New Author's Note: (Revised 2006): Yuppers, after re-reading my fanficcie...my goshness the SPACES! THE DOTS! THE HORROR ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR -dies- so yes, toko-chan has decided to edit it and try to make it into a nice format and blahblahblah so its easier on the eyes :3

PS: Hmmmm, argh! some symbols can't be used anymore...my asterisksssssssssssss T.T;; yarr, so to compensate I'll use:

-blahblah- are time periods and actions

>blahblah> are thoughts and flashbacks

"blahblah" are conversations

Old Author's Note:
Nyaaaaaaaaaa! After a LONG LONG time of no more fan fic writing—toko-chan has returned!

The sthinky disclaimer: toko-chan does NOT own naruto...NYAAA if she did...she'd be all over haku by now...XP goes off to glomp haku

PS: all the japanese words toko-chan uses in this fic will be simple...SO simple that any anime freak would know what it meant...wakattaka? if anyone doesn't know what it means...feel free to ask in the reviews .

Prologue:

"Why did you save me..."

"I don't know...I hated you..."

"...I hated you too"

-Hidden Mist Village Arc

With these words a unique relationship had been born; a string tied around the two bound as tightly as a thread stitched into the flesh of a patient, so tight and deep it had to be forcefully cut out—but even then it would never separate the two, for they were...the strings of fate.

-3 years later-

Two shinobi's leaped from tree to tree—from afar it would be seen as graceful and lovely, but that was not the case...

"Naruto! Where's Sakura?" The raven-haired shinobi yelled.
"She collapsed from exhaustion! Shikamaru is helping her right now!" The blonde yelled back.

"Chikuso! Who would've thought he'd be back after 3 years...We must lead him away from the village!" The blonde cursed again.
"No, I'M leading him away...YOU stay behind! He only wants me, I can handle it!" The other argued.

"I can't just leave you all alone! He's strong! The 3rd Hokage only beat him with his life!"

Frustrated, the first shinobi punched the other, sending him to the ground, where he crashed loudly into a tree.

"STAY THERE! I'M SORRY!" The black-haired shinobi yelled as he continued leaping away.
"AAAHHH! DAMN YOU SASUKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The kyuubi yelled as he fell down and crashed into the ground.

Grazing the tree branches in his speed, Sasuke bent his head down and whispered a few apologetic words:
"I'm sorry, Naruto, but I can't risk losing you..."

Finally, at a clearing in the woods, Sasuke stopped.
"Orochimaru, I am running no longer." He calmly said.

The figure who had been following him stepped out of the shadows.
"Sasuke, its been a while since I've seen you,and exactly 3 years since I gave you that mark" The sinister snake demon smirked.

"What do you want this time? Trying to take over the Leaf Village again?" Sasuke asked, glaring at his enemy.

Orochimaru smirked,
"Ah no, nothing like that, but that time will come. However, I have arrived this time for a more important object...or should I say, a more important person."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "I don't quite comprehend..."

Still smirking, Orochimaru said, "I am getting old; I must find a new body, Iie, I have found a new body—I just have to claim it."

Sasuke stepped back, eyes wide with shock, as Orochimaru stepped forward.

"Yes, you, Sasuke. The moment I gave you that mark on your neck, you were fated to become my next vessel; my next life"
"No, over my dead body"
"Heh, so be it."

And the fight commenced. Sasuke quickly threw several shurikens at Orochimaru before leaping behind him and slashing him with a kunai.

However, in a blink of an eye, Orochimaru was gone.
"What? Where did he go?" Sasuke muttered angrily.

"Missed me?" The sinister one replied behind Sasuke as he tapped the stunned shinobi in a few places on the back. He quickly did a few complicated hand motions: Horse, Cow, Pig, Bird, Sheep, Dragon, Dog...RELEASE!

Sasuke felt pain on his back like never before as raging purple chakra grew from the points and encircled him, wrapping themselves tightly over him and completely paralyzing him.

Sasuke fell towards the ground and struggled weakly as Orochimaru smugly walked up to him. "Your body is mine. I win." The snake simply said as he began the ultimate immortality jutsu.
Orochimaru's body spread out into a fog and disappeared as his soul went out of his body and headed straight for Sasuke.

Sasuke's eyes grew wide as the soul of the snake came closer and closer to him.

>This is the end...Gomen ne, Naruto>

Sasuke closed his eyes, only to open them again to huge sparks of chakra, glowing like fireworks.

"Na-Nani?" Sasuke's eyes grew wide once again as he looked up to see Naruto shielding his body over his own. Orochimaru's soul was struggling to enter Naruto!

Naruto used his chakra to forbid the spirit from possessing him, but alas, it was impossible...

Naruto glanced back and gave Sasuke a grin.
"You can handle it, huh?" "Naruto! Why are you blocking it for me? It's impossible to stop that jutsu!" "Baka. Anything can be stopped, anything for you—even with the cost of my life!"

Naruto's hidden meaning instantly dawned upon Sasuke.
"Naruto, you-you are going to"
Naruto began to concentrate and gather all of his chakra, and all of the Nine Tails' chakra as well.

"Protecting the person most important to you brings out your true abilities, remember that, Sasuke? You've saved me so many times...this time, it's MY TURN." Naruto grimly said before completely concentrating on gathering his chakra.

"Naruto! Dame yo! If you use up all your chakra, if you use up all you've got, you'll die! No!"

But by then, Naruto had gathered enough. The red chakra flared dangerously around him and the wind blew in angry swirls.

Naruto gathered all the chakra into his hand and it flared into a tight, compressed ball. Using the jutsu Jiraiya taught him so long ago, Naruto finished theconcentrated ball with all of his chakra—and his life source. Finally, Naruto yelled,

"CHAKRA! RELEASE!"

On that day, Shinobis from all of the villages looked up in fear. The explosion was so great, so powerful, dusty grit flooded the Sand Village, tsunamis attacked the Wave village, and all grew in fear of the familiar chakra: the chakra of the legendary Nine Tails.

Then it was quiet, like silence after a storm; the silence was so thick, so disturbing, one could cut it into tiny pieces and serve it on a silver platter.

Back where the cause of the chaos originated, Naruto lay on the ground, bruised and unmoving. Orochimaru's soul was long blown away, shattered to pieces so he may never come back.

The chakra rope around Sasuke was gone, after all, Orochimaru was dead, and he crawled over to Naruto, putting the blonde's head onto his lap.

"Na-Naruto...you MORON! How could you do such a rash thing?"

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, turning his head to glance at Sasuke. Blood streamed from his mouth as he did so.

"Sa- Sasuke, you're all right. I'm so glad...is Orochimaru gone"
Sasuke sniffed as his eyes grew teary.

"Yes, dobe, he's gone, but your chakra is all used up—your life source"
Instead of answering, Naruto gently lowered his eyes in quiet contemplation.
"Neh Sasuke, I-I never got to be Hokage; I feel so sad"
"Baka. Of course you'll be Hokage. You'll live! You always do! You always come out alive! Always"
Naruto twitched, a small smile gracing his pained features.

"Iie, not this time, I can feel it...even the Nine Tails within me is gone; I can't feel its presence anymore"
He closed his eyes.

"I'm tired, so very tired"
Sasuke shook his head and bit his lip to prevent his tears from falling down.

"...Are you crying, Sasuke"
"...No, I'm not; who would want to cry over this? You're a hero. We'll celebrate at the ramen shop tomorrow."

"I love you Sasuke"
"Don't be so sentimental. Save it for the celebration"
"I'm sorry...Good bye."

Sasuke felt Naruto slacken and lay still.

A gently ray of sunlight slowly set its gentle hand upon the fallen comrade and his lover as silence descended upon the setting. The very earth was still as the grief-stricken boy stared with disbelieving eyes at the unmoving body in front of him.
After what seemed like hours, drops of water finally began falling from Sasuke's face.

The young boy sat there, silently sobbing, breaking the now peaceful silence in the sky.
The drops of water on his face were rolling, rolling down, down his porcelain face.

"I love you too..."

And the first drop of water fell off his face, escaping into the crevices of the cracked earth...

-1 year later-

Kakashi and his former students, now only a team of 2, sat in front of a tablet, a tablet with inscriptions none but the shinobis could read.

"Sasuke? Do you want to be the one to lay the flowers down?" A pink-haired shinobi asked quietly.

"..."

Sakura and Kakashi looked at one another.
"It's been year and he's worse than before..." Sakura sadly whispered to Kakashi.
"It was a big shock to him; the two were so close..."

"He didn't even attend the funeral..." She whispered again.

Suddenly, Sasuke smiled, a gentle smile, as if he had come to a conclusion.
He stood up.

"Leave me alone with him." He simply said.

The other two shinobis glanced at each other before complying to Sasuke's request.

Now it was only the black-haired ninja who stood in front of the tablet.

"Naruto, I missed you." Sasuke said quietly. "Did you know, I thought about you everyday? From the day we became teammates to...to this very day." Sasuke chuckled.

"I'm being sentimental, aren't I? Stop being so mushy, moron! That's something you'd say, neh?"

Sasuke then grew sullen.

"Naruto, you know, it has been so hard without you. Without the normal quarrels, the normal fights, the normal kisses—it has been so hard to breathe without you—I miss you so much..."

The raven-haired boy grew quiet again.

"You know, Naruto, I bet you're laughing at me right now, waiting to tease me and insult me for being so emotional, like a woman; you're waiting for the time for us to be together again, aren't you?"

Sasuke walked even closer to the monument.
"Well, guess what, today's your lucky day, dobe. I've decided to join you, so you can laugh at me all you want..."

Sasuke pulled out his kunai.
"Naruto, you'll be waiting for me...won't you?"

The kunai came down, towards his heart...

"If you aren't there, Naruto, I'll come looking for you...no matter what it takes..."

The kunai whistled through the air...

"And when I catch you, it'll be just like the old times again: you...and me."

Closer... Closer

>Naruto...>

"SASUKE! NO!"
"SASUKE! STOP! WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO— KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The crimson blood splashed across the tablet, the red liquid seeming to absorb into the inscriptions; the whole tablet was glowing scarlet—it would be forever stained with this color.

Amidst all the screaming, a pale hand weakly pressed itself against the tablet, or more specifically, at one spot on the tablet, reaching for a certain word as if to grab hold of it and caress it for all eternity:

In loving memory of: Naruto

And so ends the tale of the two tragic lovers...or was it the end?

The red string, stained with blood, is wrapped so tightly, so deeply, that it may not be broken, may not be cut, for it was...the string of fate

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AN: PHEW! Finally done! how's that for a prologue? It's not that detailed...but basically sasuke and naruto were already together at that time k? ;;

AND WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO toko-chan got the naruto OST! rejoices
Sadness and Sorrow is such a nice song...Y.Y and so is Loneliness.
If you don't have the OST...get it now!

PS: chapter 1 is now edited! Woooooo!

PSS: woo! Formatting should work now! begs

NEW Author's Note: Silly ol' me just changed some grammar/spelling errors, and reworded some things to make more sense. Yarr, I really do think it lacks details x.O; but then, I don't want to risk spoiling the original mystery of the prologue.

PS: argh. dumb formatting won't let me do the spacings/non-spacings that I want, but at least its better then the old spacing...I think o.o; and hmm, the >thought speech thing> kinda blows too, so if anyone thinks I should change the >thought symbols> with the -action symbols-, let me know when you review because hrm, I kinda think the action symbol thing looks better as a thought symbol thing, if that makes sense. So let me know guys! every advice is greatly appreciated ;D