tired of Sasuke not taking this seriously. For Christ's sake, he wasn't even facing him, let alone holding his weapon properly. Naruto knew that he still may not match up to Sasuke as far as skill went, but the least he could was to pretend to be on guard, or at the very least interested.

"What do you have left out here?" Naruto demanded and subconsciously felt his rigid stance give way to his emotions. "You'll just keep running and running, and someday, someone will catch you, and the repercussions will be much worse." Naruto paused to let this sink in, but Sasuke just continued to stare at the closed window. Suddenly, his harsh tone softened into something resembling a plea. "This is Konoha's last offer, Sasuke. If you don't come back with me this time, they won't care if you come back alive. You'll have a bounty on your head," he implored his friend to listen, just this once. And while he and Sasuke both knew that the majority of Konoha's shinobi would be hard pressed to even lay a scratch on him, the threat was still very real, and very serious. The elders didn't like to be cheated out of what they thought was rightfully theirs. Pompous bastards.

Naruto's obvious concern was met by a pointed silence. So was this it? Was this his reply? 'Go away Naruto. I don't have time to deal with your crap anymore'? He couldn't even lift his sword to give him a proper thrashing for old time's sake?

And just when Naruto was sure that Sasuke was not going to respond, he let out a reply so soft that Naruto almost didn't hear it. "I killed Itachi," Sasuke murmured in a kind of daze, but also in a casual tone that made it seem as if he was discussing something no more trivial than the weather.

Naruto stared at him in slight disbelief and wondered briefly if Sasuke had lost his mind. Had he even been listening? "Yes . . . I know," Naruto said cautiously, as if he were approaching a nervous animal. "That's why I'm here."

"Come to pay your condolences?"

The sudden outburst, though flat and sarcastic, caught Naruto completely off guard. Not counting their battle seven years ago, this was the most sporadic Naruto had even seen Sasuke. At times he was angry, then contemplative, then bitter, then uninterested, and then, when he had spoken about his brother, strangely . . . remorseful? Perhaps he had suffered a head injury during the battle.

When Naruto finally regained the ability to speak, he explained, "No, I mean, that's how I was able to find you. Your trail wasn't exactly well hidden." He remembered the desolated landscape that Sasuke had left in his wake and the resonating chakra that still permeated the area. It wasn't what Naruto would call subtle.

Sasuke didn't bother to explain or defend himself, and once again Naruto wondered if Sasuke had wanted him to discover his location. Then again, he had barely shown any interest in his arrival. And apart from their initial confrontation, Sasuke hadn't even attempted to injure Naruto in any way. If he had in fact wanted Naruto to find him, then his motives remained unclear.

At this point, Naruto was having a hard time holding back his anger. His rigid stance had been abandoned long ago, though he still kept his knees slightly bent and his kunai parallel to the ground—could never be too careful. If Sasuke wasn't going to give a damn . . . well, he was going to make him. Slipping his left hand into his weapons' pouch, Naruto grabbed a shuriken and aimed it to the left of Sasuke's head. It embedded itself into the window frame with a solid thud. Besides the motion that his hair made from the unnatural breeze, Sasuke didn't move. "God damn it, Sasuke! Would you at least look at me?" Naruto yelled, temporarily forgetting that his mask prohibited him from feeling anything beyond his instincts.

To his surprise, Sasuke immediately responded, "Why? So you can stare at me from behind your own mask?" At one point in time, Naruto could imagine him saying those exact same words with venom or at least a haughty smirk. But once again, they had been flat and tired, hopeless almost. Instead of giving him time to contemplate this, Sasuke continued, "It doesn't suit you, by the way."

Naruto couldn't help it. He was so dumbfounded that he stammered, "W-what?"

"The fox," Sasuke calmly explained. "It's too cliché." His casual tone had returned—"I think it might rain tomorrow," "By the way, I killed my brother," "You should have made a better selection on your assassin's mask,"—though the subjects he chose to discuss with it were anything but casual.

Now it was Naruto's turn to be silent. He found it incredibly odd, and somehow slightly disturbing, that he had thought the exact same thing about his mask just a few hours prior. Though he hadn't quite put it in those words, he had also thought that the fox had been a bad fit. In his own fucked up way, Sasuke had always been able to understand him better than anyone else.

Naruto was still searching for something to say, but Sasuke beat him to it. It seemed as if Naruto had found a switch that couldn't be turned off. Lowering his voice to a soft murmur, Sasuke said, "I understand everything now. Everything is so clear." It was so quiet and introspective and personal that Naruto wondered if Sasuke meant for him to hear it, or if he even knew he was saying it out loud. Regardless, Naruto was interested to hear what he would say next. Perhaps he meant that his next move was clear. Maybe he had finally come to his senses and realized that Konoha was the only way to start a good life for himself and his future clan.

Unfortunately, Sasuke did not elaborate on his mumbled comment, so Naruto was forced to continue their conversation—if their jumbled exchange could be labeled as such. "Sasuke . . . I'm asking you to come back quietly. I don't want to fight you. You're injured. And you and I both know that we'd kill half this town if we fought again." Disturbed though he may have been, Sasuke didn't get any more joy from killing innocent civilians than Naruto did. What would he be if not a clone of his brother?

Without turning his head, Sasuke placed his left hand on the window shutters and slowly pushed them open, as if he had just then realized that he had spent the last fifteen minutes staring at nothing. He gazed out at the rooftops for a moment before asking, "But say I didn't want to come quietly. Would you still fight me if it meant you could bring me back?"

Sasuke sure had a knack for putting Naruto on the spot. For some reason, he felt as if this question was separate from Sasuke's other seemingly sarcastic jabs. Behind his flat tone and feigned disinterest, he sounded genuinely curious. Naruto was confused. But more than that, he was insulted that Sasuke would doubt his intentions. What was it with the people in his life and them questioning his conviction? He was half-tempted to accuse Sasuke of already knowing the answer to that question, but he didn't want to leave any more room for misinterpretation than he already had. "Yes," he answered simply.

Sasuke nodded like he hadn't been expecting any other answer. He turned his head slightly downward, and Naruto imagined him visualizing the streets filled with playing children and other village residents. "Even if it meant possibly killing an innocent woman or child in the process?" he asked and for the first time, turned his head to look Naruto in the eye. His dark eyes were hard, as usual, but behind his walls was a burning question. He needed to know.

Naruto's hand clenched around the handle of his kunai. He had asked himself the same question several times. How far was he willing to go to get Sasuke back? He had always told himself that he was willing to risk anything, even his life. But when the lives of others came into the balance, he became unsure. Of course, he didn't want any unnecessary casualties, and the thought of having innocent blood on his hands was unbearable. He knew the right answer was to say that he'd rather save a human life, but he wasn't sure if that's what he really felt. It was an irrational and incredibly selfish way of thinking, but he'd be lying if he said that he would trade Sasuke's life for someone that he had never met. He wondered how far he had strayed from his original path of the shinobi just to keep a promise to a friend and to himself. But no matter how much pondering or wondering he did, or how much he wanted to play the perfect hero, it would not change the answer that he could feel buried deep in his soul.

"Yes," he finally answered.

This seemed to please Sasuke in some small way. It wasn't apparent by his face or his actions, but Naruto could feel a definite shift in the atmosphere of the room. "I see," Sasuke said and turned to look out the window once more.

Naruto couldn't help but wonder where he was going with all this. With a sense of dread, he wondered if this was Sasuke's prequel to attacking him and initiating a battle, but his stance didn't let on to any such thing. Then again, Sasuke had always been quite cryptic in his meanings; it irked Naruto beyond belief. At this point, Naruto had abandoned his stance and simply stood facing Sasuke with his kunai still in his hand. The only reason he even had it out was because Sasuke still maintained his lax grip on his sword. Naruto wasn't sure what he planned to do with it in such close quarters, but he had learned long ago never to question Sasuke's methods.

Without turning back around, Sasuke said with absolutely no emotion, "Alright."

Naruto blinked. "Alright, what?"

Under normal conditions, Naruto could imagine Sasuke sighing or scowling at his idiocy, but he didn't so much as bat an eye. Instead, he turned around slowly to face him, his expression tired and his eyes dead. Naruto couldn't help but notice that the small spot of red on his bandages had gotten considerably bigger. "I'll come with you."

The words filled the room with their overwhelming implications. Naruto's heart started hammering away in his chest, and he stared at Sasuke in disbelief. Surely it couldn't be this simple. Naruto narrowed his eyes behind his mask and studied Sasuke for any traces of deceit, paying special attention to the fact that he still held his sword. "Are you serious?"

For the first time in years, Naruto saw Sasuke smirk at him. It was the kind of smirk that was normally accompanied by a soft chuckle and a shake of the head, but Sasuke was never one to show emotion. The smirk was generous enough. "You don't believe me?" he asked incredulously.

No, he didn't, and quite frankly, he didn't know if he should. But instead of voicing these concerns, he asked, "What made you change your mind?" He refused to let himself feel any kind of relief until he could confirm that this wasn't just some huge mind fuck that Sasuke had concocted with his back turned towards him.

His question seemed to strike a chord in Sasuke. His smirk melted away until his face was blank once again. "What does the reason matter?" he grumbled and tightened his hold on his sword. Naruto's eyes immediately went to his hand, and his right foot slid back two inches to accommodate a better stance. A tense moment passed between them. When Sasuke realized that Naruto would not be appeased until he received a real answer, he sighed through his nose and loosened his grip on the katana. "You were right. Konoha is my best option right now," Sasuke admitted flatly.

Naruto couldn't believe his ears. For years now, he had been waiting to hear Sasuke say those words, but now that it was actually happening . . . they sounded wrong. This was a fairy tale that wasn't supposed to have a happy ending. It was a dream that was never supposed to be fulfilled. But now it was, and he was having a difficult time dealing with it.

After a lot of staring, disbelief, and silence, Naruto finally cleared his throat and mentally walked himself through the necessary steps that needed to be taken. "Well then . . . I guess we should go while we still have the cover of the dark," he said in a sort of daze. It was strange, but in all the times he had imagined bringing Sasuke home, never once had he imagined it in any other way than carrying Sasuke's broken and bloody body on his back. It just made sense that it would come to some sort of physical confrontation, but again, Naruto reminded himself that this was the desired outcome, no matter what his daydreams had contained.

Sasuke looked uncomfortable with the idea. His eyes glanced to his side, as if they desired to be reunited with their view out the window. "No, not tonight." It seemed that his eyes got the best of him, and he turned back around to gaze without seeing out the window. "Come back tomorrow. We'll leave then," he insisted.

Naruto furrowed his brow, confused out of his mind. He had assumed that Sasuke would want to leave while it was still dark. Granted, it couldn't have been much later than midnight, so they had plenty of time, but to wait until the morning? It didn't make any sense. If they waited that long, then Sasuke would be brought through the gates in broad daylight, in clear view of the whole village. Naruto couldn't think of a worse fate. "But why wait that long? If we set out now—"

"Naruto," Sasuke cut him off. Naruto blinked; it had only been the second time in their whole exchange that he had called him by name. "If I go with you, even under the best circumstances, I'll be imprisoned. I'll be shuttled around a high security prison for possibly years. And even when I get out, I'll be the property of the village." Here he paused to place his hand on the window shutters and exhale a small sigh. "I want this last night of freedom. Can you understand that?" he asked and turned his head ever so slightly in Naruto's direction. Naruto could only stare ahead at him, caught off guard by his suddenly personal explanation. Without waiting for him to respond, Sasuke continued, "If you give me this, I'll go quietly."

Still, something didn't seem right. Who was to say that Sasuke wouldn't sneak off in the middle of the night, or even sneak down to Naruto's room and slit his throat while he slept? He doubted that Sasuke would stoop to such rookie tactics, but still, he could never be too careful. "How do I know that you won't leave?" Naruto asked in all seriousness.

Sasuke chuckled once, and turned back around to face him. Personally, Naruto was getting tired of his flip-flopping technique, but as long as he saw his face every once in a while, he supposed it didn't matter. Another smirk was on Sasuke's face, a tired laugh in his eyes. "Don't you trust me?" he asked.

Just once, Naruto wished that Sasuke wouldn't answer his question with another question. Oh well, beggars couldn't be choosers.

Just as it had revealed itself to him in his own room, Naruto's entire history with Sasuke reappeared before his eyes. He remembered all the near death situations that the other had gotten him out of . . . and how many he had been responsible for. He remembered the unbreakable brotherly bond that had connected them in their short time together . . . and how he had nearly died trying to protect it. But no matter what disagreement they had gotten into—physical, verbal, or otherwise—Sasuke had always left him alive.

Lifting his chin with confidence, Naruto responded, "With my life." Sasuke nodded, satisfied with his answer. But Naruto was not finished. "I just don't trust you with yours." He wouldn't let Sasuke screw this up. He was going to return to Konoha. He didn't have to like it, but he was going to do it. This was his last chance at a normal life, his last chance to be happy. Naruto wouldn't let him sacrifice that for his pride.

Sasuke's smirk fell as he digested Naruto's words, but if he had any questions as to what he meant, he didn't voice them. "I won't leave, so you can call off your clones," Sasuke said, adopting his flat tone once again. "Come back tomorrow." The dismissal was clear.

Naruto smirked underneath his mask. So Sasuke had realized that he was tracking him. For what had to be the hundredth time, Naruto wondered what had been running through Sasuke's mind that night and what his intentions were. Had he wanted to be caught? Had he been planning on going back to Konoha all along? It didn't seem possible. Inching backwards toward the door, Naruto had a major sense of déjà vu and envisioned the two of them back on the training grounds. "If you even try to leave, I'll beat your ass into the ground and then drag you back to Konoha," he threatened, letting some good ole fashioned playfulness creep back into his voice.

To his surprise, Sasuke's expression softened into something that actually resembled a genuine smile. "I'm sure you will." He could almost hear the familiar ring of 'idiot' follow.

Naruto had difficulty exiting the room, but he somehow managed it. Before he closed the broken door and placed one last mark on his side of the door—just in case—the last thing he saw was Sasuke's silhouette against the open window, his sword still loosely held in his hand.

In spite of Sasuke's request for Naruto to get rid of his clones, Naruto made ten more. He'd be damned if Sasuke got out of here without him knowing. He'd stay up all night if he had to. The clones were posted at every conceivable corner of the town and the inn. Two were stationed in the stair well, each taking turns to check each floor periodically. One sat atop the roof. Another sat on the roof of the building directly across from the inn, staring straight at Sasuke's window. He had clones stationed at the end of the street, at the edge of the woods, and at any major entrance or exit to the town. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized that this violated Sasuke's last request of having one last night of freedom. Though he did feel a little guilty about it, he knew that it was a necessary sacrifice. It was all for the greater good.

As Naruto sat on his bed staring at the crumpled black form of his traveling cloak—he had picked it up on his way back to his room—his clones gave him constant updates. Most of the information was trivial or a constant chorus of 'No movement on this end.' Naruto took two soldier pills to insure that he wouldn't fall asleep on the job, though he doubted that anything could deter his mind from this task.

At several points in the night, Naruto found himself staring up at the ceiling. His eyes would drift to the left where he knew, two rooms down, Sasuke was residing. Though the walls of the inn were thin, they were not thin enough to allow him to hear any of Sasuke's movements from such a distance. In the time that he spent waiting for morning, or waiting for Sasuke to make some sort of run for it, Naruto focused on how odd his encounter with Sasuke had been. Sasuke had seemed so . . . disconnected from himself and from the situation that Naruto wondered just how shaken his fight with his brother had left him. He also tried to understand Sasuke's tone of voice. It had been flat, almost depressed, as if he had finally given up and let his mind go wherever it wanted. None of it made sense, but Naruto supposed that he'd have plenty of time to discuss such things with Sasuke on the trip home.

For the first time that evening, Naruto let himself indulge on the idea that Sasuke was finally coming home, and of his own free will! He couldn't believe that after all his hard work and obsessive training, his dream was finally coming true. It was the kind of happy ending that happened to other people, not him. Sure, the first couple years would be hard, but he was determined to make it work. He'd visit Sasuke every day that he wasn't on a mission, or however often he was allowed to visit him. Hell, he didn't even care if he wasn't allowed to visit; he'd find a way. The transition back into normal life at Konoha wouldn't be easy for Sasuke either, but Naruto would be there for him, and Sakura, and Kakashi-sensei. He would finally have the Team Seven that he had been cheated out of so long ago.

After he allowed such selfish thoughts to cross his mind, Naruto focused on all of the necessary things that needed to be done for Sasuke's arrival. Perhaps an hour before they set out, Naruto would send a clone ahead of them with a message for the Hokage. That way, she could organize a quick and crowd-free way of escorting Sasuke to a temporary holding cell. Naruto knew that practically everyone in the village—ninja or otherwise—knew of Sasuke's desertion years ago. He didn't want a riot to break out on the streets because some ignorant third party individuals felt the need to have their opinions known.

There was so much to do. So many people to tell. And Sakura! He'd have to tell Sakura right away, as soon as he was done with his debriefing. She and Kakashi had the right to see Sasuke first . . . and maybe Sai and Yamato-sensei, but he was fairly certain that they would decline the invitation.

Naruto went on with his musings well into the night. He was beginning to think that he had actually pulled this off when a frantic call came over his radio.

"Rooftop Two checking in. The shutters are still shut, but I'm seeing some flashing blue light seep through. His chakra has taken a major incline, and I'm starting to hear suppressed birds' screeching," the clone on the opposite rooftop informed him.

Naruto stood up from his bed and set his mask over his face just in time to hear another call come through. "Rooftop One checking in, confirming those reports. It's definitely a chidori. A powerful one."

"Shit!" Naruto hissed and then quickly ordered, "Rooftop One infiltrate the room if you can. I'll be there in five seconds for back-up. All other clones retreat to the streets for possible pursuit." As soon as Naruto heard the 'Roger' on the other side, he focused his chakra and concentrated his mind on the mark he had left on Sasuke's door. He immediately felt a tightness all around him before he was engulfed in darkness and then thrown through space until he landed outside Sasuke's room with his hand pressed against the Hiraishin seal.

Sure enough, electric blue light was seeping from the cracks of the broken door, mixing with that harsh florescent lighting of the hallway. As Naruto grabbed the door in its slightly ajar position, making sure not to touch the metal handle or hinges, his clone's memories came rushing into his mind. He saw it dropping from the roof to Sasuke's window sill, grabbing the top of the window frame, and swinging its legs through the shutters. It hardly had time to land before a blue bolt of lightning ran straight through its heart. With one mighty tug, Naruto ripped the door from its frame and held it in front of him as a makeshift shield.

The light, the sound, the shear chakra pressure were overwhelming, but Naruto tried to gain some reassurance by reminding himself that he still had a seal on the roof if things got too close.

"Sasuke!" he yelled over the noise.

Sasuke stood in the center of the room, facing the window, his sword held parallel to the ground. Lightning natured chakra danced around his body and sword at an incredible speed. When he heard Naruto's voice, he turned at a casual speed and looked at him with an unreadable expression. At first it appeared as if he felt a hint of remorse, but then his conviction came back to him, and he stood stone-faced once more. The chakra expanded with a small burst and became highly concentrated around his blade.

"You're too late, Naruto!" Sasuke responded and began to lift his katana. Naruto couldn't help but notice that he had dressed his wounds with clean bandages. A small movement caught Naruto's eye, and he saw with a bit of shock that while Sasuke's sword hand was perfectly calm, his left hand was shaking.

Naruto clenched the wooden door for dear life. He'd have to time this perfectly. In the split second he had after Sasuke released his chidori, he'd have to teleport to the roof and then re-enter the room from the window with a rasengan. It may not have been the best plan, but it was all he had. He knew Sasuke had been far too calm about this earlier. He was right to be skeptical, which made him wish that he hadn't allowed himself to think even for one second that Sasuke had truly agreed to return home with him.

The wood creaked in his grip. He shifted on his feet. Come on, come on.

And finally, Sasuke fully lifted the sword, but the angle was all wrong. How was he supposed to hit Naruto with it tilted up and to the side like that? As if he read his thoughts, Sasuke twisted his wrist and spun the sword in his hand. The blade fell in a slow, lightning incased arc until Sasuke gripped the handle, and it swung to a stop at a downward forty-five degree angle. Something clicked in Naruto's mind, and he straightened slightly behind the door, but as Sasuke had said, he was too late.

In the last second, Sasuke seemed to drop his mask and looked at Naruto with an expression of utter defeat. And then, with one last burst of chakra, he thrust the sword through his own stomach and fell to the floor.

To be continued . . .