"People like us can't be shut up forever," Naruto said between his gasps and pants.

Sasuke watched Naruto, watched him get blurred and sharpened and darkened. The way his vision would fail him more and more frequently was, ironically, making him see that he would not at all last that long. The periods when the world was dark was getting longer and longer.

Naruto wiped the blood from his mouth and did that same carefree grin he would make back then. Then being the time when they were all ignorant and happy and a family.

"This is the last one, Sasuke," he said. "The last one."

Sasuke needed no more prompting. He began to run. He had his arm, readying a chidori, behind him. His last chidori. His chakra crackled and chirped. It burned brighter than ever and swallowed its surroundings. It hurt his fingers, his hand. It felt as if he was bleeding and sore everywhere.

He had known for a while that The End would not have him using his precious Sharingan, as he had known that Naruto would eventually have to stop relying on Kyuubi. He had also known, after Itachi and after Madara and after everyone else, that The End would only have him and Naruto.

He was coming to terms with the fact that Naruto had known that longer than he did.

"I'll punch you into our next lifetime," Naruto said.

He had with him his rasengan -- sans clone, Sasuke noted -- which was big and blue and wildly spinning. It made the waters ripple and rise.

"You couldn't punch your way out of a genjutsu," Sasuke helpfully said. After a beat, he added, "Dead last."

"Fuck off," Naruto replied as he stretched out his arm towards Sasuke. A parody of a handshake, of a helping hand.

The End was quick and painful. It was a gaping hole in some part of his body that Sasuke could not be bothered with. In the last second, his vision completely failed him. He knew Naruto was pretty much blind to everything as well.