Sasuke and Sakura were running around the hallways. Sasuke felt his heart beat fast; his breath running short on thin air. It was dark, and the only source of light were the candles lit around the cracked walls of Orochimaru's Hideout. Every door they opened to the sides were empty; no signs of Naruto anywhere in sight.
'Where the hell are you?' Sasuke thinks, heart thumping wildly against his chest. He felt a rush of adrenaline, and his feet were leading him to who knows where. All he could think about right now was of his teammate. Sakura was following close behind like a second shadow, and so was Captain Yamato. Kakashi currently couldn't join in on the mission to retrieve Naruto. And Sasuke was still looking around with his Sharingan activated; but not sensing any chakra signatures anywhere. Sakura cries out desperately in the darkness.
The whole chasm explodes.
Team Kakashi looks around in shock. Debris is everywhere. Rocks are scattered at the outside of the hole they've made. But, Sai has already awakened Naruto in his sleep.
The two, Sasuke and Sakura, rush out to the entrance in a flurry of footsteps. The light is close, so close they could almost reach out and touch it...
They stumble out, and Sasuke already sees Sai looking up skyward. His eyes widen once he sees who he's staring at.
'Naruto...' Sasuke catches up to Sakura, and he stiffens in response. His eyes narrow.
"Sasuke. Sakura." Naruto says, in an emotionless voice unlike his own. He was frowning down at them, and they notice he's wearing the Sound clothing; a loose yukata with a purple rope tied loosely around his waist. He's looking down at them, from the top of the red, rocky cliff.
Sasuke flinches. No, no, that's not Naruto. Naruto would never...
What happened to that dumb moron he used to know?
He remembered back that day...
"S - Sasuke?" Naruto choked, coughing out blood; as Sasuke held him by the neck. "You've never... known what it was like. To lose your whole family, your own clan! Y - you were alone from the start!" He shouts angrily, and he shoves Sasuke off him.
"W - what about our bond?" Sasuke shouts, feeling like someone had just struck a chidori through his chest.
"You were like a brother to me; a friend!" He says in tears. "And now... and now..." He wipes them away angrily with his sleeve, and looks up at him with glassy eyes. "Why didn't you kill me? ...Why?" He choked through gritted teeth. Naruto looked down at his feet for a second, and responded in a voice void of all emotion, of all feeling.
"Because you're my friend."
There was a flicker of sadness etched on his face, but was then replaced with a mask so blank that was so out of character for Naruto.
"Our days together are over." He says sadly, and suddenly, so suddenly, he's by his shoulder. His arm is draped over his and he is hugging him. Sasuke watches this with wide eyes. "But, now..." Naruto withdraws a snake sword from behind his back with superhuman speed.
"This is goodbye, Sasuke." It's about to stab into his back, but all Sasuke could think of at the moment was saving his best friend from the darkness. Even if it seemed impossible...
...He would do it.
Sai was there to block the attack. He stood between Naruto and Sasuke.
And then...
Sasuke looked around in Naruto's mindscape. He stood on sewer water, and as he swished around, he saw face to face with the Kyuubi, Kurama. Iron bars stood between the two of them.
"Let's go, Naruto."