Authors Note: So, been a while. :D

Anyways, this is a bit of a side story I've been working on for a bit while I get an idea for where I want to take my other stories, would love to knows your opinions and support/(constructive)criticism/whatever is always appreciated.

Keep in mind this has no ties to the universe in my other stories. Thanks and I hope you enjoy chapter 1!

PROLOGUE

"Why Sasuke…" Naruto muttered under his breath as he carried the body of his best friend through the rain.

"Sasuke, it's not too late! You can come back to the village with me!" Naruto screamed at his rival who was standing atop the statue of Madara Uchiha

"And do what Naruto!?" Sasuke snapped back, swivelling around to meet Naruto's gaze

Naruto looked at what Sasuke had become, gone was the old Sasuke he had grown to call his best friend. His face showed no emotion or hint of regret, his cold stare was intimidating to say the least. He didn't look like the teme he once knew, His body was covered in those… marks. His right eye looked like that of a monster.

"If I go back, I'll be inferior for the rest of my life. Like I said, it's nothing personal. I'm going with Orochimaru to get stronger, so I can kill my brother. Just leave me alone and go back home." Sasuke said as he turned around and continued walking away from his friend.

"So that's it, huh..." Naruto shouted, clenching his fists together as Sasuke turned around to eye his friend one last time.

"You're just going to leave everyone behind? Forget about everything we did together!? What about Team 7!? Did that not mean anything to you!?" Naruto shouted at the man as a red liquid surrounded him, bearing the resemblance of chakra.

Sasuke looked shocked at Naruto, "Just what exactly is he!?" Sasuke thought to himself.

"If that's the case, then I'll bring you home by force! I'll break every bone in your body until you have no choice but to come back!" Naruto shouted as a tail began to form on his backside.

"Hn." Sasuke said as he signalled Naruto to come at him

Naruto looked up; he wasn't very far from the village now. He looked down at the body of his friend and closed his eyes trying to keep back tears as he progressed towards the Hidden Leaf Village. "Not far now, teme." Naruto said slowly walking through the rain, his breathing becoming exasperated and husky.

"Why won't you just give up!?" Sasuke yelled as he kicked a prone Naruto in the stomach, eliciting a bloody cough from the blow.

"Because you're my friend" Naruto said as he looked up, smiling with a small amount of blood dripping from his mouth.

Sasuke got even angrier at Naruto's response, connecting his right shin with the side of Naruto's head.

"Just stay down." Sasuke said.

Suddenly, a pool of red chakra started to emanate from Naruto again as if breathing life into him. The blonde groggily stood back up.

"How many times do I have to say it, teme…?" Naruto groggily grunted out.

"I'm bringing you back to the village whether you like it or not." He said as he ran full force and shoulder barged Sasuke, sending him into the rock monument of Madara.

Naruto jumped back onto the statue of Hashirama in order to get a better view of where Sasuke is, suddenly a burst of lightning appeared from the smoke as if from almost thin air. As the smoke cleared Naruto saw that Sasuke... wasn't Sasuke anymore. His body was now a pale shade of grey and his eyes were now both nothing but empty black holes with a yellow centre, his markings were replaced by a single mark in the centre of his face and wings in the shape of hands had sprouted from his back.

"Fine, we'll end this here then! Once and for all!" Sasuke shouted as the lighting in his hand turned black.

Naruto quickly summoned a shadow clone and began to form a chakra ball in his hands, "This is it…" Naruto thought as they both looked at each other.

As if almost like a gunshot the two both sprang of their separate platforms with tremendous speed, charging at one another in the air.

"NARUTO!"

"SASUKE!"

Finally, Naruto had approached the gates of the village. Rain drenching both him and Sasuke as Naruto looked down at the ground in shame and exhaustion. The gates of the village opened to reveal Tsunade and Kakashi among other ninja who were standing there looking at him, the blonde Hokage ran out to see to the boy and inspect the now-presumed returned ninja.

"Naruto…" Tsunade said, realizing what had happened as she eyed the body of Sasuke Uchiha

"Mission… failed." Naruto said as he dropped Sasuke's body before passing out himself.

"What should we do m'lady?" Shizune asked.

"Call the village council together, report that Naruto Uzumaki is alive and in a somewhat healthy condition." Tsunade responded.

"And what of Sasuke Uchiha?" Shizune asked

"Prepare funeral arrangements." Tsunade added grimly.

CHAPTER 1

"The one time you were able to beat me one on one, what luck..." Sasuke half-chuckled to himself as he looked at the sobbing Naruto.

"No, you're not dying!" Naruto said as he tried to pick the bleeding out boy up.

"It's no use, idiot." Sasuke said, looking up at the sky. Rain had begun to fall.

"By the time you get me back, I'll be dead anyways. Atleast let me die here. It's somewhat poetic." Sasuke said.

Naruto continued to wipe the tears that were falling from his face as he sat in silence and watched his friend die.

"Naruto." Sasuke called out.

The blonde looked up at his dying friend who slowly shifted his glance from the sky to look at him.

"For what it's worth, you will become Hokage one day. I have a good feeling about it." Sasuke said as his glance shifted back to the sky...

"I've never liked cloudy days..." Sasuke said as he slowly began drifting off.

Naruto quickly scurried over to his friend hand grabbed his hand, hoping it would somehow save him.

"Hey, Naruto" Sasuke said, still looking up at the sky.

"Y-Yeah?" Naruto replied in between sobs.

"Carry me back to the village, yeah? I want to be buried in my home..." Sasuke asked. Naruto squeezed his hand in place for a nod.

"And… stop being a dobe." Sasuke said, smiling at his friend before the life seemingly drained from his eyes.

"No, NO, NO, NO!"

"NO!" Naruto shouted as he jumped up from his hospital bed, almost scaring the nurse to death.

Naruto looked around the room, it was Konoha hospital. His heart rate monitor was going off the charts. He quickly began to take the straps off as he heard the door open.

"Well, look who's awake."

Naruto looked up to see none other than Tsunade Senju, the 5th Hokage.

"Granny…" Naruto said grimly as he tried to hold back tears.

Tsunade was shocked at how vulnerable the happy-go-lucky ninja seemed right now, she walked over and held the boy in an embrace tight enough to harm any mere man, Naruto didn't mind the tightness, in fact he welcomed and relished the contact as he openly began sobbing into her jacket.

"It's not your fault." She whispered as she gently stroked his blonde locks until he calmed down.

"So, how long have I been out?" Naruto asked, sniffling and wiping the last of his tears away.

"A few weeks, you suffered severe chakra depletion. Everyone's been coming in and out to visit you." Tsunade said pointing the array of gifts and flowers left on the floor and tables.

"How's Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Fine, coping like everyone else I guess." Tsunade said, gripping Naruto's hand to reassure him.

"Is it alright if I leave? I feel much better." Naruto lied.

Tsunade would normally say no, but she knew how hard this must be for him and how much this must be eating away at him. She checked his chart to make sure he wasn't in any immediate danger and sighed.

"No physical activity for a few days, got it?" Tsunade said, giving him a false threat. Expecting Naruto to pull some kind of comical joke.

"Hai." He glumly said, hopping out the bed and moving towards the bathroom to change his clothes.

"Send word to ANBU, Naruto is by no means allowed to leave the village unless accompanied by a jounin with an official document from me." Tsunade said to the ninja guarding the room.

Naruto walked along the streets of Konoha, trying to avoid the shuns from the civilian families calling him a "monster" and a "demon" for killing him teammate, he knew he would get used to these new insults, just like he did the last ones, and the ones before those.

He finally couldn't take it anymore and needed to get out of the streets for a while; he noticed the Yamanaka flower shop coming up and walked as fast as he could to enter it.

"We're on break" He heard an obnoxious voice shout as he entered the store.

"Sorry, I'll come back later." Naruto said, leaving to turn out the door.

"Naruto?" the voice called out.

Naruto turned around to see Ino Yamanaka, heir of the Yamanaka family and apparently part-time store worker at the Yamanaka flower shop, he closed his eyes and awaited the beating that was about to come his way for taking away her life-long crush but it never came. She extended her arms around him and pulled him in for a hug.

"I know how hard that must've been." She said gently, fighting off her own tears.

"Just know that none of us blame you, don't listen to what the people outside say. You're a hero to us." She said, smiling at him gently as she released the hug.

"Thanks... I... I'm just having a hard time coping with it all." Naruto admitted.

Ino nodded in understand, she imagined herself in the same position as him but with Sakura replacing Sasuke... how must he be feeling right now...

"I understand, do you want some tea? It'll calm your nerves." Ino asked.

"No thank you Ino, I really should be going." Naruto said.

"You sure? It's no trouble." Ino persisted, looking Naruto in the eyes.

"I... I've got someone I need to see." Naruto said.

Ino instantly understood what Naruto meant and smiled, "I think she'll be very happy to see you." Ino said, holding the door open for her blonde friend.

"I hope so." Naruto replied before exiting the Yamanaka flower shop and continuing on his path of villager-torment towards his goal.

Finally he reached it, the training ground for Team 7. He looked over and saw her; she sat on the edge of a river poking a stick into the water and watching the ripples that broadcasted out from the disturbed water. He sighed to clear his head and began walking over slowly, thinking of what to say.

"I had a feeling I'd find you here." He said a slight tinge of sadness in his voice.

Recognizing the voice she instantly turned around and smiled at the boy, "N-Naruto!" She happily exclaimed, pulling him in for a hug.

Once the two had exchanged pleasantries they sat back down by the river bed and Sakura continued playing with the stick, pressing it gently against the water.

"So how did you know I'd be here?" She asked, trying to gather her thoughts.

"It's the first place I'd come as well." Naruto said, looking at the ripples Sakura was creating.

A silence filled the air as neither knew what to say, the air didn't feel hostile but both of them didn't know what to say about what had transpired over the past month.

"So I" They both said at once, looking at each other with slight smiles on their face from the awkward encounter.

"You should go first." Sakura said to which Naruto replied with, "No, I can wait. It's alright." He replied.

Desperate not to get locked into a never-ending loop Sakura decided to concede to the almighty-gentleman Naruto Uzumaki and spoke what she originally intended to say.

"How have you been dealing with it?" She asked, Naruto froze up for a moment when she said it which didn't go unnoticed by the pink-haired Haruno.

"It's my fault." He said, looking down at the water.

Sakura was generally surprised by his response, she had thought the exact same thing when Naruto was holed up in Hospital and Sasuke was being buried. She gently moved over and leaned her head onto his shoulder. Naruto was foreign to this kind of contact from her but decided he didn't care right now and raised his arm so that he could wrap it around her and pull her close.

"It's not your fault." She whispered, holding back tears.

"Saku—"Naruto tried to say before he got cut off.

"No, if I hadn't made you make that stupid promise everything would've been fine!" She shouted, blaming herself.

"Naruto, please bring Sasuke back to me… to us!" She yelled at the blonde.

"I promise Sakura!" Naruto responded as he ran out the gate.

"You never break your promises right? That's your nindo…" She said, sobbing into her hands.

Naruto couldn't bare to see her like this and pulled her in for a tight hug, letting her openly weep into his jacket which she always thought was ugly; he closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down as well. Last thing he needed to do was break down in front of Sakura.

"Feel better now?" He asked gently as he stroked her back while she finished off sobbing.

"I got your jacket all wet." She giggled to herself.

"I can clean it." He said casually.

"So what was your question?" She asked, looking up at the blonde.

"The same. I wanted to know how you were handling all of this." He said, looking back down at the water.

"The first time I saw you in the hospital I felt so guilty. You were wrapped head to toe in bandages from chakra burns and your arm was so badly broken Tsunade-sama had to spend all night fixing it." She said, informing Naruto.

"After a while I just stopped feeling anything in general..." She said, casting her eyes down to her knees.

"I.. I tried to end it all you know? I.. I had a kunai ready and I was going to do it." Sakura said, ashamed of herself.

Naruto's breath hitched upon hearing this, he squeezed her extra tight to reassure himself she was still here. After a minute or two Sakura continued talking. "Ino caught me about to do it and saved my life. She yelled at me for hours, I remember her saying something like "You coward, Naruto risked his life for you and you would go ahead and do that." Sakura said, doing her best Ino impersonation while still remaining downtrodden.

"You're not a coward Sakura-chan" Naruto said.

"No, she was right. I had no right to do it, not after all you went through." She said, looking up at Naruto.

"It hasn't been easy, I came by every day. Hoping one day you'd wake up again." She admitted.

"I'm awake now." He reassured her.

"Yeah, you are." She said with a genuine smile on her face, she looked at the sun setting above them and sighed.

"I should be getting home, it's getting late. Walk me home?" Sakura asked.

"Of course, Sakura-chan." Naruto said, releasing his arm from her side and helping Sakura to her feet.

The two walked down the quiet street, Naruto intentionally chose this path so that the heckling villagers wouldn't insult Sakura as well.

"Do you miss him?" Sakura asked, already sort of knowing the answer.

Naruto didn't answer, he just nodded.

"What about you?" He asked in return.

"I think so, I try to see him for all the good he did." Sakura said.

After around 15 minutes of the question-answer walk to Sakura's house they finally arrived at the residence.

Naruto was about to say a goodbye before Sakura cut him off by pressing her fingers to his lips. Sakura grinned at the annoyance on his face. "You should come in for dinner, all your food will be rotten by now." Sakura suggested.

Naruto sighed, she had a point. The fridge probably hadn't been stocked for a good month or two now. "I can always go to Ichiraku's Sakura-chan, I shouldn't bother you." Naruto said, turning to leave.

Sakura grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around, "No way you're leaving to eat that unhealthy ramen mister, inside now." She said gently but bossily, stomping her foot down and putting on fake scowl.

"Alright Sakura-chan, I'll eat dinner with you." Naruto said, smiling at how she was acting. It made him feel a lot better about everything.

"Good." She said as he walked past her inside. "Besides, I want you here…" she whispered to herself as she followed him in.