Sasuke was a boy who knew about certainty, probability, calculations, strategy.
His mind was a carefully formulated run-down of scientific methods.
He knew just how his future really began.
He knew how his future would come to an end.
It was simple really.
His lifespan was existent only as far as Itachi was existent.
Everything that came afterwards was nothing but a series of events in which he would not exude control.
He wouldn’t bother.

At least – that’s what he’d hypothesized as he rose to his feet.
Crumbling pebbles tumbled down over his dusty head, and he tested his unusually strong legs as he surveyed the crevice he’d been hurled into.
The impact would have killed any ordinary being.

But Sasuke was far from ordinary now.

His cursed seal burned against his neck - the black, flaming vines inching their way painfully across the points of his skin, digging deep into pores and feeding his chakra vessels with more dark thoughts, more rage, more power.
Sasuke felt a grin come over his own face – the first one he cracked since that fateful day, devoid of any joy, but filled with thrill and adrenaline.  

Naruto would die.
And he would acquire the power to rival Itachi.

He would justify his purpose.
He would finally justify his life.

Twenty meters in front of the Uchiha, Naruto lifted his head, locks of his blonde spikes dripping with river water.
The expression on his open face bled distress and rage… and something else Sasuke couldn’t quite figure out.
The Uchiha’s logical mind analyzed it. Struggled to find observed basis for it, tested it against a multitude of feelings and finally ruled it out as something insignificant.
- Just another excessive burst of pure impulse from the village idiot.   

The blonde’s chakra – a combination of molten lava and blood in color – stretched out to Sasuke in silence, beamed from behind like a phoenix tail in flames.
His whiskered cheeks contorted, lips pulling out to reveal especially prominent looking incisors that grimaced at him in desperation.
Those peculiar blue eyes flinched for a moment as if the boy were flicking something invisible away, before the blonde’s head snapped down and he clutched at his temples, releasing a blood-curdling roar.  
It echoed around the Valley of the End, as no ordinary voice range could.

But Naruto was far from ordinary now.

He curled into a smaller, lower ball - limbs snapping and cracking with biological modification.
And then he was charging like a demon, movements lightning fast and inhuman.

Just as it always was between them.
Only them.
Their motions were equal.
Their rage parallel and fueled by different causes.
One boy’s action provoked another boy’s reaction.
They twisted and ducked, clawed and swiped, punched, kicked and built momentum.  
And it became a dance, where time slowed and the ripples of the water moved to cushion their steps. One foot skidded light over water and connected with a waiting arm, another hand lashed out and parried with a leg.

Sasuke leapt gracefully backwards only for Naruto to blindly ram forward the same number of steps.
A clumsy fist swiped out at the raven-haired prodigy.
He blocked it with an open palm, forcing the momentum sideways.
I can see it… Sasuke murmured darkly to himself with a laugh.

I can see you, Naruto.
I can see all of you.

… Could he really?

Naruto’s eyes had changed, the pupils vertically-stretched and bleeding, the blue irises flooding with flame.
His glare wavered unsteadily, flicking from side to side like that of a caged animal’s.
But the light in his eyes remained, purely Naruto, fixed and stubborn and desperate.
… And something else.

“SASUKEEEEE!!! If I have to break all your bones - I’ll do it! I won’t let Orochimaru have you!” came the piercing, inhuman growl.

That something was still there in the blonde’s eyes.
Sasuke might have been too surprised at his rival’s appearance to grasp it.

And perhaps the miscalculation had long since been.
Perhaps Sasuke’s conclusion had long since been flawed.
Perhaps, he couldn’t see ALL of the idiot.

And in the succeeding nights camping out under the stars, moving through rat-infested streets in lowly gambling villages, rooming in alleyways and behind the swell of harvested rice before he got to the snake who promised him fulfillment…
Sasuke came to another conclusion that maybe Naruto’s something else was the reason why.
Why he couldn’t seem to kill him.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The first time Naruto had noticed his peculiar reaction to Sasuke was during an ordinary day in the middle of a fevered summer.

It had been a month since it last rained, and though Naruto had a water bottle the size of a grand scroll stuffed into his oversized backpack, he couldn’t help smacking his lips as he tasted the papery wind.
He was sweating gallons of consumed water out his pores - which should have been cooling him down.
Instead he looked like a victim of an impending heat stroke, as he panted up the yellowing hillside, both hands gripping the straps on his shoulders - knees wobbly and hair spikier and messier than ever.  

Sasuke on the other hand, remained silent as usual, not speaking and not breathing loud enough to be heard.
That meant – to Naruto’s chagrin – that Sasuke wasn’t finding this difficult at all!

To counter the blonde’s heavy black backpack (which was a ridiculous choice for this day) – the Uchiha had a light, white chord pack slung over his shoulders.
The only evidence of him ever feeling the humidity was the fact that he’d removed his sleeve warmers and neatly folded them into his shortspocket.
Other than that, his steps remained fluid and even, his face indignantly leveled to provoke the sun poking through the thick foliage, and his eyes characteristically closed and arrogant.

“Remind me why I’m hiking up this stupid mountain with you again?” Naruto whined intolerably as he blew a bead of sweat away from the tickled tip of his nose.
“Nobody told you to come…” The raven-haired boy countered without bothering to give the blonde a look.
And as an afterthought he added,  “-dobe.”

“Grahhhhh…” The blonde ninja growled.
And just as quickly, the boy slumped, lip sticking out in an absurdly childish frown before giving the trees a sulking look. “Na-na… Are you even sure it’s here?”

Without warning, Sasuke slipped into a crack between two bushes, not even giving the blonde a chance to gather his next breath.
The fox-ninja’s eyes widened as he saw the quickly disappearing form of the prodigy.
“Ah! .. Ah!” Naruto clambered after him, a branch thwacking his face in the process.

The lake was just as Sasuke described it - in the few number of words he used with descriptions anyway.
- Cold, shaded by the trees and large enough to fit 15 people comfortably, more a pond really, with fresh water trickling in from a stream that laced across the ridges.

“Now we’re talking!” The blonde declared with a large grin.
He shrugged his backpack off and kicked away his sandals.
His striking cobalt gaze drank the water in hungrily as he whipped his black shirt over his head.
“Naruto…” Sasuke slowly called from behind as he set his bag down.
But the blonde’s impulsive nature had already triggered his legs into a run as he mounted a decaying tree stump and leapt off of it, cannon-balling into the water and sending large-sized droplets into Sasuke’s o-shaped mouth.
The raven-haired boy stood bent and frozen with an eyebrow ticking.
And then he closed his mouth and decided to wait for what he knew would come next.
Teach the idiot a lesson.
One side of his mouth curled up in anticipation.

Naruto’s head didn’t emerge to the surface.
But one flailing limb did.
And then it had gone under again with a disgraceful flap.
“Tch.” Sasuke eyed the murky spot where the boy had gone under, watching the ripples push out until the water was placid again.
He took a deep breath before pulling his shirt over his head and then folding it and setting it neatly over a polished rock. In the near distance a sparrow was chirping, and another one was responding. After a moment, a raven started to call somewhere closer.  
Naruto didn’t come up.

Give and take a second or two, during which an odd feeling tweaked inside him, Sasuke finally dived.
The water was murky, muddy and filled with decaying compounds of algae growth.
The weeds were dense and curling and they hauled in branches and pebbles.
And, really, it was so easy to get entangled when you were a blonde idiot cannon-balling straight into the middle of it.
Sasuke ejected a burst of chakra from his brain stem and widened his eyes, activating the Sharingan. Pulses here and there, blue waves flickering between the green weeds and he saw it.
A leg.
Sasuke’s mouth quirked up.

A pale arm snapped out clutching at the wiggling limb before the Uchiha back-paddled with one hand and yanked hard.
He could feel the snapping of filaments as the river-weeds broke off their stems. And then Naruto had kicked reflexively, only succeeding in launching himself closer to the smirking bastard, underwater.

A particularly sharp blonde spike poked into Sasuke’s open eye and he grimaced with a jerk, kicking more frustratingly towards the surface.
He broke for air and shoved Naruto up so the idiot could breathe.
“Gods,… Naruto.” The Uchiha hissed after another gulp of air. “You are a moron.”
In between his words he could hear the blonde coughing and shrieking in broken pitches.

Sasuke shook his matted bangs from his nose, half-swimming and crawling his way up the bank with the sputtering whiskered ninja caught in an arm’s grip behind him.
“Shut-… up!” Naruto choked out with an irritated growl. He yanked his arm away and hopped as he struggled to extract his other leg from the sucking mud underneath the surface.
His toes came up with a suctioned pop and he lost his balance, hurtling right into the pale prodigy just as the boy was making to stand.

Sasuke’s mouth opened to swear, but he quickly closed it again, as well as his eyes, when he felt the blonde forehead knock hard into his chin.
Damn, that was gonna leave a bruise.

He groaned to himself and pressed his back down into the pebbled bank as Naruto recoiled on top of him.
“Ouch...” The blonde muttered, rubbing with a scowl at his head.
“Naruto,…” Sasuke’s crimson gaze dwindled off, and a dark set of eyes glared up at him.
“Get off.”
“Why didn’t you tell me it was so deep?! There were plants under there that got stuck over my legs, Na! I couldn’t breathe!”
“It’s not my fault you have the brain of a preschool ninja, Naruto.”
“I could have died, you bastard!”
“You’re always too eager, you never think before you do something-”
“-I was burning up… I needed water!”
“-And you just recklessly jumped in. If this were a mission you would be dead.”
“Teme, you obviously WANTED me to drown!”
…
The two glared at each other in bristling rage, until Sasuke looked sideways and lowered his head against the ground, teeth bared with a muttered “Tch…”
Naruto didn’t move.
And he should have - because this was a peculiar position.
But something…
The blonde’s cobalt glare flickered down to the boy’s chin, where a bruise was slowly starting to form.
Just something…
Naruto’s gaze wandered distractedly up into the raven-haired boy’s face, searching for the source of that something. And for a moment he could only stare at the way the prodigy’s bangs curled over his cheeks like raven wings cupping protectively over unmarred porcelain.
Sasuke really was…
A beautiful something.

There was a slight movement from the boy underneath, an intake of breath as his pale chest rose with crystal droplets trickling into taut curves and ends.
“You’re right…” Sasuke’s lips barely moved.
Naruto looked for a moment at the hollow between the boy’s collarbones before meeting with his narrowed charcoal eyes, which were now flashing at him.
“… I should have let you drown.”
A smirk.

Unthinkingly, Naruto drew his hand back and gave him a hard socking punch right next to where that smirk ended.
“Holy shit, Naruto!”
Sasuke pressed a hand to his face and used his elbow to shove the blonde ninja off him.
And then he rammed a solid knee into Naruto’s lower abdomen, knocking the wind out of the boy.
And when the blonde rolled sideways before surprisingly erupting into a fit of hoarse, high-pitched laughing coupled with coughing jerks, Sasuke’s eyebrows pushed together, confused.

“… Idiot.” He muttered uneasily, thrusting the blonde’s quaking shoulders down with emphasis before standing up.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

That night, Naruto had spent an hour standing in front of his rectangular mirror, pulling the same face over and over again.

He lowered his blonde eyebrows carefully - enough that they slanted towards the bridge of his nose - but taking care not to force it into an angry crease.
He pushed his lips out into a thin, straight line before slowly easing one side up in a curl.
He adjusted the half-smile so it didn’t reach his eyes.
And then he inspected himself for a moment before grunting a very convincing…
“Hn.”

He stood frozen for a moment in that smirk and then he pushed away and started laughing, more genuinely happy than anything else.
Naruto really didn’t care how absurd it was.
He was only thinking of one thing as he watched the face in the mirror change:
This was the smirk. Sasuke’s smirk.
The one on his face after he decided to rescue him.
The one that shows he cares.

Naruto’s long, tanned fingers stretched over the whiskers on his cheeks and he traced the line of his mouth.

And then his cerulean eyes lowered and he closed them.
Just so he could feel this special presence and make it his own.
His very own.

“Sasuke…” The blonde whispered in a breath.
His fingers felt the warmth leave his mouth.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two weeks later, he opened his eyes in the hospital, bandaged from head to toe.
And Sasuke was gone.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It never did leave.
That something inside Sasuke which had sparked that something inside Naruto.
Three and a half years flew by and it never waned.
It - whatever it was - seemed to fasten its claws more and more mercilessly into the blonde’s chest as time chiseled his techniques and molded his physique.
Naruto grew wiser, learned to hesitate before plunging, learned to tolerate authority.
But he retained that stubborn, impulsive streak, somehow.
And that something was still always there, greeting him painfully every morning until it was undeniably a part of his life.
Naruto realized he wouldn’t be complete – without knowing what that something was.
… Only Sasuke could give him his answer.
Because he wouldn’t be here, working this hard, searching this long.
And after encountering the raven-haired prodigy and losing him again - mourning this much…
- If it weren’t for him.
That smirking bastard.

It was just too bad.
The next time Naruto would see that face again - it would be the last.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It was after Itachi’s death that Sasuke took a step further towards the edge, and finally plunged into nothingness (or madness.)
He had fulfilled his purpose and believed his clan far too tainted with darkness to ever reign again. And so, Sasuke’s logical mind reached another conclusion that his own existence was no longer needed.
He was nothing but an organic body now, with a working mind that wasted space, and breath and resources.
So Sasuke made up his mind to disappear.

He knew his body was not entirely his. Something else shared his mind and wormed its way around his soul. And now, he didn’t care if it wormed its way to the surface of his consciousness.

His arm was broken in three different places, a multi-fragmentary compound fracture that had torn the skin. He had deep lacerations that streaked across his chest, stomach and side, internal damage, and a leg that was slightly mangled from forcibly being pulled out from under a large boulder.
But he had won over Itachi.
And that was all that mattered.  

“It seems…” the familiar voice slithered quietly into his mind, “- that you no longer have the will to suppress me, Sasuke-kun.”
The raven-haired boy lifted his bleary eyes and gazed at the clear-blue sky above him.
“Do what you want…” the Uchiha breathed.
And then the obsidian irises rolled backwards into his head before he dropped in a silent heap to the ground.
The Kusanagi sword slid out from his slashed robe and skittering across the dirt.

“Don’t worry, Sasuke-kun…” the voice almost crooned in low delight, “I will take good care of this beautiful body.”
The boy felt a chilling wave, much like a sensual touch ghost over his arms, up his shoulders, clutching into his neck and covering over his eyes. And then he was being pulled backwards. The warmth being sucked away, the senses growing numb.
With one last breath that was entirely his own, Sasuke’s eyelids fell shut and the young Uchiha gave in to the darkness.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Maybe it was that something Naruto had, which saved Sasuke in the end.

Naruto was plunging forward blindly into the trees.
The branches whipped out at him, and slashed into his skin, drawing blood.
He only growled and pushed onward relentlessly, clear blue eyes fixated on the leaping form barely 50 meters ahead of him.

He was so close.
So close to him.

Sasuke.

“STOP RUNNING!!!” Naruto roared out. He swiped at bark and felt shards of splintered wood crack as it passed through his sharpening nails.
The throaty undertone of his voice told him of another side of him that wanted very badly to get out.
He couldn’t lose control.
Not now.
Deep in his chest, he felt the excited tremors of the Kyuubi as it paced about its sealed cage, tails clinking idly against the bars, a second heartbeat loud and insistent, hot breath panting with the adrenaline it fed on.
“Let me out, boy…” the demon lumbered breathlessly.
Naruto could sense the frightening grin as the creature licked his chops and nudged his snout at the immediate outside of his confines.

“I promise not to hurt your precious …” The Kyuubi took a breath for emphasis “…friend.” He finished with a dark, bubbling growl.

“Shut up.” Naruto muttered with a snap of clenched teeth. He shut one eye as another branch snagged his cheek, using the frustration of pain to move even faster.  

The figure ahead made a leap, not bothering to look back, though Naruto’s voice was clearly audible – even through the thick foliage.
The blonde watched that ripped, white yukata, splattered in blood shoot sideways before one sandaled foot tapped lightly over a branch, sending Sasuke rocketing forward with even more speed.

That bastard.

“You’re not gonna lose me that easily. I’m not gonna let you get away anymore!” Naruto cried out. His whiskered cheeks stretched out in a snarl and he forced more chakra down to his legs, skipping two and then three tree branches at a time. The leaves whipped past both sides in a dark piney blur.
His lungs burned, and his legs felt like hot lead, but he was going to push and keep pushing until he got to where he was.

Sasuke plunged to a lower branch and finally hopped down into the ground below as the forest widened into rocky terrain. He ran, arms thrown behind him and legs propelling forward.

“Teme! Just wait till I get to you!” The blonde shouted again from above.
“I’m gonna beat you up so bad you’re gonna forget you ever had your revenge.”
And this time, his voice rose a pitch in desperation. “You’ve killed him… You’re done with this!!!”
Naruto got down on both arms and legs and used all four limbs to leap lower from branch to branch.
This was bad.
Moving on all-fours already.

The blonde landed over the rocky ground, pushed burning air into his lungs and hollered in a curdling, snarl of a voice.
“SASUKE!!!! What are you running from?”

And suddenly the form only just a little way in front of him stopped.
As if the call of that name, his name, had stirred something.
Naruto hesitated for a millisecond in surprise before he realized what good that “hesitation” did to him in the past.
Sasuke wasn’t going to escape this time.
Not now that he’d used two swords to slash Yamato-sensei into something that resembled minced-meat.
And plowed a power fist into Sakura so hard it countered her shockwave punch and sent her unconscious with a concussion, two broken ribs and a lung collapse.
And Sai… who had only just started to learn…
Sai who had died with a genuine smile, surrounded by them all.

He was the only one left.
He was the only one who could bring him back.

The blonde faltered with a growl and then quickly raced forward, one palm pawing the ground before he got up on two legs and pounced.
But Sasuke didn’t move, remaining with his back to him –the wind rustling at his torn, bloody clothes.
Naruto saw the flickering wave of a familiar orange tail whip across his peripheral vision and just as always, it made him even more angry.
Why couldn’t he ever control himself? Not even for his friends. Not even for Sasuke.
He felt the need to bare his fangs as he pummeled through a wayward trunk.
The wood shattered as he broke through it and beyond the hurtling chunks he saw the light of the afternoon, blinding him as it glistened over Sasuke’s shoulders.
The Uchiha turned to face him.
Naruto took him in greedily.  
The side of the avenger’s face had a small cut that trickled with blood, tainting a flawless, flushed cheek that was as smooth and beautiful as the blonde remembered.
But the other side of him…
“Sa… suke.” Naruto’s voice came out a barely audible rumble as he slowed to a dizzy stop.
A large portion of caked blood painted one temple down to his jaw in crimson. Clumped strands, sticky with the fluid, covered half of his left eye – which had turned a disturbing yellowish-green, reflecting the sun’s rays.
The alabaster skin the clan was known for was marred with dark slashes of the cursed mark dominating almost half his body.
But the most disturbing thing of all, Naruto realized – was the way the Uchiha now looked at him. The wild, flicker of his eyes – far from the steady gaze Naruto was used to. And the grin - with lips stretching out over his face in a way the blonde had never seen.

“Why… am I running?” Sasuke slowly asked back, though his tone hinted that he had an exact response. His voice seemed more eager than apathetic, strangely wispy and breathy.
Perhaps because he was even a little out of breath this time.

“Because… I love myself too much…” came that same light voice.
What the hell was he talking about?
Naruto took a step.

Sasuke’s eyes lowered and his fingers touched over his neck, ghosting down the curve of one muscular shoulder and down past the lacerations of his chest. His heavy gaze seemed to take himself and all his open cuts in, with a strange, new fascination.
“I love this… All of this.” The boy darkly hissed with a small, crinkled smile.
Naruto’s eyebrows pulled down, and a sickening feeling went through him.
For a moment he felt displaced, as if he’d suddenly forgotten what it was he had to do, and where he was, and who this person in front of him was.

The Uchiha smiled, lips pulling out at an awkwardly stretched angle, before idly bringing a hand up, the bandages over his wrist torn and revealing a black tattoo.
“I can’t let you, or the rest of that wretched disgrace of a hokage’s Konoha army take me…”

Naruto watched Sasuke press two fingers to the blood on his temple, before bringing the crimson-stained digits down to inspect.
His yellow and charcoal eyes studied the blood listlessly as if in thought, and then that sharp, piercing gaze flickered up to meet with Naruto’s wide stare.
“… That is why I am running.” He said, barely above a whisper.
Sasuke’s mouth opened delicately wider still.
And then one pink, wet tongue peeked out to lick the blood-stained digits over.
The blonde felt the breath in his throat halt and he almost choked on his own saliva.
Sasuke stopped mid-lick and his mouth closed, quirking up in amusement.
“My, my… Do you like that?” He murmured.

Naruto grabbed the torn collar in front of him.
His hands shook with horror because somehow he knew.
“Teme, do you know what you’re saying? What’s wrong with you?”
The forced pull made Sasuke stumble forward – perhaps of his own will.
And his solid body, cold somehow leaned lifelessly into Naruto.
The blonde froze as that startlingly pale side pressed to his cheek.
One hand with long, steady fingers teased playfully into the damp, blonde hairs on the fox-ninja’s neck.
“Nothing is wrong anymore… He’s given himself up…” The breath warmed his tanned skin.
Sasuke’s voice cracked as the Uchiha gave a small chuckle that sounded nothing like himself.
“I’m in control now and he is gone…”
Naruto’s eyes widened with a slowly building rage. His eyes pulsed red for a moment, pupils dilating and becoming slit. But he didn’t move.
And then Sasuke tilted his mouth up to the blonde’s ear, “… Naruto-kun.” He wavered breathlessly.
That was what did it.
The blonde shoved him backwards in disgust and incredulity because this was not his Sasuke.
He watched the boy stumble back on one mangled leg before hitting the ground with a louder laugh and an exhilarated expression over his distorted half-and-half face.
How did the Uchiha still manage to run at that speed in his current condition?
More dread spiraled through him as Naruto realized it was the result of having something else take over, something that didn’t know how to stop even if the body begged it to.
A demon - just like the one inside him.

“I’ve won, Naruto-kun… And you will never see your dear little Sasuke-kun again.”
The blonde watched the greenish-gold iris in one eye pulse with emphasis before the sickening, snakey smile twisted that beautiful face again.
“He was too weak to handle this and in the end, he had surrendered his body to-“
A hard punch struck at the raven-haired boy, snapping his head sideways.
Naruto felt the rage building inside him as he drew his fist back.
The red filled his vision, his body trembled as he realized he might be too late.
And when he finally saw the subtle smirk that contorted the Uchiha’s mouth in silence,
- So familiar and heart-wrenching…
Naruto finally lost all rationality and released a roar – so inhuman it made Sasuke’s eyes widen a fraction in fear.
And then Naruto had rained down another barrage of punches at him. Clawing at skin and howling with despair, the four-tail’s animal cries echoing with those of Sasuke’s pained ones.

The demon-fox and its instincts were taking over.
And the blonde’ skin folded up and shriveled, burning into charred bubbles of lava, leaving only that insistent willpower.
To dig and dig until he found Sasuke’s soul hidden deep inside that foreign shell.

Until he could reach out with burning fingers and pull him out.
Come back to me.
Sasuke…

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“That’s where you live?” Sasuke’s voice inquired.
Naruto turned back towards the raven-haired boy, who was conspicuously studying the dark, shabby balcony two floors above their heads.
“Got a problem with it?” The blonde pointedly asked with a bristling snap.
The wind blew past the Uchiha’s collar and he pushed the scarf higher up his face as he closed his eyes in aggravation.
“None. Looks like no one else lives in the building…” came the boy’s eloquent observation.
“Suitable really…” Sasuke continued, before his dark eyes opened and he gave Naruto a smirk. “For a loser like you.”
The fox-ninja’s teeth gnashed and he held a fist up towards the raven-haired boy.
“Here’s an invitation for your face.” Came the shrill declaration.
“Hn.”
“I’ve seen your district. Rich, prissy snobs that barricade their territories and boast about who has the larger family shrine... Your parents have probably never even shared cupped ramen and sake with the next-door neighbors during the leaf festivals.”
Naruto mumbled all this as he walked, until he realized the quiet footsteps behind him had stopped.
“What?” The orange-clad ninja demanded as he turned back to face Sasuke.
The boy’s eyes stared out at him. And for the first time, Naruto saw past the expressionless look into a glimpse of something more.
Something that hardened and wrapped itself up in defense just as quickly as it had revealed itself.

“At least I had parents.” The raven-haired boy stonily said after a long pause.

Naruto’s blue eyes grew shaded and he sunk back, the strength of intimidation suddenly leaving him boneless.
Sasuke’s glare was directed sideways, his mouth tight in a frown, his shoulders crumbling.
And the blonde boy realized that they were the same.
That only he knew how to reach out to Sasuke.
Only he knew Sasuke’s pain.

“Ah… whatever.”

Naruto stretched one fist out to the boy in front of him - his pinky offered in a truce of sorts. Sasuke’s charcoal gaze flickered to the outstretched arm then rested on Naruto’s apologetic face. His blonde hair caught at the descending light and it formed a halo around his now grinning face.
“… Teammates.” Naruto finally stated.
His blue eyes blinked at the boy, sparkling with a sincere openness – Sasuke almost envied it.
But even more…
The raven-haired prodigy slowly extended his own arm, giving Naruto another guarded look, before smirking and hooking his own pinky over the blonde’s.

“… Whatever.” Sasuke murmured with a small twist of his mouth.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The blood was everywhere, splattered into the dirt, pooling underneath and spurting outwards towards the trees surrounding them.
“You… will never…have him.” The voice underneath rasped, a pale, bloodied hand fumbled for the orange, glowing arm above him, only to close around molten lava.
Sasuke’s skin hissed with an immediate third degree burn.
The Kyuubi only growled in more defiance and pawed a clumsy palm into the boy’s face, searing into the skin over his jaw.
“… I …am… immortal!” the hoarse voice continued to declare in multiple pants.
“I will only find another and another and-… another!”
Sasuke’s eyes widened even more, and it was evident that the saanin in control no longer knew what he had to do next. So he became reckless and desperate and only talked and moved for the sake of doing so.
Perhaps he realized, that Sasuke – this body - would never really win.
Not against such sheer will from the Kyuubi-vessel.
Never.
His yellow and charcoal eyes flickered for a moment in a flash of pain before rotating up as Sasuke’s body racked with coughs.
For an insane moment, the snake sannin contemplated taking over Naruto’s body.
And then he felt a blackness filled with random white sparkles slip over his consciousness, making his head light and frighteningly comfortable.
“… Maybe another time then…” Sasuke’s voice aimlessly slurred to himself as his body was pounded like a rag-doll from side to side.
The Kyuubi gave a growl and batted him sideways, causing him to roll a bit to the right.
His dislocated arm flopped disgracefully sideways.

Another time?
No. Not really.

The pale body dropped his other hand in complete exhaustion, the only evidence of life being the slow rise and fall of his chest.
His stare, Sasuke’s stare, looked out, lids raised half-mast, the light disappearing bit by bit behind those two-colored eyes.
And as Orochimaru shrunk away, Sasuke’s body continued to take small jerks of breath, despite the blood filling its lungs.
Something kept it doing so.
Looking up at that orange monster with the jagged mouth, and the flaming sockets for eyes.
Just looking up at that creature kept the breaths coming.

But Orochimaru hurtled into a dome of pure black nothingness.
Forgetting everything about himself and what he was.
And soon there was no thought at all and he was gone.

…

Perhaps it was that something in Naruto that saved Sasuke in the end.

The Kyuubi planted its arms, digging sharp claws into the ground as it drew out a throaty snarl.
The creature lowered its face to study the dying body underneath, to sniff at the arousing scent of blood and torn, charred flesh.
And it should have gone ahead and killed, and feasted.
But his human, Naruto, was insistent.
And the human fed him images of forests and a lake, and the cool feel of water, the breeze over the trees and that boy lying underneath, just as he was now…
That pale boy with the smile twisting one side of his face…

“Teammates.” Naruto’s voice echoed.
More than teammates, a smaller voice whispered.
The Kyuubi gave a grunt as a foreign sensation rippled through him.
It was a certain something the creature couldn’t understand.

And then he was feeling the body underneath stir with a shudder of damp breath.
“Naru… to…” came a pronunciation of air - almost undetectable if not for this inhuman sense of hearing.

It was said that only the Uchiha clan ever had true control over the powerful nine-tailed beast.
Sayings were seldom true.
But perhaps, there were exceptions, just as most everything had.

“Na…ru…-“
“- Sasuke…?”

The Kyuubi retreated back into its cage.

Naruto shuddered from the pain.
His skin was raw, red and the muscles and tendons were peeking out in certain areas.
He collapsed sideways, and his body racked from cold and heat and…
He was dying wasn’t he?
… Sasuke was dying.

The Uchiha’s lips trembled. “I…” he said with another exhale.
And Naruto realized that Sasuke himself knew it.
“I’m…-“
“No.” The blonde’s voice rose a pitch in denial.
Panic lanced through him as he surveyed the damage he himself had done.
Meager puddles of blood shone everywhere around them.
“Sasuke...?” He tried to move, but his muscles were worn, and burning. It crippled him and Naruto felt the sense of helplessness dawn – that he could do nothing.

Rescue Sasuke…
Someone come…

Dampness burned down the fox-ninja’s cheeks, searing into open flesh, and he realized he was crying. The pain from inside and the pain from outside, mingling until he couldn’t tell which was which.
His fault.
It was his fault and he could do nothing.
“Sa-… suke...” The blonde desperately hiccupped, reaching a hand out.
“-… Idiot.,, Look… at us…” The raven-haired boy murmured in careful, steady gasps. He gave a slow blink and then turned his face sideways. Blood trickled out from the corner of his mouth.
“… You know... There is something… about you… ” Sasuke continued to say, each word forming difficultly over his lips, before he choked and coughed spittle and blood.
He gave a faint, smug half-smile.
The blonde’s hand reached out farther, soon stumbling over the other boy’s raw fingers.  
But at the brink of death, pride really didn’t seem to protest to anything anymore.
Sasuke surprised Naruto, weakly moving his own palm up to grasp at the boy's fingers.

They both knew.
It felt right.

Naruto looked out into his face, clear blue eyes, damp and fixated on Sasuke’s charcoal one.
“Sasuke. Shut up and-”
“- Something … always there between us…”
This whispered statement caused Naruto’s face to slowly grimace until he choked on a whimper at the realization that Sasuke had always known.
But the raven-haired boy was starting to speak in fragments.
A sign that the situation was all too soon taking a turn for the worst.
The blonde lowered his head and shut his eyes, teeth bared in a trembling sob, fearing the coming seconds, fearing the truth of what he'd done.
He felt the hand twitch into his own before it moved.
“Something… why I'm here” The raven-haired boy pointed out with a small wisp of breath, barely coherent.
His eyes drew sideways, studying the stretch of blue sky. He half-heartedly looked out, and then his lids slid a fraction lower, as if the scenery no longer interested him.
“Naruto… you.”
The blonde fought back the shaking jerks of his chest, and blinked back the tears.
His hand tightened reflexively around Sasuke’s, thinking that perhaps he could pull his friend back from that brink by hanging on firmly.
“My fear… - … I didn’t… want to die… alone.” Sasuke’s lips barely opened now, he seemed only to be falling asleep. His blink became lazy, his gaze unsteadily traveling over the blonde’s face.
“You’re not gonna die alone….” Naruto’s throat squeezed, he closed his mouth and shook his head sharply. “You’re not gonna die! And you were never alone, Sasuke…” His blue eyes flew shut, the wetness trailing new marks down his regenerating skin.

Sasuke said nothing, and for a moment, the blonde released a small choke, thinking him gone. His cerulean gaze flickered over the other boy’s features.
“Sasuke…! Did you hear me? You’re not al-!”
“- … I know.” Sasuke finally murmured with a sigh.
“… Idiot… saved ... me.” And with that, his mouth curled charmingly in a soft kind of smile Naruto had never before seen on him.
Sasuke lost his articulation with words.

Something...

“Teammates.”
“… Whatever.”

Whatever this is...

Sasuke’s grip on the blonde’s hand loosened bit by bit.
And after his breaths dwindled away, Naruto cradled as much of the raven-haired boy as he could and lay studying that pale, bloodied face as his vision blurred with unnoticed tears.
And he finally realized just what kind of smile it was.
For the first time, it was a kind that knew peace.

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