The Uchiha widened his eyes at the statement and recalled all the battles that he, Sakura, Kakashi, and Naruto had fought. He remember Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, and Kiba on the mission with him stay behind to fight the Akatsuki agents and even Lee came to his rescue. He recalled how all of them risked their lives for Naruto, who just ignored it and made their sacrifices useless. He watched Naruto smirk as he waved to him.

"See ya around, Sasuke," Naruto said as he turned around and began walking away, "Good luck with the Uchiha clan stuff."

As Naruto began to walk away, he didn't even feel or see the fire in Sasuke's eyes as he began to make his move...

Naruto smiled to himself as he walked towards the other side of the boundary of Konoha. Only a few more steps and he'd be out of this god-forsaken village. He felt relieved that the Akatsuki would actually offer to get the demon out of him as…

Wait a minute, footsteps. Rapidly approaching him from behind. As soon as Naruto recognized the sound getting closer and louder, he turned around, only to see Sasuke's furious face right in his. He gasped with shock as he tried to move. Suddenly, a huge impact was felt in his stomach. Knocking the wind out of him and suddenly sending him back, Naruto let out a struggled yelp as he landed on his neck and shoulders, slowly rolling to a stop. Sasuke immediately rushed over after punching him. As the blond hair boy struggled to recover, Sasuke let go of the headband, causing it to fall next to them. He grabbed his right arm, put it behind his back, and held it down with his left knee and arm. He pinned Naruto's head to the ground with his right hand as the Uzumaki glared up at him angrily.

"Sasuke…. You…." He growled angrily.

"You rotten little…! You mean to tell me that we risked our lives to bring you back for nothing!?" Sasuke yelled at him, "Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Neji, even Lee; we all came to rescue you from the clutches of the Akatsuki, and you're gonna just betray the Leaf Village?"

"No! Listen…" Naruto said as he winced at the pain, "I had to… nngh… go through hours of training just for you guys to look at me! I had to work my butt off just to get noticed! But because of this stupid fox, the people of Konoha can't fully accept me… at least, not yet."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

"Once the Akatsuki get the fox out of me, people in the Leaf will stop fearing me as an uncontrollable monstrous freak. I'm only going to them to get rid of this curse; I promise I'll come back to the village, Sasuke," Naruto promised as he grunted in pain.

Sasuke's whole body went pale in terror. Naruto was giving himself up to the Akatsuki? He couldn't believe the boy who said he'd never give up, who shouted at the top of his lungs that he'd become Hokage… was acting like this? He immediately became worried and concerned as he glared at Naruto.

"Are you insane? The Akatsuki are S-ranked criminals wanted by many nations, and they're responsible for a lot of crimes that happen in the world; my brother's one of them! They're after all the tailed-beasts to use for their own purposes! Do you honestly think they're going to help!?" Sasuke raised his voice at Naruto.

All Sasuke saw from Naruto was cold eyes that just stared at him. He became more worried for the well-being of his teammate as he continued.

He said, "All they want from you is the fox! They don't care about you in the slightest; they'll kill you! You'll never get out of there alive! You think I'm just gonna let you say good-bye and throw away your whole life!?"

There was more silence as the wind blew by them. Sasuke stared at Naruto, waiting for his answer to his question. He watched as Naruto sighed and closed his eyes.

"None of that matters, Sasuke…" he said, to the Uchiha's surprise, "You truly don't know if they would kill me after they took it out… and plus, the only thing that matters to me right now is just to get rid of this curse… I can't take anymore."

Slowly, Naruto began to smirk, "And if you're gonna try to stop me… then you better be prepared to back it up."

Suddenly, Naruto put his left hand on the ground, in the position that showed he was ready to push up and fight to get up. Sasuke gasped silently at this, but slowly fixed his eyes on him and put more pressure on his body.

"All right, Naruto… I don't want to fight you, but if that is the only way I can convince you to come back, then so be it," Sasuke said.

Suddenly, Naruto began to grin. Before Sasuke knew it, he was laughing hysterically at him. The Uchiha gritted his teeth and leaned his head closer, without trying to put any more pressure.

"What have you got to laugh about!?" he demanded him to answer.

"I'm just laughing at the fact that you just said you don't wanna fight me," Naruto grinned at him, "Are you afraid to take me on now that the Nine-tailed Fox is starting to give me more power, or have you forgotten what you told me at the Chunin Exams?"

Sasuke blinked in realization; it happened a long way back at the Chunin Exams, before the preliminary rounds. He had told him that he was one of the ones he wanted to fight the most. Ever since then, both of them seemed to be deeply into getting stronger for the other to fight someday. He listened as Naruto chuckled with a grin.

"I mean, come on, Sasuke; what about our fight a couple days ago? We were going at it then, so why can't you fight me now?" he mocked.

"Shut up!" Sasuke silenced him, "I know that I fought angrily against you, but… that's not the kind of fight I want. I mean, I wanna fight you as comrades, not to the death. I was wrong to make you enraged and cause you to fight me like that. I never wanted that kind of fight; even now, I still don't."

It was then that the following words would start the biggest fight these two had to date:

"Sasuke… I couldn't give a damn what you want."

Suddenly, Sasuke felt immense power from Naruto as the blond hair boy started to fight to get up. It wasn't just trying to stay on him; he honestly was having problems keeping him down. Soon, Naruto was able to get to his knees, getting leverage with his left arm. Sasuke gritted his teeth and grunted as he kept his grip and strength on his right arm.

The strength of Naruto began to overpower him as the right arm started to slowly pull away. Naruto grunted as he closed his eyes to pull his arm away as Sasuke still was putting pressure on his back with his knee. Sasuke grunted and couldn't believe what was going on as he struggled to stay in control. The Uzumaki slowly started to overpower the Uchiha.

Suddenly, Sasuke heard a nasty snarl come from Naruto. In a flash, Naruto's left arm caught the front of his shirt and grabbed a demonic strong grip on him. He widened his eyes as he gritted his teeth harder, looking at Naruto slowly turn his head to him with a smirk. The grip on his shirt started to lift him, as he soon was being lifted into the air. Forced to by the pain, Sasuke let go of his right arm and grabbed the wrist that held him. He grunted painfully as he closed his eyes. Naruto slowly grinned and slowly stood to his feet, lifting Sasuke by the front of his shirt. Seeing the rival he had long struggled to keep up to squirming in pain by his strength caused him to exhale happily with a slight chuckle.

Sasuke slightly opened one eye to look at the devilish grinning face of Naruto. He saw that the anger and hate was taking over him, but he would fight to bring back the Naruto he knew. He suddenly widened his eyes as Naruto brought back his right fist to strike him in the chest. Sasuke suddenly swung his right foot at the same time to try to stop the fist. Simultaneously, both landed their attacks on each other. Naruto widened his eyes in shock as he grunted, his head slamming into the rock and rolling away. Sasuke let out a strangled yell of pain as he was flown back from the punch. He grunted as he timed a rebound by pushing off the edge of the water-rushing falls with his hands. He ended up falling down the falls and landing on the water, using the chakra in his feet to keep him above the surface.

He panted as he gasped for air. That punch knocked all the wind out of him! How did Naruto get so strong? He coughed as he felt the air rush back into his lungs. He slowly looked up as he stayed on one knee.

"That power… to send me flying off the cliff… is that the power of the Nine-tailed Fox? It's incredible… my chest feels like it's caved in…" he thought as he slowly was able to stand again.

Naruto had slowly gotten up from the kick he had gotten to the face. He rubbed his face and blinked to see his headband. Sasuke must've gotten it back from where he abandoned it. He smirked, shook his head, and took it into his hand. He stuffed the headband into his shuriken holster and slowly stood up. With a deep breath, he wiped his mouth of any blood and walked to the edge of the rock, looking down at Sasuke who in return could now see him.

Both stared at each other with the realization that they were going to have to fight. The wind once again blew during their silence.

"Lemme guess," Naruto spoke up, "Sakura's one of the people who sent you after me, right?"

"So, what of it?" Sasuke answered.

Soon, Naruto let out an aggravated exhale as he rubbed his right hand through his hair.

"You know, I kinda am getting annoyed by you guys," he yelled down to Sasuke, "I mean, when I was happy, goofy, go-getter Naruto, you guys, especially you and Sakura, couldn't care less if I fell off a cliff or something tragic like that. But now that I finally want to go on my own path, you all run after me wanting me to stay. What, are you guys never satisfied with what I do? Are you trying to control me?"

"You're wrong, Naruto," Sasuke said, "This isn't your path. This is what the Akatsuki want you to do. This isn't what you are; becoming Hokage is the path you belong on. And we're not trying to control you. Yes, I admit we didn't care about you when we started. But since you made such an impression to change our minds, we care about you, Naruto."

He slowly reached near his shuriken holster, "Listen to me, Naruto. Kakashi, Sakura, Iruka and I are your team, and everyone we know is also a part of it. We can help you control it. Let us help you fight it!"

"…Fight it…? You? Fight the Nine-tailed Fox?" Naruto said, gritting his teeth in anger as he clenched his fists, "Sasuke, many ninja that were stronger than you died at the hands of that demon! Even when the Fourth Hokage sealed it in me, he ended up dying in the process! You honestly think you can help me fight it when I can't control it? What, you think you'll beat it because you're an Uchiha?"

A bit of anger swelled inside of Sasuke, but his friend mattered more to him right now. He slowly opened the holster as he looked up at him with a look of compassion, yet determination.

"I can't fight it on my own, and I don't know what will happen, but what I do know is that you have better chances of controlling or getting rid of the fox by staying with us in the Leaf then going with the Akatsuki," he said.

With a sudden blur of motion, Sasuke twirled a kunai out of his holster and held it ready as he continued, "So as your friend and teammate, Naruto, I will not let you leave Konoha to go to the Akatsuki!"

Naruto smirked as he slowly approached the edge of the rock and began to run down it a blinding speeds. His chakra kept him on the solid surface as he approached rapidly.

"Heh, if that's the case, Sasuke," he yelled as the Uchiha gripped the kunai tightly and prepared for battle, "Then I'm gonna hafta smack you down so hard, you can't do anything to stop me!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It's so hard writing battle scenes. I don't why, but they always seem so difficult to me. Anyways, I hope you like this as it keeps going! Feedback would be great, and let me know ideas!