Chapter_Seventeen

"I wonder. How this all began. I need to think. To the moment that started everything.

The creation.

Of the seal."

Aimlessly, the body floated through the whiteness of this limitless world, no walls existing to bounce it off them, no ceilings to fall along or the floor to break its fall. In this light, the body succumbed to it, yet no distortion arrived; almost, the act of complete annihilation was loving and tender like a mother's hand on the child's tousled hair. Step by step, the light grew more intense, solidifying its impenetrable hold on life and death, on the body arched back most elegantly and graciously, for in his last few minutes, he'd be allowed dignity and respect of the world that rightfully belonged to him. And step by step, indeed, the body disappeared, its outlines merging with the surrounding light, all of it swallowed up completely by warmth lulling and regal.

Until He arrived.

A hand turned ivory and delectable in the light shot out truly out of nowhere, curling around one ankle to yank the body closer and pull it close. It released the ankle, next holding onto the shoulders and pulling down, until – truly out of nowhere again – firm ground beneath their feet, yet still white and glowing, materialized, and four feet planted lightly onto it-

"Naruto, wake up. Wake up. WAKE UP!"

He shook the body, watching with growing terror as to and fro the head limply lolled, following belatedly the body, and he gurgled on the rising panic, eviscerated the feeling of helplessness, because he knew – Sasuke knew and understood, Naruto was still there.

"Naruto… Naruto… You WILL NOT LEAVE LIKE THIS." He held, firm, the head in both hands, and under his touch the body flickered, growing heavy and inching to slump forward, before, just as firm, the feet touched the ground-"You spend four years of life chasing after me like a loser, like the fool you are and all to become nullified by your death. You hear me, Naruto? Your efforts were for naught, all was in vain. You. Lost. You lost, you idiot. So come back and reclaim your efforts as in vain you laid your life down for them."

Not like in the movies, not in any sense dramatic, the eyes fluttered open and Sasuke witnessed the arrival of light into them, until – they regained their clarity and color, muddled by the happenings of the world and the current state of mind, yet all was pushed back by the entirety of Sasuke's wrath and Sasuke saw-

-Naruto return.

Deceitfully, the skin under his hands jumped to life with warmth. As he released the body, it physically touched the ground, corporeal in this lane of the mind. And Naruto blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice-and reeled back.

"What-Sasuke?"

Soothed – angered at once, hateful of this man in front of him, Sasuke took a few steps back. "Hn. Finally."

"Fi… Finally," repeated the blond, a broken, aged record-

-but his eyes were set aflame, understanding in its blood-tainted form like the stained glass in a sacramental adobe putting hate-hot coals behind the ragged breathing and plaintive, horror-struck movement.

"You… Sasuke, you-What that is…" He utilized the anger and used it for purpose. "What the-you-UGH. Can't even let a guy die in dignity, eh?"

What an audacious answer. What a fool, what a mongrel-

-Sasuke raged, fisting Naruto's top in his hands. "Your stupidity is of unfathomable levels, you fool. What do you think you're going to achieve by this? Is this how you picture yourself making your dream come true? You die and it's OVER."

Naruto pried him off, teeth bared in mutiny and eyes flashing hotter than the surface of Sun. "Oh, wow! Jeez, Sasuke, stating the obvious. I mean, wow, what are the chances of, oh, you know, dying and STAYING DEAD?"

"That is what you want for yourself," growled Sasuke, shoulders squared.

Naruto's brows created a mighty scowl, a hiss vibrating through his lips. "What I want for myself, eh? Whatever… Please do me a favor and leave-this is my mind, eh? The mind and place of a dead person," he commented airily under his breath, having the cheek of looking around as if expecting this white prison to assume a more concrete form. "Huh… It really is. Reckon this is what Gaara saw? Huh." Helpless, he smirked. "Whatever. Sasuke, please, just leave. Let me, well. Let me die, Sasuke."

"Heh. And make this easy for you?" He wasn't making sense. He, the Uchiha, wasn't making sense. Naruto couldn't die. Not like a coward, not using such lowly means to flee from his touch.

"Easy for me? Oh, right. Easy for me. Very. Oi, Sasuke. Look."

What-he wanted to snap, but instead he looked-

Naruto's hand had fit through the gaping hole in his chest, the heart.

Sasuke lurched backward, hand flying to his mouth-it was impossible, there existed nothing that filthily physical in this realm, but the sensation of almost throwing up was strong enough to easily deceive all his senses.

Victorious in a gritty and wrong sense, Naruto's smirk widened and he shrugged, the hand long removed – but the hole ever-present, a manifestation of his true physical state and when Sasuke looked close enough, he could see the various scars and bruises that littered in faint image Naruto's entire body, poking through the gashes, the cuts on his clothing, visible even underneath that attire the man opposite of him worn. As if a mockery. A mockery. Of Sasuke.

He gritted his teeth. Lowered his head, eyes embraced with most anticipation by the lids, prompting them to heavily arch over the pupils and turn them into two equally long lines singeing.

"Aa, Naruto. So you intend to simply die."

"Intend," repeated Naruto loftily, ignoring the looks sent in his direction and walking by, this intangible reality forming invisible walls, ceilings and floors for them to lean into whenever necessary, but the levity was a lie and soon afterwards – a violent shudder hit his shoulders. "Intend… Sasuke… What do I intend to do, hah…" Even he lowered his head, yet for purpose different, for the blond hairs shielded his eyes, covering a portion of his face bearing whatever emotion – whatever… Whatever. Because Sasuke… That Sasuke did NOT intend to know, even if a part of him wished the man stripped and begging, pleading for-something obscure and strange. Even if-"I intended to do many things in my life, Sasuke. In the end, I intended to save you. Even at the cost of my life. Well, look what happened. For once, I really kept completely to my word, eh? For once…" He lifted his head, revealing the grievous, anguished face. "I managed to do something."

"Death is your idea of something?"

"I don't know, Sasuke, you tell me. Tell me, why are you here?"

He motioned for the blinding whiteness around that was starting to distort, succumb to waves as it sought to spirit the young soul away, just small, erroneous tremors going through it.

And carelessly, like this didn't matter to him at all, Naruto shrugged. "Why are you here, Sasuke? Do you want to fight again? Ah, that's not going to work, you know? After all, there's nothing here. Here, you can't use your chakra. And, honestly… I think I'm through with fighting you." Like a child, he shuffled around, making a semi-circle with his foot and a gracefully stepping forward. "Here… Well, here, I just want to be swept away."

Sasuke's eyes remained narrowed, dangerous and hateful – hated.

"Did you come, what… What, Sasuke? Nah, don't tell me you came to say goodbye? You really don't strike me as the kind, although what I knew what about you was only as much as I got told… And as I felt."

"Really, Naruto. And what do you feel right now?"

Naruto looked around. "You know, I don't feel a thing. I don't feel… Anything. Well, I guess this is death then, this is what death feels like… Like nothing… Huh. But." And he looked back at Sasuke, frowning a little, confused a little, amazed just as much. "I can feel you. You are inside my mind now. I guess that means – I am still alive. One breath away from death, no? Or one blink. Huh, what amazing things the Sharingan can do."

Sasuke made a grimace, features contorted without struggle to create a façade of utmost revolt. "And at your very last moments, what you do is wallow in self-pity. Exactly as the dead last you are."

"Oh, yeah. Or that. Or you came here to argue. You know what?" Naruto put his hands behind his head, tone elevated. "Whatever, Sasuke, whatever. I can't be bothered with it. That's not how I want to remember you, really."

"Remember me, Naruto… Really. And how would you like to remember then? Tell me? Tell me, Naruto, what you do know about me."

"What do I know? Come on, Sasuke, I know nothing about you, do I? I mean. If I did, I guess there would be-what I remember, what I pieced together. But, of course, being the dead last, what would I know?"

"I didn't come here to cater to your self-deprecating tendencies."

Slowly, Naruto's hands fell back to rest tightly – sternly – by his sides. "No, Sasuke, I never had any such tendencies. I only had the dream to preserve our bond. For that dream, I was willing to die. For that dream, I did die. And if you think you can come here now and rob me off that feeling, then-"-déjà vu; almost a year ago, Sasuke had walked into Naruto's mind, witnessing a debate between the carrier and its guest of honor, the Kyuubi, and now – now Naruto, exactly like he had those many ago – outstretched his hand, ready to banish him. Only here and now, the gesture had an opposite effect.

And Naruto, slowly and with languid care, like the rose petal colliding with earth, started to float away again. "Go, Sasuke. Let me die already."

Sasuke-

-tensed.

"I'm thinking, Sasuke… I'm thinking." His voice became a lilting echo, magnified and resonating with his mind. "Jiraya… Jiraya, that old man is on the other side. And my parents. Kaa-chan, tou-chan… Man, I saw them both only once and even then it was when I got close to letting Kyuubi win. You know, Sasuke, I didn't lie… What you did. What you tried to do to Konoha."

Their eyes met.

"I understand."

Inches off the ground, body arcing backwards-"I understand. I can't blame you for that. I tried to carry your pain. Maybe… Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. But I understand. That's what I'm going to hold onto, Sasuke, and that – you can't take away. You can scream, you can belittle, degrade me, humiliate even my grave, defile the memory of me, but you won't ever take from me – that I understood. For a really brief, tiny moment…" His eyes, lulled by a lullaby inaudible to Sasuke's ears, closed. "I understood your pain. I understood everything about Sasuke."

Like an angel he flew away.

Almost, Sasuke could see the wings, but Naruto's had no feathers, because Naruto's life had never known the touch of light and tender. Now, the wings would be constructed of cut lines wiring around their axis upwards and to sides to form a metallic, yet pearly white structure as clean, as beautiful as the man again disappearing out of his sight. In his last moments, Naruto would be a martyr, taking to his grave this battered, glorified lie. Remembered for all eternity, from the beyond and to the beyond – as a fearless man to willingly embrace death.

What cretin. What fool.

What-

"NARUTO YOU IDIOT!"

His hand shot out, fingers missing Naruto by less than A STUPID INCH-and the ground beneath his feet disappeared, crumbling away like his dreams, desires and wishes by this unexpected turn of events and he struggled, fierce and ferocious, fighting tooth and nail in his mind as well – this current trying to sweep him away.

Naruto was looking at him, the eyes barely parted to allow view of his blue eyes that swam – with confusion but-but something else, something that Sasuke WOULD acknowledge as the signature trait, something that he would think of with all his might and HAVE in his hands to control and forever possess, because-

"What do YOU THINK YOU ARE going to achieve by this… NARUTO? You know NOTHING of me, NOTHING of this world and as you die, you know NOTHING ABOUT YOURSELF! Dying? Meeting people you love? Who are you kidding you goddamn, filthy and pathetic mongrel. People you LOVE? You'd do everything to keep your bonds, Naruto, but you'd do nothing to let them keep THEIRS."

They were in a place – perhaps purgatory, the station connecting the afterlife with life. Distance of several puny feet separated them, petty under the weight of his words. Their bodies were angled backwards, arched to fall down head-first, to impact with the ground of the worlds rightfully theirs for the claim, and between them – an invisible line marking the firm ground where they could stand, where gravity still didn't become. Odd aims in lives would suck them into opposite directions, but the vertical line switched to horizontal, gravitation swapped.

"You were meant to die by my hand, Naruto…"

Mine alone.

Neither controlled this world. In reality, neither could. But Sasuke WOULD.

"Not."

"Your."

"Own."

To HELL with this world. He lurched his body forward, using the chakra that didn't exist here – so using, in reality, his will only, making it as corporeal as the hole he'd punched through Naruto's heart, until again firmly on the ground he stood, feet feeling the-

-hole. Hole. The hole on Naruto's chest.

I will make that. Naruto. Go away.

I will make that disappear. Your ultimate failure. Your ultimate weakness. Your ultimate.

Fear of redemption.

Naruto's toes grazed the ground, then the feet progressed down and in front of Sasuke, Naruto put his hand over the chest, doubling over-pale, glittering liquid seeping through the fingers.

"What is it, Naruto? Is your very soul crying? Does your soul, Naruto… Does it know?" A step taken forward. Thundering around. Lightning bolt struck. "Does it know what fool you are? A fool aiming to die?"

The fool looked up, hand pushed away.

Another step.

And each and every one followed by the typhoon of Sasuke's whispers, accompanying their cutting, brutal, terrorizing strength for like a knife into butter they sank, sliding in the substance tender and sublime. So very sublime like Sasuke's vicious, berating Sasuke's fervent denial and I, like his aim and direction, like EVERYTHING he was losing now, that very little that had left. All because of Him. "You do this-THIS. And you act like you're proud. Fool. You are-such-a-FOOL. You protect the bonds and at very last moment you SEVER them all, Na-ru-to. All gone, all gone – because of your SUICIDE. Because you struck yourself, landing the killing blow. It was YOUR hand that took your life and on this planet, in this universe, in this world there is but one person that will claim your life."

His hand covered the wound on Naruto's chest-

"Me."

-fingers twisted and curved, knuckles bared and bone protruding, skin stretched across it and tearing.

"One person. One being. That will be – I. Uchiha, Sasuke. Not you, not anyone else. Not your stupidity. You promised to carry my pain. You are my pain, Naruto. Right now."

Into Naruto's flesh, the fingers dug all over again.

"You are all I have left."

Naruto's eyes were wide to taunt innocence, to taunt naivety and represent the world's every childish selfish proclamation of I.

And then his fingers curled around Sasuke's wrist.

"All you have left is the pain I represent… Sasuke… What THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"

And shoved it away.

"I gave my life for you, my everything. My-"

"YOU DIDN'T!"

"Oh, Uchiha, getting honest and emotional NOW when I'm dead."

"You are-"

"Not dead, not dying, Sasuke? I AM. And I-I DON'T REGRET A THING!"

A child throwing a fit, Naruto slapped Sasuke's hands off and backed away. "I don't REGRET it. Don't force your beliefs on me, Sasuke, just do not. Because I do not regret it. My blow killed me? Oh, yeah, let's say that in the figurative sense – it did and I killed myself. Was it all in vain, Sasuke, was it ALL in vain?"

"Hah, what did you think would happen? I'd march back to Konoha, fall on my knees and beg for forgiveness? For starters?"

Naruto shook his head wildly side to side, features scrunched up in anger and despair. "No-I-I knew you wouldn't."

"So for nothing you lost your life. For nothing, you hoped to become exalted. How very typical. A fallen hero of Konoha. Fallen for nothing."

"Nothing, you say. Nothing. I will die and Madara will still find a way to extract the Kyuubi from me… Then. Then, it will have been for naught."

Sworn to protect Konoha, eventually to die for it.

"Who will defend Konoha if I am gone, huh? Who will… Will anyone?"

Sasuke yearned to laugh in his life. "You think so highly of yourself, so-"

"I am not a high-ranked ninja, eh, Sasuke?" And now he was grinning, a ravenous filthy thing spat across his features to make him resemble the death bearing a scythe, hefting it over his shoulder. "I suppose that is why you came to pay a visit to me, eh? Because as a high-ranked ninja, you can't bear the thought of your equal disappearing. OH RIGHT!" he shouted right before Sasuke could speak up. "I don't understand you. Still. You'd keep repeating that like a broken record. I guess that's your occupational hazard; if you're the avenger, who could truly understand your duty to revenge, huh? Bull freaking shit… Sasuke." He laughed. "These people… Even now, I want to protect them."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

Naruto didn't yield into his stare. "My dream of becoming the Hokage was a shallow, pathetic cry at first, just a mere plight." A hand was lifted, balled into a fist and in it clutched the dream of his. "Over time, I got to understand the true purpose of such title. The person to become the Hokage protects everyone. A protector. Who protects the protector, though? The people, of course. How could people that hated me so protect me back? I thought of this too, you know. Once I had finally seen the truth – I thought of so many things. Still, I guess… I guess there is one regret, one unfulfilled wish… That I won't ever get to bear their pain for them."

"Your dreams, Naruto," began Sasuke in a meticulous, chilling drawl. "Were always as empty as that head of yours. People are naturally ingrates and would not learn to accept you. And you, in turn, would never protect everyone."

"I would. I would. Hokage or not, I would protect everyone. I would carry everyone's pain. I would, Sasuke, and if I got to live again – I would carry all your pain, all your hate all over again."

The world around them – breathed stilly. The sorrows in it strove for eternity of living.

"Would you, Naruto? Protect everyone?"

"There would be no massacre ever again, Sasuke."

And he knew. Even as he neared death, Naruto knew, even as the air around them changed to give under the weight of the accumulated decay, knew even then the greatest fear of the one opposing him.

Sasuke knew, too.

"Do you swear, Naruto?"

Naruto didn't blink, didn't hesitate. "I swear."

"If you got to live again."

"I would defeat Madara. I would protect Konoha. And let no-one experience the pain of loss again."

At the same time, they stepped forward.

"What can you do, Sasuke?"

"I will give you, Naruto, my chakra, draw the Kyuubi out."

Breathed out. "I will live again. And protect. And what will you do, huh? Uchiha Sasuke sacrificing himself for someone… Almost enough to scar my opinion of you even if, in the past… Heh…"

Sasuke opened his mouth to speak – a fine mist in his mind was produced, clouding his rationale and the self-preservation instinct; he'd pour everything into Naruto, give up on all – for the purpose of having on life-time chance to claim and be claimed by his touch? For what purpose would he let this life flourish, when the yearning to snuff him out beckoned his tongue, throat and vocal chords to speak the words of no? What was the purpose of helping him stand on his, what, when the bond with Naruto he'd long severed? Now, between them, the thread halved would float in the air, would-

-not be forgotten.

In his life, despite his genius, despite the progeny of the mind, Sasuke would not – ever in this existence, understand, would not know, would.

Not sense. Be able to utilize – why he'd spoken the next words. Because he had severed the bond, had made it a foolish intangible embodiment of Naruto's ideology, had made it-

I never severed the bond.

I severed you, Naruto.

So, this is how it is, then? You would continue to haunt me even like this? Always on my mind, Naruto? You are undeserving. You are not suitable to exist under my presence, you are no-one. Just that fool who shouted my name, just that idiot who refused to see me for who I really am, just that idiot, the cretin to crawl at my feet and repeatedly speak of second chances-No. You never did speak of those. Because in your mind, I never stopped being a part of you. Is this it, Naruto?

Would you, even in your death, remain that distanced scream of my name, of someone you'd depicted me to be? I am your fabricated story, or I am an essential element to your being, but why cut me off-

He's not cutting me off.

This is his acceptance. This is Naruto's way. Of redeeming me.

In the eyes of the many, he becomes the legion and he becomes the missionary, he becomes the sun… The one… to scream my name even now… Now.

Even now.

Sasuke's eyes froze one thousand times over.

"You have become a high-ranked ninja."

Everything was raw. No limits and breaks, no restrictions and obstacles.

Only he, Sasuke.

And Naruto.

Only the two of them.

"Your life is mine. Forever mine. Never let someone claim it. Never. Carry my pain if you believe you can, but for that – remain alive."

And speak it.

"Let's make a deal, Naruto."

Blue eyes bore into his. They were blue and just that. Not empty, not electrifying, not paled or gleaming, bearing a foreign shine – no. They were blue. The true blue. No carrier, no personification of thoughts, of feelings, no feeling corporeal.

They were the true blue. Unadulterated, unfiltered and uncontrollable blue.

They were Naruto.

"A deal," mouthed the blue.

"A deal," confirmed the black.

"Continue."

"A deal, Naruto, to forever govern over this, over your promise. I will bring you back, but in turn, you will swear to me on your life that you protect everyone to the last person."

"A deal, Sasuke… A pact between the two of us – with our lives the highest bid. Let's really put both of us into this. Let's form – a something to keep this real. You… You will…"

The hand he's previously clenched – opened and on the palm upturned, threads silvery gathered. "I will make a promise and so will you. A promise with our very existence at stake. Not just the life, but the existence and in case of breaking it – for the pain we caused, we will suffer as many times more."

"Sealing it like this, Naruto. That is unnecessarily dramatic."

"Isn't it, Sasuke?"

"You want to form a seal."

He was drawn to the willowy threads dancing on Naruto's palm, forming a spinning wheel similar to Rasengan, but as he focused, all blurred and the threads seemed to sing and scream at once, millions of whispers breaking each other apart and splitting at the ends, cracking and creating a bitter symphony of life.

Naruto's life.

This thing on Naruto's hand was not chakra.

This was piece of Naruto himself.

"No hand seals, nothing of that sort. We will…"

"Exchange life forces."

Naruto didn't understand, did he? What exact thing he'd come up with. Something akin to a plan ingenious and disastrous at once, but whatever it was, Sasuke obeyed-

-lifting his hand up and watching webs circle around the center, spinning a ball.

"What do you swear to do, Naruto?"

"I swear… I swear to protect Konoha. I swear to protect every life in the country. I swear to guard everyone, never turn my back on anyone. Always to stand by their side, always to be their protector, as the tragedy of Uchiha would never repeat itself. I swear – I will stop the pain from spreading. It will no longer infect our hearts. No longer."

"A foolish promise." Befitting a fool.

"What do you swear to do, Sasuke?"

What? Sasuke's thoughts halted, turned to a puddle-that. He would swear to that. "As you wish, Naruto. I swear to never betray Konoha, to remain loyal to it." To it… Didn't matter. To Naruto, to his dreams… Echoes of own past haunted him. Was he to share this with Naruto?

So… Be it.

"I swear to never hurt anyone again. Never to extract my revenge."

His revenge, in the event of Naruto's failure, would be Naruto's very death. With a part of him inserted into the man, it would feel like he had landed the blow himself, like his very soul had acted.

Naruto nodded, a smile haughty and serendipitous on his face. "Fine."

A seal with no markings, no hand seals, eh? If such a seal shall exist, only time will break it.

"Fine."

Acting at once, they placed the glowing concentrated thoughts against each other's chest and-

-inserted them.

Sasuke felt pain. For a while, he felt pain that wasn't his own. For a brief second, he felt things that never happened and for a while – he thought he recognized himself in their distorted reflection, before the feelings of Naruto and I gravitated towards the center, meshing together.

What he felt then.

Was solace. Trepidation. Penance. Resentment. A foreign object entered his body and his Uchiha blood struggled with it, no acceptance easily given, no purchase available, but the fall was inevitable.

And the tidal pool – unfathomable.

A wave of peace that embraced him.

Where did it come from? Was it the seal-

-was that the truest, most crystallized form of Naruto's soul? Warm. Like the sun. Bright. Like the sun. Vivacious, audacious, unabashed and unabridged.

Then, it was just Naruto's hand over his chest, feeling the heartbeat that in this lane, shouldn't have existed.

Then it was their hands pulling back – and mid-way through to returning by their respective sides, they halted mid-air, seeking to be held in a fateful handshake that yanked their bodies closer, made them the irrefutable victims of drowning.

Naruto's eyes really were Blue.

"This seal, Sasuke…"

"This seal. Is what will bind us together. Not just our promises. Us."

"Was it necessary?"

"Hah, you remark that now when it's too late."

"Sasuke." A blasphemous, sanguine smile. "You really are a fool."

What?

"We have already been bound. A long, long time ago. By our fates, by our meeting."

His wounds had disappeared. But Sasuke hadn't started yet, he'd not done a thing to save him, not-

-a thread between them remained.

Soul bound.

Despite that.

Sole.

"Now, together… Eh? Okay, Sasuke. Start. Bring me back."

Alright.

He brought him back.

But in this lane, in this strange, white realm – that he realized possessed an area of plaintive, beckoning calm – he didn't break their touch. In this existence, in Naruto's mind, he didn't break contact.

He continued to hold Naruto's hand in his, incapable of severing – it. Of severing. Naruto again.

Why. He'd ask himself. Why. What would this come to? Would this binding mean a thing, change a thing? Would he come to see Naruto's pitfall, his spiraling to doom? And if so, Sasuke asked himself.

Would he continue after him?

Light disappeared, shattering apart like the fragments of glass.

Naruto's wound sealed up.

The whole time, in this realm.

Naruto didn't break the contact.

Hands connected, for all eternity in this place.

Forever bound.

"No wonder, no wonder again. Because – there were things that should have been said, but-I could say only as much as I knew.

There never was any place for wonder."

)) ~it_has_come_to_this_too far_soul_to_be_sole~((

"The world of ninja was Spartan. They saw reason in fight, fight in reason. And they never saw – what the real World did."

A kick delivered to the chin snapped the head up in a painful manner. The body followed in unwanted obedience, propelled through the air in an arch that resulted in a lucky flip – so when it hit the tree, the back took most of the damage and the head remained unscathed. Despite that – he fell down and didn't get up.

Sai cast a quick glance at the man's direction, assessing his injuries and – seeing the chest rise and fall in broken steadiness snapped his attention right back at the enemy; he was going to be alright and Sai, unfortunately, had not the time to waste further time over the man.

With speed unprecedented, Sai whipped out a large scroll, releasing the end in the air and watching it stretch into the sky. A brush he took out, already dipped in ink, and swiftly as the scroll spiraled towards the ground he sketched a beast with the claws and teeth of a dragon. The scroll fell upon earth, covering it like a blanket, and Sai slammed his hands against it, chakra curving the jagged lines of the beast and prompting it to rise up.

The assailants had little to no time to react but being puppets – they didn't understand the concept of fear; they attacked the beast head-on and still Sai could see improvement in their blows from the last time.

Still, he could see.

They stood no chance.

In movements executed without care for own fate, they defeated the beast, eventually springing towards him-

-at that moment more beasts of varying shapes and distorted features, drawn quickly but efficiently, appeared from the scroll, and each claimed one enemy life. But Sai wouldn't stall behind to watch their demise. He jumped to his feet and ran to left, the chakra bugs of the Aburame clan appearing all around him, either to lead him to his destination and guard over him, or have the last word in the fate of those to have attacked Konoha.

But did they really?

Putting out this seed of doubt, Sai continued to run, coming not so eventually upon another group of fellow jounin battling the enemy forces. They were scattered, both Konoha and enemy jounin alike. What Konoha nin had was a general advantage, sheer prowess and many jutsu lined up and hidden up their sleeves like aces, their very trump cards. But the enemy had brutality and the will to lay down on life for the sake of winning. Uncouth they were even when fighting, but Sai couldn't deny there was something scary about their sharp blows, jagged movement. They felt like possessed and Sai, in a way, feared them. He feared what they represented, something like a spitting image of the past him and the present form of the many other roaming this world, all of them lifeless in thought and gone in emotion, all those – Sai had once considered own.

Through the trees, he soared.

Was there any need to fight at all? Naruto was- looking for Sasuke, no? And an hour ago, the fight had started and Sai couldn't remember a fight that resembled so little the true thing. Their tactics, considered crucial at first, had come to their end upon the enemy simply diving into their frontlines and taking their men without care for own health. They were puppets that easily discarded own life and Sai.

Sai felt pity for them.

"SAI, TO YOUR LEFT!"

He came to a halt, bent his body back, avoiding the body of shuriken bearing a resemblance to crows in the winter circling the skies, aimed to cut him in half. Hands touched the branch, pressed flat and weight shifted to them. Swiftly, Sai jumped back, automatically reaching for own kunai to throw it to his right. Where a scream of pain would have come, silence existed.

They had as much will to live as they had to feel.

And the man hit didn't even budge. In a way, watching him still surge forward even with a kunai lodged in his liver was comical, but in another way-what are they?

Lee's nimble form came soaring from above, harder and heavier due to the weights he wore even now, and two men were struck by him, instantly falling off the tree and the other three – fell similarly, soon to join their kin as Lee's kicks were executed swiftly and without precedence, striking the enemy beastly, coolly.

The man – so often parodied for his bowl hair-cut, the green spandex and unibrows – was gone the next moment, Ten-Ten and Neji following behind him and disappearing into the trees, seeking another enemy.

Instead of following their example, Sai took the most inappropriate moment to procrastinate.

It made no sense to see everyone scattered this way, for all to have dispersed in different directions and forming an assembly strong, sure, unbeatable, but with no sense for cooperation. The infiltrators – with their lack of judgment, feeling and life – were like a curse spread, injected directly into their veins and calling for senseless battle and vicious attacks… For despair. Sai felt it. They were despaired, the lot of them, the Konoha nin. Because this was no battle.

This.

Was a farce.

A game of cat and mouse, with the mouse scarcely ever protesting caught pronto and without any struggle to accompany it. And the cat wasn't growing tired of its dismayed, uncultured acceptance of fate, but scared of the semblance to hurting the innocent. However were they to face an enemy that didn't consider them evil? However were they to strike them down without doubt when the men were mere figures clad in black, inexperienced and moved by strings invisible so far? This way, all down to the last would die.

Sai realized he was feeling remorse for the unnecessary deaths.

No matter. Must continue. He'd come to realize, after all, exactly as the rest of them, what the true purpose of this was.

A tirade physical, an exchange utmost – between Naruto and Sasuke.

I must stop this.

He sped forward. Like an uninvolved spectator, he watched from the sidelines the progress of the many fights, already estimating another hour – at most two – before the enemy was pushed down to its knees and ultimately defeated. It astounded him in sense to note the fighting had been going on for an hour, when their numbers, while vast, were comparable to flies; they were the huge, glorified distraction, one to take the greatest hit-

"SAI!"

I know, you don't have to tell me.

This time, Sai didn't stop.

Kakashi took care of the man for him.

A faint thud resonated around, lost in the sounds of the background fights, and only involuntarily Sai stopped, yet-Kakashi and Yamato were nowhere in sight and-

-he sensed their voices from below, discussing things similarly as Sai had with himself before. Briefly, he contemplated relentless pursue of their Kage, before omitting reason and following them; he had a hunch their new-born cooperation would coax some answers out of these cursed surroundings and somehow, that was more important than the unison of their souls. He landed on the road, the dead body of the ninja sprawled in front of him, the face revealed and any obligatory mask missing. Sensing his presence, both men looked at absently, their wordless communication filling him with a sense of dread.

Not knowing what to suspect, Sai neared them and-there was the puppet with its strings cut off, a beautiful mannequin out in the display but without the pedestal to hold it up, any idea of dignity was turned into ridicule. Almost, Sai felt sorry for him, almost – because he recognized him.

"Missing nin from Suna, a low grade, ranked D criminal, Katsumi Shigeru, disappeared ten years ago, exact whereabouts unknown, a petty man with a trite bounty," quoted Sai, speaking softly in the delusion the corpse could be spirited away, and Yamato gave a nod, features set tightly into a pained contortion of his features.

"For Sasuke to have recruited him, he must have been hiding in Fire all along," said Kakashi.

Sai shook his head. "How is that…" He couldn't finish. It was easy for the small flies to find shelter in someone's home, for the pettier they were, the harder it was to capture them; the greater men were exalted as much as they were feared, a certain respect given freely and assuming the form of a cornered animal. Of those magnificent and grand, gallant killers, people would speak. Of the lowly cretin, filthy ingrates, they would not. That way, the lesser the crime, the greater the freedom. No matter what they committed, their unadulterated disregard for feelings and the abuse of people would grand them eternal freedom. It was sad to see how lowly the mighty have fallen, even if self-proclaimed mighty they were, and Sai let one sigh slip past his lips.

"So the others-,"-he began, pausing awkwardly before the ability to form the question was mustered up, and Kakashi accepted the burden instead.

"Possibly, they are all the missing nin from all across the country Sasuke had gathered. Of course, to weed out this many, he must have done extensive research, must have looked for months. Despite the time he sacrificed to gather this smaller country, it can't be denied that-"

"They are weak." Yamato's voice was a quaking and unfeeling curse; feeling no pity whatsoever for the victimized, his apathy towards the man full in play, he turned his back to the carcass of a human. "We are winning this too quickly. Naruto-sometime during the fight, Naruto disappeared. And even before-"

"Yamato-"

"Sempai."

Kakashi and Yamato had a symbiotic relationship, where the dominant figure was undoubtedly the former and Yamato, unfortunately, rendered the host to any Kakashi's whim. But as of this moment, their roles may have very well forever been reserved or turned equal. Whichever, Sai didn't know, but for once – Kakashi was not the king, Yamato not the comedian.

Once more, both looked at Sai, gauging his outer appearance and having another of those silent conversations that Sai wanted to be let on, but before any mind frustration with them could appear, Kakashi nodded and acted.

"Sai, we must look for Naruto."

"I was looking for him, too."

"We figured. We'll need to find him before it's too late. You'll come with us."

"Where are-going?" Sai's inquiry was a chopped reply as mid-sentence, Kakashi and Yamato sped off into the opposite direction and Sai ran after them, their bodies jumping towards the trees and ignoring ground.

He didn't get his answer. Not verbally, no. A second later, Sai recognized the meshed surroundings and the path under their feet that curved left to right before becoming completely straight, leading, no doubt, to the Uchiha's hideout. The distance short would be overcome within moments. Soon, they'd encounter Sasuke in a fashion strikingly similar to the day years back, when roused from his apathetic reverie Sai had accompanied the remaining, distraught team 7 members on a mission to find Sasuke. Soon, they'd encounter Naruto and Sasuke. Fighting. No?

Sai gritted his teeth. The wind was merciless, slashing at his face, cool and wispy and filling him with dread. Unbeknownst to him, he slowed down, falling behind Kakashi and Yamato-

-but then, so they did. It was if were their fears of what they'd encounter were slowly paralyzing their bodies. They needed to be precocious and precautious, but for once, their feelings were at stake. Should they, indeed, stumble on the fight, what then? Sai felt the fighting in the background subside. Teams were winning, Konoha would prevail. But where was Naruto? Where had the man, no later than a few minutes into the fight, disappeared?

Where was Naruto?

Lifeless trees planted on an infertile ground greeted them. The semi-circle they entered, the open trapdoor they saw, but try as they might, they drew a blank; nothing in their vicinity betrayed any event to have transpired there in the past hours and as Kakashi muttered under his breath that since their departure, not a thing had changed – no grass strand broken, no footsteps seen – Sai felt his stomach constrict; agonized it was and Sai lost touch with his ability to ignore and barricade; at once, he was as susceptible to change as any other man walking this perimeter.

Boldly, Yamato marched forward and his fingers grasped the trapdoor, pushing it further up to reveal the darkness of the tunnels inside. "Naruto wasn't here and Sasuke, as it appears, has yet to show himself. Where are they? And what now?"

Kakashi was even bolder.

"We go inside."

And inside, an explosion was heard.

"The world is one, but some would deem it being compromised of two; twins jointed at the hip, forever to exist together, one taller, other shorter, both with minds of their own and hearts beating for other goals. The larger world would earn respect. The smaller nothing. The larger world was everyone's focus and primary goal.

In reality, the world other was of graver importance, for the other world-

-smaller, puny, weak-

-was the world of heart. And it knew love – when it saw

Love."

Like a pathetic mousy glob he curled into a ball.

"We can't-"

"No, c-c-c-c-c-c-c-aaaaan't-"

Like a chop chop chop of the butcher's knife landing on the neck of the chick, the words of others whispered in hushed unison came out, jagged and cut.

But a child tugged at her mother's pants. "Kaa-chan, kaa-chan! Hokage-sama, is he…?"

The mother shook her head and pulled the girl behind her.

Another he – a man just as aged and whizzed shook his head frantically, erratic and jarred breathing accompanying each thought born and diseased in his mind. "We-can't-can? I-can we? We… No power. But."

"What we saw," breathed another, a man younger, a failed nin probably, for not all were suited for the profession.

"What we did see," repeated a woman, eyes glistening. The sun had set, the night come and not one slept.

The whole of Konoha was awake.

Every man, every woman and every child groaned in their wake, seeing the fight continue on the darkened horizon.

"What," whispered a child.

"We can't… But, kaa-chan… kaa-chan!"

The girl fled from her mother's protective hold, running towards until the mother's frantic yells stopped her feet right upon reaching the gates.

"Yumi!"

And Yumi stopped and turned around, weeping.

"B-but! We all saw, didn't we! Kaa-chan, tou-chan! Everyone! What we did see-our Hokage-sama… He is." Into a ball she curled and on the ground she knelt. "It wasn't that bad, was it? It is bad to have a person you cherish?"

A group of children cried into the silent night.

Parents, worried and younger, older and differently aged, yet possessed by the unique and phenomenal fear of the foreseeable future, exchanged looks.

Yumi's mother stepped forward. "Dear girl… No." She sobbed. "It's not bad."

She turned to everyone. "We can-can… can we?"

A collective sigh.

"This is stupid," announced one young boy sagely. "Very stupid."

"Very stupid," echoed a man wiser and older, aged like wine and with the taste of bitter pill on his tongue. "Those ninja are so stupid."

A laugh.

"So stupid, indeed. They would think it was cursed, in reality… In reality."

"It wasn't, was it?"

"No, no."

"Wasn't."

"We never spoke."

"We were meant to be protected."

"Can we protect, too?"

"Can we?"

"The protectors, who protects them?"

"Who stands guard over them?"

"Is this gratitude?"

"No."

Yumi stepped onwards, her mother, her father, her friends, her brethren – the villagers in tow.

"This is justice."

Into the forest littered with the wounds of the fight they walked. Together, an army of trust and truth.

Once more, the girl Yumi tugged at her mother's clothing. "Sakura-hime was always so hurt, you know? She was. Love ostracizes, doesn't it? The ninja are so stupid. They thought it wrong, but it was right, you know? I always did see them and always did think – Hokage-sama and Uchiha-san must really, really, really like each other! Because wherever Hokage-sama goes, so does he. Uchiha Sasuke. And the ninja thought Uchiha-san was so evil, but we saw… Those moments. Ne, kaa-chan."

The mother swept her darling child off her feet, carrying her in her arms.

"No, dear girl. It was never wrong. This world is simply that stupid. In their world of ninja, they couldn't have guessed that an emotion that pure existed. I suppose they must lead very sad lives then, if a simple thing as that would elude them. I suppose you are right for feeling sad, my child, because what we saw was the exact opposite. The ninja on their gatherings spoke vehemently of brain-washing and in doing so over the course of past years were the reason behind sole. In reality, Hokage-sama and Uchiha-san, what they felt…"

"Sole," echoed the child.

"Sole," echoed a number of people around.

The forest welcomed them. Littered with bodies and ninja running to their aid, to protect and stop them. But for once, they protectors needed to be protected.

"We will save Hokage-sama!" shouted a man so old he must have come from a fairy tale – or from a book speaking of rings and evil lords that needed defeating, of a tale about friendship and the force of the heart that would prevail. And of the goodness in every soul and how one mustn't seek it. For – ever and always that feeling is with us, always an essential without which survival would be a must.

The ninja, astonished, made attempts feeble – before at once pushed back, the marching of the Konoha unstoppable and at last – the truth revealed.

"And we will save Uchiha Sasuke."

"In reality, the concept of perception is mistakenly elusive. It must be understood from within and that within is the very soul of any a being. Most unfortunately, seldom would one glimpse at what is inside and realize the human mind withholds selflessly all answers to the greatest mysteries. If they'd only looked like the villagers had, they might have understood that the answer to everything-

-was saying-

It's alright to love."

)) ~it_has_come_to_this_too far_soul_to_be_sole~((

Naruto had frozen.

He knew where this tunnel was leading. But for the life of him – he could not damn understand why that idiot Sasuke would have dug one that led directly to the Valley. And wasn't that the very reason he'd stopped? In his tracks. Yes. Right upon realizing it. Intent upon turning on his heel and leaving and – besides, he couldn't feel Sasuke even in his Sage mode, so-

With a shaky breath, Naruto turned to Sakura and Shikamaru.

"We plant the explosives here."

"The tunnels will collapse," said Shikamaru as he glued the explosive tags onto the tunnel walls, Sakura following instantly and covering the ground.

"What if someone decided to…?" Sakura shook her head. She looked most troubled. Naruto didn't envy her. He didn't envy them the nervousness they felt, just as they didn't envy him the tranquility in his gestures.

With rigorous love and threat, Naruto walked forward. In the darkness of the tunnels not lit, he could see everything.

Sakura and Shikamaru finished placing the tags.

They approached him.

"Will this be alright, Naruto?" Sakura asked. Asking about leaving the fight, about staying here, about not seeking Sasuke out-

Naruto's lips twitched. "Let's run."

Seconds were left before they were set off. Seconds to run, seconds to escape from certain death that would follow. Shortly afterwards, they set off – and the explosives set off, too. Throughout the tunnels, an explosion rocked. And it came to life.

"You didn't think this through!" Sakura was shouting, the tunnel's embrace missing her by an inch.

Naruto grinned and – in a subsequent action, laughed out loud. In the background noise, the sound of his laughter did not disappear.

It was brought out, much like make-up did to complexion or eye-color, much like lipstick to lips, clothing to a figure or a hair-style to the face shape and neck, to the elegant lines disappearing into the shoulders and creating the crook most comfortable for any an embrace or moment.

In this background and horrific noise, Naruto's laughter was sound and was the sound itself. In this noise, it rang about, lilting and beautiful, yet raspy at the same time, a strong pitter-patter of his heart carrying a portion of that sound as the hilly-billy which was this backwoods tunnel collapsed.

"I really didn't think this through!" he shouted through the dust and the dirt. Behind them, the throat was closing. They could only run to the stomach. But the stomach was-

Naruto closed his arms, whipped around and stopped.

Too late, Shikamaru and Sakura reacted.

"What are you-"

"RUN!"

He really hadn't thought it through. Neither was built for speed, neither nimble enough to escape this. And the ground neared them. Feet away it was, the tornado of dust preceding it-

Not like this, I'm afraid. Never like this. Whether you're here or not never mattered. What matters – is that I must erase. Everything. Every little thing touched by you. Including me.

Within three seconds-

-a clone appeared-

-Rasengan formed, the chakra concentration heavily failing in this little confinement, the tunnel walls creaking and sucked in and spat out, quakes under their feet-

-the chakra on his palm exploded.

Fire with fire.

The shockwaves of both explosions impacted and above, around them – freedom. Crumbling to mere dust, the ceiling ceased to exist, like geyser gushing out from the ground and giving them just enough time and opportunity to flee. First went Sakura, jumping out, then Shikamaru, soaring like an eagle, and then-

-a subtle cerise kissed his lips and a caress of a finger traced them with a hiss as into a smirk they widened.

Naruto jumped.

The clone poofed. High into the dark sky he was flying, eyes directed automatically on the ground to see a large area laid to waste, tremors bursting through and creating cobwebs that spread about like disease.

Senses were failing.

He'd jumped too high. Below him, Sakura and Shikamaru were escaping the impact of the tags, further and further away from him, their anguished faces leaving scars on his mind.

I jumped too high.

The fall will hurt.

A bit higher, just a tiny, tiniest of bits – until he could swear he saw the moon and the sun and the stars and the true sky, until he swore – there. There were the clouds. Wispy almost on touch, feathery and dreamy, dreamed much. Until he thought – he floated aimlessly, stuck in eternity for eternity like this.

Until.

He was pulled by gravity and fell from the heavens.

Mid-air, he twisted his body around, center of gravity shifted various times. Arms outstretched, fingers spread out – chakra surging there. Like an acrobat, he landed on his hands first, chakra pillow cushioning his fall and taking the greatest of the hit, and using the momentum, Naruto swung his body back in a flip.

It was a bone-melting embrace with the earth as it continued to quake and shake and give quivers that touched him here – and touched him there. He sped off yet, not letting the loss of balance get to him, sweeping his body off the grounds that refused to hold still and a shockwave preceded him. Right ahead, he saw Shikamaru and Sakura stall, apparently having reached a safe spot. Then their eyes widened – a wave of dust rising and falling crashed into their faces.

Naruto's body stopped.

Beneath his feet, the earth was a secure blanket of persuasion once more. Dust particles dissipated. Some remained to cling forlornly onto the spiked tresses of his accomplices, adorning them like necklaces of earthly materials that shimmered, glistened not, their luster gone.

He was ready to grin at them, seeing their faces so disgusted, but when those changed into perplexed, Naruto didn't need to wait again.

No… Not again.

He whipped his body around – never mind the ache, the ever-throbbing dull sense on his chest-

-still shrouded beneath a thick clothing of dust, there He stood. Head lowered, face obscured by the dark strands to stand there, still and proud and it looked as if not the dust, not by the earth itself, could he be bound. For then, his head lifted up, muscles on his so taut a neck stretching, furling around the tender bone structure that revealed for the world to lo and behold – that delicate hollowed out spot where the clavicles were jointed together and where a strand on its own caressed the pale a skin, complexion ever so continuously not of this world and unmarred by the happenings around. Ah.

He looked up.

And He looked at him.

And the world stood still.

Sasuke.

Know what we must do, my-

Sasuke really, inscrutably, a man so poignant and torrid, looked at him, and Naruto looked right back. An anti-climatic moment, he thought for a second, humor and amusement kindly touching his dulled senses.

Sasuke, in all that indestructible, philanthropic glory, wrapped around by something. This and that. Standing there.

No time to waste time.

A blink of an eye-

-they charged at each other.

Know what I must do, my… best friend…

Shikamaru screamed-"DON'T DO IT!"

Sakura screamed-"NARUTO!"

Naruto didn't look, didn't listen. It didn't matter. Nothing, in the grand scheme of things, had ever mattered.

)) ~it_has_come_to_this_too far_soul_to_be_sole~((

"That… was dangerous," wheezed out Yamato, panting heavily as he sat on the ground, Kakashi and Sai behind him, and a circle of a wooden barrier slowly falling apart, shrinking back into the ground.

Kakashi gave his shoulder a small pat of appreciation, before standing up to his feet. Sai followed shortly afterwards, and all three of them took about the same amount of time to assess the damage, to silently gawk at the boulders smashed into dust and the cracks of ground formed around.

It looked like the end of the world as they knew it. Begrudgingly, they had to admit it wasn't that far off.

The trees around seemed to bow towards the ground, the pine trees sourly so, tips inclined to one side, branches bent in awkward angles and nothing – nothing, as they realized, looking alive. Almost, they'd think.

Almost, as if it the nature were against this. Against this act of presumed treachery.

Kakashi did not want to sigh. Not let out the vocalized sign of what he really felt, yet as Yamato's features contorted and Sai looked so utterly, childishly hopeless, he couldn't help it.

A sigh.

Like the mark sealing their fates.

"Where do we go from here?" asked Sai, gathering his wits, his self, his everything and stepping forward.

Kakashi looked at him-"We-"

It was blasphemy, it was travesty, it was the worst of moments to think "how lucky"; in the distance, cries were heard, chakra signatures flared, the world beckoned once more to feel the tremors of wrong, and Kakashi realized if they'd not felt it, he may have just admitted out loud – he had not an inkling what would come next.

Even as he realized what exactly was going on, that fact remained untouched.

The skies lit up. All hit them in the stomach like sacks of rocks rolling from their wrapped confinements and finding a way out; heaved, they watched, all three of them, in silence disgustingly not of their own desire, as in the distance, they saw for sure-

-Chidori, Rasengan.

Maybe for yet another rare moment, Kakashi felt his knees appear mingled with the breath of fear. And apprehension was growing. It was-

"It's not too late. It never was too late. You lot."

Simultaneously, their three heads turned around. The world was lit up in a mad color combination of blue and white, all placed under its touch, the far away, turned back places dark.

But the villagers in front of them, the whole of Konoha had never looked brighter.

A man stepped out, then a woman, their determination so fierce that Kakashi, for truly the first time in his life, wanted to revere them like figures of Gods.

"You… Your rules, your pains, your deaths, your everything so dismayed," one such villager, one Deity continued, one a person normal, plain, living the life of mundane, yet bestowing upon them and the incoming ninja the words of grandest wisdom. "Always and always just wallowing in your self-pity, not seeing the other way. It's not too late, it never was too late. And let us- us! Us, the simple people, tell you why."

"Why?" It was an air clogged in the windpipe, forced brutally out. Why? Why? If you have the answers, then-

"Because." One of the villagers took a deep breath, and as the light of another attack reached their eyes, Kakashi saw them filled with grief, filled with… Hope, pity, life.

"Because you need to stop considering them ninja. Ninja, ninja, ninja… Not everything is about ninja. Not everything is a fight. Some things, you know, are just about life. Some things, you know… Or just so simple. Just life. Just love. And just about humans."

A little girl stepped out, hands wrapped around the man's waist.

The man placed a hand on top of her head, the contact so beseechingly intimate.

Afterwards, it didn't matter who was talking.

"If you consider for a moment what this has always been about, you will know; your meddling ways while appropriate for your kind, were not meant for them. What you should have done since the very beginning… was consider them human. Discard your knowing of their powers, strength, their standing, and realize… Well, love is just like that, no? So strange, so complicated."

"You saw-"

"We always saw."

"Why not sa-"

"Say? Say. Right. As if you ever listened to us. You're so drunk on your belief you need to protect us, you could have never seen it, never understood what we were saying. And we'd tried, didn't we? Numerous times speaking to the guards, always cut off, always told to go hide, go run to a safer place, they'd take care of it. You sought to protect us, perhaps. In reality, you shielded yourselves from the truth. The truth that, there is a line drawn between our worlds. The world of ninja, the world of human. The differences became you. And you could have never looked past them, never realized some answers were just so simple. You never… Never had to look so hard. The answer was always right there. And all you had to do…"

So many wild, unpredictable instances in the past, no? All would think them, immerse themselves in reveries. Bad timing, bad place? No. The orchestra of pain in the background would last. For a change, all knew it would last, because as the words sank in, they all knew – that if considering the love factor would bring them to ideal reality, then neither Naruto, nor Sasuke could ever land the last strike. Because their own humanity would stop them.

Kakashi felt sad.

He felt… Ruined, wrecked? He felt- many things, many other little details he had not seen before and. How true? Just to ask, just to? Just to.

An explosion in the background.

Almost, he could swear the blows were cries for mercy, pleas to be released, shouts of those estranged. And caged.

Caged. Like the cagey feeling in his chest.

"Only, you had to stop being ninja and become human… And just understand that Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto are not ninja. First and foremost, they are the simple, defenseless people like us."

Us.

Cry. Cry. Cry. Kakashi would not. Not one of them would. It was true. Painful. Disgusting. Simple. Answers coming now and here, answers finally presented to them.

And humanity? If he only forgot for a moment he was senior jounin, the Sharingan Kakashi, if he only discarded that knowing, what remained of him?

The grueling, passionate flame burning and searing only for protection and only for the love for his students, the protectiveness surging to life that everything he'd hidden-

"Let's go."

One. Two, three. Hundreds of them. Konoha.

Konoha stepped forward. No people, no ninja. But united.

Not as your subordinate, not as your teacher, not as a ninja, but as man, as a human, I am saving you…

Naruto, Sasuke.

)) ~it_has_come_to_this_too far_soul_to_be_sole~((

Sasuke would never change. Always, he'd be so apparently nonchalant whichever blow he was delivering, always an exquisite example of a man.

His blows even right now were so sharp, precise, hitting places that hurt the most. There was no doubt in Naruto's mind; this was for real, this was for-

-he got hit. He fell on the ground. And Sasuke's fireball charged at him. Who was he kidding? There was no time for thinking.

Naruto's body sprang up, fingers clinched around the ground, grabbing it along and releasing mid-air, feeling it trickle past his fingers and away, away, away, away dissipate-

-the fire-ball hit that spot a second later and exploded. He was thrown back, impacting with the tree, a bone crushed, then healed, his chakra saving him.

In the distance, Sasuke readied another attack, complicated hand seals formed and Naruto, as he landed on the ground and dusted himself off, cursed the bloodline in Sasuke. What was going to come at him? What? Well-

-the ground rose. Aw… Sasuke had so many tricks up his sleeve.

Blocks of ground formed a spectacular circle, both men perched up on one, rising to the skies and higher, higher above the ground with every passing groan of the planet. Eventually, in the moderate height Naruto could not gauge, they stood, and he looked at Sasuke, expectant-

-felt a wind and rush and felt himself automatically dodge to left, right at the moment as Sasuke's lethal weapon embedded itself in the place he'd occupied not long ago. He twisted his body around and to the side, feeling Sasuke's kick graze and miss him by an inch, and delivering his own blow that staggered that man. Sasuke, yet, was not phased nearly as much, a mere scathing look from beneath his dark strands acknowledging the mistake, before his Sharingan eyes bled stronger and harsher than before, and Naruto found a kunai clasped in his hand.

The blocks started falling, dispersing, balance off.

Still, they clashed upon them, jumping from one to another and another and another, exchanging blows, feeling the blades tear into their clothing and bruises formed and subsequently gone. Not one was too light, not too hard, just average deliverance, kind of a perchance, the what if – what if we fall from this height and die? Can we really die?

The world was tipped to the side, the blocks falling down, gravity, for a moment, removed from under their feet. Suspended in the air, caught in a clinch, the kunai and katana screeched upon touch, throwing them off each other and onto one such block almost gone already; feet landed on the surface unstable, feeling it not sustain their weight, and disregarding that, they jumped in the air, meant to clash again-

-mid air, it was mid-air.

The Naruto felt them arrive.

It was-mid air that as he felt him-felt.

Him.

When they missed, their weapons merely grazing each other, and Sasuke's body arched through the air – and his eyes did not miss a beat, finding Naruto's-

-then averted.

It was then – that Naruto felt so many arrive, his senses jumping to life, the bemoans of his body and their jointed cries reaching his ears and throwing him off. He hit the ground, that earth cracked, ruined already and trees ripped from their roots still firm in the soil, and looked around to see – Konoha?

Konoha… Konoha… Everyone?

The golden eyes widened.

… Everyone… come to see his end?

He turned his back to them, seeking Sasuke and seeing him not that far away, already gathered and waiting for him to gather his lost composure, such an esteemed, respectful gentleman-

"NARUTO DON'T!"

What? Startled, he looked back at them, almost certain Sasuke had done the same-

Sakura rushed at him, stopped by hands that pulled her back, coiled around her figure and belonging – to the villagers? That was…? Naruto blinked, genuinely stunned.

Huh?

Smartly, his lips parted, no sounds coming out, just the shock of the situation lazily seeping through into his bones. Forgetting about the fight for a while, he looked around.

Everyone. Everyone had come. Truly down to the last child, the just born one, or the infant, the elderly and the lively, young, in the prime of their youth. And their eyes were on him. Just him. Just there.

Just.

Existing.

And seeing him.

Naruto's knees gave out.

They hit the ground, his body following – and the villagers shouted and he was sure he felt the air crackle and the panic, the fear from afar reaching him as underneath his skin they slithered, the messengers of end.

As he doubled over, ready to retch, but a deep cry left him instead, spilling past his lips and calling forward further panic, the fright so primal and primitive so-

-so… Sasuke? Was that Sasuke? Oh no Sasuke was looking seeing him like this he'd be disappointed he'd be-

Why am I thinking this?

With effort, Naruto forced his body up, coercing the muscles into cooperation and standing to his full height again. It didn't matter. He was alright. He could do this. For a while longer. Give or take – an hour? An hour. That was… more than enough.

He closed his eyes-

-he could have sworn then that right before their closure, he had seen that tall, that imposing figure lurch itself forward in the protective, fearful step, that he'd seen the red eyes widen, had seen Him in them…

No.

He looked towards them through eyes heavily-lidded, puffy and redder, witnessing the many of them mouth to him "you don't have to do this".

I do. I do. I most definitely DO.

No further hesitation.

He charged. Naruto's body became a golden flash, far brighter than this night could manage, and he clashed with Sasuke again, their weapons dropped after the fifth attack and hands and feet becoming all they needed, the necessities for the further survival of mankind, the, the something and he couldn't remember what, Naruto could NOT REMEMBER-Sasuke was hit, fist buried in his stomach, a groan and hiss escaping him-No, Sasuke, you're not meant to feel this pain, you're not meant to be like this.

Huh?

Sasuke's knee stubbornly avoided the ground, leaving him in a crouching position. That was strange? Naruto suspected he was an amazing fighter, yet a figure strong enough to illicit such a strong, pained response from the ever-perfect Sasuke? What was that, the weakness in his body? … Delusion.

Naruto forced his body back, putting distance between them.

From the spot, he surveyed the beast opposite of him, anticipating betrayal. None came. Not from either side.

Sasuke just slowly straightened himself up, brushed dust off his shoulders, ran a hand through his hair, chest heaving up and down-something in the back of Naruto's mind acknowledged the scurrility of this fight. Sasuke's movements, deceptively languid and nonchalant, were jagged under closer inspections, his breathing not merely elevated but shallow, raspy and his eyes – so, so…

Naruto clenched his jaw. I'm seeing things. I'm being stupid. I am that fool again.

"NARUTO!"

What?

Who the hell was-Tsunade?

He shot her a wild look-she just shook her head. "For once, for once." In this distance, how was it possible he could hear her so clear? "Just be selfish."

Selfish?

Always been selfish, always and always. It was time to step up-it was Tsunade holding Sakura meekly back, it was the woman's hand in front of Sakura, the hand slowly slipping down, revealing Sakura behind and her shaking, trembling form, the raw horror in her green eyes and realization. She must have realized then, judging by the unprecedented, unhindered widening of her eyes, what he'd intended for her all along, what she was to have witnessed.

Then, judging by the shake of her head, he was condemned-

-she smiled at him. A blinding smile through tears, and her lips forming the words-

"You fool."

Fool.

Naruto blinked.

Something heavy settled in his chest. So heavy he felt it constrict him. Again and once more, the chakra exploded him from, but for once, he couldn't register the pain. Not the pain, not the suffering his own, because he saw them and their eyes filled with understanding and filled with-we see you, Hokage-sama, we see you…

You.

You.

You.

You.

You…

Naruto choked back a cry.

What were they doing to him? Why were they there? Suddenly, he felt shame. Shame for being here, like he was defiling them, soiling some godly perception of him he'd never understood, because he was just that, Uzumaki Naruto, a simple man appointed their protector in his early 20s, then the self-appointed failure the magnitude of which made him hope for suicide. Something grand, glorious and ungodly, something. Something. A lot like… This? Like. This very instant, the chakra forming on his hands, assuming an exact shape, the condensed chakra.

And despite the horrors of his past actions, despite feeling an unruly child judged for taking the cookie from a jar even despite his mother's threats not to munch on the sweets before dinner, despite the embarrassment of being caught red-handed, all these people were the mother smiling at him and saying – it's alright, Naruto.

He turned to Sasuke. To his battered form. And he realized, finally, Sasuke was holding back. Because he, Naruto, too was holding back and the entire time not once had they struck with the intent to annihilate.

How insane was that, to believe this fight was a charade?

Naruto beckoned his body to step forward, but felt, despite his best efforts, the hesitation in every move, in the muscles held brutally back and clenched around the bones in hopes of preventing movement, and he saw the same in Sasuke as the man mirrored the movement.

The entire time, to realize only now, Sasuke had never with full intent struck him, to realize so patiently, he'd waited for Naruto to regain his senses, come to… That was…

Sasuke's Chidori crackled to life with unimpressed, ginger flare.

Naruto's Rasengan was created lifelessly, without care.

He ran.

Deep inside, Naruto felt the doubt. He felt the questions – why? Why. And why.

He couldn't decide, couldn't see any longer why he was doing this, why, why he'd fight so strongly against something, why he would do this and he could just look at Sasuke, he was sure, and see the exact answers he was looking for, because always in his spiritual, candid lethality, Sasuke had been transparent to him, transparent out of necessity, out of the resulting, condemned bond between them. Because if he only bothered to look at Sasuke, he would know, he would see, he would-

Naruto clamped his eyes shut, Rasengan swung back, the unified breaths of his ilk held back, sharp intakes of breath taken and their tremulous "no"s heard.

Yes, they were heard. And they were felt. Like poison they were injected into his veins, like water filled his eyes to the brims, like heat, fresh, morning flush in his cheeks, and like warmth under his fingers. They were the caress on his back, a hand in his hair, they were the velvet rush of breath against his ear, the laughter dulcet around him, and the soothing, cathartic something in the air.

They were-

Sasuke.

Naruto opened his eyes.

The gold hue was flooded by blue, the red shades around his eyes disappearing into tan, and the hyper awareness of the world disappearing into one solid, suffocating acceptance of one man.

They were so close, feet apart, then a foot and then inches, and it was soon to be over with, the tale finished, the "the end" readied, the hero and his arch-nemesis purged, the word a safe place again, the world to be re-born, the sanctity of life preserved, the life to go on, the tale actually forgotten, the details confused, the exact twists and turns disappeared into other stories and the everything nothing bad a bad, bad dream.

The rush of their attacks was the wind sweeping at their faces, howling at their minds, and revealing to him the eyes bleeding a dimmed, dying shade of red. Dark strands were removed, cast back by the force of the attacks, the face fully revealed-

The eyes tilted down, tilted back up, meeting – his.

Their eyes met and Naruto.

Looked at Sasuke.

The world came to a halt.

Everything vanished in the light of the discovery that nothing. Nothing. Mattered. Mattered. Nothing could have mattered. Because the grand scheme of things had always, always and ever been just them.

Because, because Naruto could feel himself sinking into the depths of his mind, could feel the time appropriately freezing at last and showing some God may have been on his side.

It sufficed.

It sufficed.

There Naruto saw-

-that.

The memories unfolding in front of him, the reluctance to act, the fear and the pain. And the moments, the-

Sasuke turned to look at him. He smiled. In truth, he was smiling. Had been smiling for a moment. And Naruto felt embarrassed by such, riveted to the ground.

Sasuke, yet, pressed a finger to his chin, forced the head up and said-"I wouldn't ever leave you."

Sasuke, then, resumed his previous activity, the picture perfect of solace in his face coyly disappeared.

And Naruto, as he lay down next to him by the end, could not help but watch instead, watch silently, shamefully, thinking only -I can't accept that, it's too pretty to be true.

Or-

The unabashed admission of truth bearing such levity he'd had to ask him to repeat it three times, before Sasuke had, cockily, haughtily, just announced-"I couldn't sleep. So I watched you sleep. Deal with it, Naruto."-and then walked away, the cheek of the bastard!

But-

-the very next night, lulled to sleep by false promises of rest, awoken hours later by hunger from not being fed well, Naruto had gripped the bed sheets in anger, because-what was Sasuke doing there? Boys did not sleep in the same bed, boys did not… Do that…

Ah… Sasuke was sleeping. Not on his side, not exactly on his back. It was an awkward, terse position betraying the unwillingness to fully rest, as if the mere idea of it could be the nectar to his enemies, the lure drawing them near and the smell of blood exciting their need to kill.

Sasuke sleeping was such a weird, weird sight… Surreal, as Sasuke would say, no? Or maybe bizarre. Naruto afforded to sigh, then averted his eyes- but. It was… Well. Would it hurt?

Tentatively, he lay back down, turned his eyes to Sasuke and watched him sleep. And sometime later, Sasuke's body, as if under a spell, visibly relaxed and boldly, ruefully, Naruto thought to himself, one hand almost on Sasuke's face, fingers ready to trace the shape of his forehead, nose and lips-

-this is for me, Sasuke? Your biggest, most genuine gift?

And there was-

-that silence. Sasuke was cooking. He seldom spoke during that activity. Naruto thought Sasuke didn't enjoy it much. After all, there was little joy in being responsible for someone, no? Or maybe, Naruto could be wrong.

From the doorway, he observed Sasuke's precise actions. Nothing about him was redundant. Everything executed without a moment to spare, without the notion of superfluous.

Naruto leaned against the doorway and felt uncomfortable with the cold seeping into his skin.

He stepped away and- Sasuke remained, dutifully preparing their dinner, head bowed, eyes focused, a deadened shade to them.

Then Naruto shuffled, Sasuke's motions ceased and the man turned his head at him.

For a brief, intimate moment, their eyes locked.

Naruto grinned at him.

Sasuke parted his lips, melodic, lush breath spilled over them and he smiled too-"Don't help me, Naruto. I don't want you burning down the house."

Somewhere inside for reasons unfathomable, Naruto cheered. And like a child, he laughed and left to the living room, before, seconds later, returning with his favorite set of chopsticks he'd dug from a drawer, and using them to poke Sasuke in the cheek. No matter what, Sasuke wouldn't let that disturb him, fixated upon his task.

Of course, moments later, the prodding got too much and Sasuke snapped the chopsticks in half.

Naruto mourned their loss. Sasuke handed him the broken pieces-"I'll get you new ones,"-and murmured that.

There was no time to be stunned. Naruto accepted the pieces, took one between his fingers, and let the ends graze the delicate slope of Sasuke's neck. "And I will torture you again, Uhicha Sasuke-sama!"

Just like that, softly, Sasuke laughed.

They pressed their foreheads together, and the cooking, the little home drama and comfort of their lives, continued.

And then-

-a woman so beautiful passed by. Naruto was sure that if Sasuke had a type, she would be it, she, the one languidly pressing her side against Sasuke's and giving him the provocative, coquettish eye, but Sasuke wouldn't look at her.

Sasuke would only look at him.

Parting with their mission, concluding it finished, ready to return home, they stood in the middle of the street of this smaller settlement, the villagers feeling most flirtatious gratitude to their young and handsome saviors, and Naruto could feel his little heart beat only for the dark-haired man. Somehow, not knowing these people so closely was like a gift and curse, because without the inherent care for their input and without valuing whatever shenanigans they thought them to be fixing-

-he could look at Him this openly, this greedily.

And consider Sasuke enchanting.

Consider his smile so beautiful. Even if small it was. Even if so seldom he'd glimpse the sight of it. He could not chance upon it often, but when he did-

-he intertwined their fingers together.

The woman keen on the idea of Sasuke and she in disclosed area turned sharply away, a flush of shock under her eyes.

Naruto, happily, did not care.

He stuck the other hand in his pocket, swung their hands like children they were and Sasuke forgot to be a cantankerous man, such a ravenous swirl of emotions in his eyes that Naruto felt a blush of excitement and anticipation squeeze his heart. The touch of their fingers was innocuous enough, but under Sasuke's intent eyes, he felt like a child, like someone in love, like-

-the most cherished and needed person in the world.

And of course, there was the-

-Sasuke sleeping again.

Over time, Naruto had grown accustomed to them sharing the same bed. Somehow, it would always be Naruto's. That tiny, tiny little thing not fit for two grown-ups crowding it, but despite its size unsuitable for such occasions, Naruto thought it was just right.

Their bodies were touching and Sasuke was on his side, asleep, sound, content.

Naruto sighed.

For once, Sasuke did not stir.

Naruto reached out.

For once, Naruto did not stir.

He touched the man's face with an ample, elaborate caress and there was no ghosting involved, no ghastly fear of being seen laced in his movement.

For once, Naruto placed his hand on the man's face, shuffled closer and let their foreheads touch.

Sasuke woke up.

Naruto gave him a sad, small smile.

A certain persistent squeeze on his tummy continued. A part of him felt constricted, a wave of heat flushing his entire body and making the toes curl. What was it? He denied himself the right to know, even if in that not distant part of his mind, Naruto knew.

And knowing brought him grief.

Lower lip puckered out shamelessly, his eyes fluttered, and something disgruntled in him prompting him to say, in a voice that puerile and honest-

"I kinda might just need you more than anything. Don't leave me, Sasuke. Never ever."

Sasuke's eyes bled with emotion, maybe panic, maybe genuine fear, before snapped shut, closing with the brush of lashes against his cheeks, and arms going around Naruto's neck to draw him to his chest, until together like that, they slept, Sasuke's steady, strong heartbeat filling Naruto's ears and becoming the best lullaby.

And maybe, must not forget the moment that… That.

When-

"Naruto."

"What?"

"I love you."

Naruto's body froze. Eyes widened, heart forgot to beat, brain to function.

Sasuke looked at him absently, then turned on his heel. "Thought you should know."

He left.

Naruto didn't stop him. He sat on the couch in their home, blond hair messy and everywhere, until who knew when, Sasuke returned.

They didn't look at each other.

Silence, discomfort reigned on.

Out of nowhere, back turned to this living, Naruto caught the waft of sensation, then a hand on his shoulder. The fingers gripped the exposed flesh, warmth intermixed, woven into his mind, and the hand was leaving an instant later-

-Naruto's hand shot out and held it there.

For minutes, neither would move; Sasuke stood behind him, Naruto seated, their expressions a mystery.

Their humble adobe was silent. It would be silent. Being poor, they had little money to waste on trinkets of affection – affection for their boredom. Amusement would be bred from clashing, sparring and maybe Naruto poking and prodding at Sasuke, hoping to see him snap because – hey, why not? So much delight was taken from the furrowing of Sasuke's brows and the tick in his cheek as he contemplated murder. It was sweet. It was living. Their life. So none of that modern technology. No music to fill their heads. The tap was turned off, no droplets dripping down and making sound.

It was, as such, an absurd and completely stale place apparently lacking life.

Unfortunately, under such conditions, senses enhancement was involuntarily formed as a replacement for neglect.

Naruto's ears could pick up on the smallest of sounds.

On his elevated breathing. On Sasuke's.

On their heartbeats.

On Sasuke's.

On the weeping echo of Sasuke's confession.

At that moment, Naruto could only think-I know. I know… Sasuke.

Or that moment when-

-over and over again, in a twisted vicious circle, he'd continue turning his friends down, refusing invitations, refusing becoming a part of their lives, partaking in ordeals otherwise he'd have cherished here and to beyond, and all to remain by Sasuke, all to remain by him, all to feel him…

And eventually-

"Don't-"

"Do-"

"Don't you-"

"DARE-!"

"Leave-"

Sasuke was.

Crying.

Because Naruto had not handled it well, because he was in Sasuke's arms, body weakened from the attack, the chakra only folding back into his body, via the holes, the wounds in his arms and legs and Sasuke was clutching him dearly and despairingly, whispering to him-

"Don't you DARE LEAVE ME, NARUTO."

Naruto slumped back, barely breathing. What mistake he'd made? He remembered. He knew what this was. This was the seal acting up. And for months he'd felt slumped, easily worn out, stressed out, for months he'd witnessed the signs of deterioration on him because of own doing and mistaken thinking, because instead of embracing it, he'd shunned it. Now the seal was striking back. His very, very soul was. And there was no stopping it.

He was dying.

And he had recently made Hokage.

Sasuke's eyes burned with fury. "I have a plan…"

Naruto's mind latched onto his words. Life fleeing from his grasp, he looked at Sasuke, rivulets of sweat down his tanned skin, and blood trickling from his lips. At least, he liked to focus only on the lips, even if acutely aware of all, he knew he was bathing in own blood. Own excess-

-own. Anguish. And guilt. That were-makingitsosososohard. So hard to hear anything at all, but the creaking of his bones, the shifting of his muscles, the very course of the blood as in panic it swirled to all different direction. And heart was neglected. No blood to pump. Nothing to sustain life.

"You won't die. I have a plan. A plan…"

Sasuke's eyes became Sharingan.

"I have had it for some time… For this occasion… You are… not… leaving… me… Naruto. It will buy you time. It could solve it all." Each word seared with despair, each branded by the man's fury. Uchiha. And their anger. Truly, Naruto did not ever want to be on the receiving end of it.

His lips formed a smile.

He was dying, was he not? But if Sasuke had a plan-

-he pushed back the pulsating mess of own despair. As hard, as impossible it as, he did it, almost tangibly feeling the press and struggle of it against his hold as he endeavored to become liberated for a few seconds, just a moment to croak out-

"I trust you, Sasuke."

Nothing else needed to be said.

Then the Sharingan swallowed his mind and he saw black, saw the flashes of memories, grayscale, fainted, locked away. Ah-ha, so Sasuke would make him forget then? Just so he could buy him some time. How poetic of the man. Naruto then.

Naruto then hoped.

That in the last moment, as unconsciousness instilled drowsiness and sleep on him, he would not fail. Like he had failed now.

That in the momentum of stupidity, he would not be a fool… And thwart Sasuke's plan. Hopefully?

For once, despite missing the clarity of comprehension brought by the memories Sasuke was locking away, he would maybe trust in his heart for sure.

The seal would cease its existence. It had never meant to be eternal. Question was, as Naruto lost the very last of those to keep him well informed-

-would he cease along with it, or would Sasuke succeed?

Or would he forever have that parting memory of Sasuke in his mind, the memory of the dark-clad man sealing his memories away, and trembling heavily as he did so, because of a simple fear-

-don't leave me, love?

Eventually, there was just one moment, one. Exact. Pure. Emotion.

They were stood together, overlooking the Konoha from the top of the highest point in Konoha, beneath their feet the faces of their founding fathers.

The sun was not setting down. The sun was not rising.

The sun just was. An integral but unneeded part of this frivolous existence.

And Naruto, freshly appointed Hokage, looked at Sasuke.

And Sasuke looked at him.

The surge of emotion was too much.

It was too much.

It had always been too much.

But Naruto could not avert his eyes. He gave Sasuke what he hoped to be a faint, reassuring smile, but in reality, it was just the smile of a fool in love.

He knew then.

Naruto knew that.

That he was irrevocably, inexplicably and completely in love.

With you, Sasuke. Only with you.

The eradicated Sharingan cast a reflection on Naruto's blue eyes; for a moment, they were exactly as red, as intense and as incomprehensibly gritty as Sasuke's, before the red disappeared in a flash, all unveiled.

And Naruto remembered.

With the proximity of one inch separating their hands from lethal blows, he knew everything.

Then, light filled his eyes.

The still night in the Country of Fire was interrupted by a large, luminous explosion. The night, for a few moments, became day and everything a bright, almost exact copy of broad daylight that swarmed the fields, the meadows and tender slopes, embraced the earth ruined yet still striving for life.

For those few moments, none too wiser, everyone present was so firmly convinced this was the end. Of course, only one it was necessary to burst that bloodied bubble of sacrifice.

"I can't."

A body sacked onto the ground.

And the light was gone, shrinking back to its source, revealing two in the middle, frozen in time.

Naruto grabbed his head, cradled it in two hands, stood to shaky feet-

-looked with eyes full of tears.

"I can't… I can't… What have I done… What have I done…"

Despair oozed off him, drenching his words in its state accumulated over years, originating from the dejected moment of denial, of refusing to admit that-

"SASUKE!"

Wind.

"I'm such a fool."

Naruto's words cut throughout the surroundings.

And the forest wept back in a song to echo its agreement.

There was a loud, piercing noise as their attacks, released in the air, hit the ground. The world trembled.

No-one cared.

Naruto looked at Sasuke and looked him in the eye, looked him in the face and finally saw in there all he'd ignored in the past.

"I… am… such an idiot. Such a fool… I am so, so… so sorry… Sasuke…"

A choke.

"God, such an idiot-such an… IDIOT I AM, SASUKE!"

A sound.

"IamIamoh god what have-what… have I almost done… to think I'd have-to you, to you… Sasuke…"

A cry.

"I was so wrong, so mistaken the whole time… So stupid to doubt you, Sasuke."

A crispy, shuddering sound taken.

Not Naruto's.

Naruto, for, was beyond the sobs, his features contorted by the realization of what he'd done-

Sasuke lowered his head, obscuring his features, a strand in exquisite parade trickling past his cheekbones and to the chin.

Naruto touched his face, hands placed on the warm skin now getting suspiciously, starkly wet, salty diamonds produced and impacting with the fingers splayed out.

Another choked sob, another sound-

"I finally know, Sasuke. I finally know…"

Sasuke looked up.

Brows furrowed, brows rose, brows met mid-way, eyes closed then opened, redness invading, for this refreshing, human change, the whites.

And Sasuke let out a strangled sound. "YOU FOOL!"

And all was dropped.

The fighting and the clashing, the weight of their feelings that Naruto for once would not deny and wage a war against, because he was seeing his past mistakes and the pain, oh god… OH GOD. The pain he had put Sasuke through, the months of separation, the months of believing it was beyond salvation-

-so desperately, Sasuke touched him back, hands first on his shoulders, hovering, testing – was this real? – before they felt the warmth seep through, so tangible, and their touch became visceral, accursed, tactile.

And then Sasuke's fingers were digging into Naruto's flesh, through the material and ignoring its presence, resembling claws as they were positioned that way, and Sasuke was doubling over, the pain of the past months catching up and Naruto wanted to fling all away. All. All. All.

"Sasuke… Sasuke…"

He pulled the man's head up, let his hands slither towards his chest.

Everything. Everything he had contained. Naruto remembered now. And he knew that Sasuke had never betrayed.

No…

What was the truth? So easy. The fear, Naruto supposed, as he looked deeply into Sasuke's black eyes, of being abandoned by someone you loved with such horrifying dedication, was irrational. Irrational enough you would gladly believe at one point, it was fabricated. After all, love wasn't an affair, an age, sex difference, the parents' disapproval, the friends saying no, the distance being an obstacle, or the world of material pointing accusing fingers at their different clothing, the silk and wool differing greatly in price and hoping to prove a point.

Love wasn't that.

Love was this.

This disdained realization you didn't need anyone else in your life and fuck feet planted on the ground, misery be the friendship of anyone else, gone the testament to needing more.

It was this simple crucifix, this death of world and knowing that.

You only need him. This one person.

How astounding was it know that in the face of absolute helplessness, he'd have turned to his fear of all being a lie, that he would have thought – the seal had forced them into this, and that once it dissolved, Sasuke would leave him. Granted, going against own emotions so powerful… He really was a fool. Naruto acknowledged that.

But he acknowledged that in happiness.

A thread appeared between them.

Shimmering, tender, delicate.

Naruto pulled back, grazed it lightly with the tip of his finger. It shuddered.

There was a gasp heard and the people, for a surprising twist of events, seeing it too.

Naruto's lips drew back, a lop-sided, transient smile formed.

He witnessed Sasuke's hand touching it too and it was shared.

Black a night in a natural course fell on the two, on the whole of Konoha, on the artificially formed meadow with cracked, wounded ground.

"Naruto…"

"Yeah."

They looked at each other.

Struck by fear, Naruto swallowed. But he nodded. "It was always us."

The corners of Sasuke's lips turned down. "Always us. This won't go away."

"I know now."

"Now."

"Now…" The resonance of that word made the white thread quiver.

From Naruto's body, the chakra snakes appeared, uncoiling from around his frame, yet soothing, considerate, becoming pillars in the air and furling around the two of them.

Naruto took a deep, shuddering breath. "I believe now. Sasuke. I believe. We don't need this. We never really needed this seal, did we?"

The seal as if in response, shone through, and Naruto closed his eyes.

"We never, ever really did."

Hesitation.

"Naruto-"

"No."

No hesitation. None. Whatsoever.

Naruto looked Sasuke dead in the eye.

Smiled his brilliant, beautiful smile.

"I love you, Sasuke."

In a swift, startling motion accompanied by shock on Sasuke's side, their hands curled the thread.

"I really always have. I'm a fool."

And separated it.

"A fool for you."

The threads came apart, suspended in the air meekly for temporary rebellion, before dissipating into particles of light, the pillars of chakra finding their venture to the beyond and meeting them mid-way, light so bright enveloping the two men.

They experienced the disconnection like an appliance beyond unplugged. Somehow, the silence anticipated did not come.

Because they never needed it in the first place.

For a while, it felt like they were inside the mind of a decaying man again, but the distortion did not care come, tranquility in reign instead.

The decay disappeared. Weight was lifted.

The veil, too.

Until Naruto realized this was their mind. And why Sasuke had never wanted to share his with him, never allowed him a glimpse.

And as that realization fully hit Naruto fair and square against his face, the berating slap of the mother for the disappearance of cookies before dinner, loudly and happily, he laughed.

Figured why Sasuke had always refused to share.

Because his mind was filled with love for him.

And fear of rejection.

Naruto laughed on, the world returning and life in his veins, strong, lucid, lively and shapely like the shine in his eyes.

It didn't matter now.

The end had come.

When the light had gone, the story over, tiredly, he slumped, caught in Sasuke's hands, before Sasuke himself succumbed, and with feet in panic pattering towards them, chimes of gasps and cheers reaching their hearts, together, they fainted into blissful and well deserved oblivion.

)) ~it_has_come_to_this_too far_soul_to_be_sole~((

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but the story idea is mine alone.

A/N: It took me only around two months x) Well, what can I say? First and foremost, I should say that despite my apparent disappearance, you guys never gave up on me. I kept receiving reviews, people reminding me they were still on the lookout for another update, and damn… It really made me feel happy. Of course, I had my reasons for taking such a long time. I am in my last year of university and frankly, I had too many things to annoy me, stress me out to really find enough inspiration to finish this chapter. I had started it shortly after posting the previous one, yet it took me an impossibly long time to sit down and wrap it up… Which I eventually managed within hours. Oh, the irony! Well, what to say? Um…

Just that I had always known it would end like this. True true, I did say in numerous replies to reviews that I couldn't foretell how it was to end… Well, I lied :D I had known since chapter one that Sasuke and Naruto could never possibly leave each other to die. Of course, the journey from THAT to this was long, complicated, full of obstacles… But I loved it.

Also, I didn't reply to all the reviews for the last chapter. I received an astounding number of 20 reviews just for the last chapter _ Oh, wow, what is this? And then extra reviews from loyal readers ahhhh –flails– god I love you people so much Dx I'm trying to express my joy here, but apparently emotionally drained from this chapter and thus failing. Ugh, WELL. I appreciate all the reviews, signed or not, everything! They are legit amazing and everyone who read my story, bore with me and/or reviewed, needs a delicious double chip chocolate cookie T_T And I hope you enjoy(ed) the last chapter. We only have the concluding epilogue left, which is being written as you read this and should be up shortly, within a week or two. The epilogue will be the closure, it will offer both poems I had constructed over the course of Sole and that hold a specific meaning.

Should anything still elude you, feel free to ask in your reviews and I will either respond to every question individually, or include them in the A/N in the epilogue. So um…

Much love, enjoy the chapter, (as per usual, ignore any errors you stumble upon), SPREAD LOVE and yes, Naruto's realization in the end? A message to us all. And truly, the point of the story; love, so scary an experience…

Next up, the epilogue and the end.

Rating: PG-13 for themes, blood, swearwords, and sexual undertones.

Thanks for reading. Remember to R&R! x)

If you have any questions, add them in a review or message me personally :)