They were panting. They were sweating. Their eyes turned wide, their breathes overlapping. "Finally…" a young orange-clad boy said still panting.
"We've found you…" a pink-haired girl with emerald eyes said.
These two people were catching their breaths as they ran with haste. A few minutes ago, they've heard information which they've desired so much.
"Sakura… Naruto…" a third person said with calmness.
This person has black hair and eyes with odd, strange pupils. However, it was nothing to be amazed of. He held a katana back-handedly with his right hand; his posture was calm yet steady. He wasn't letting his guard down for even a second.
"… Sasuke!" Naruto yelled like he usually does.
Naruto's eyes were filled with many mixed feelings, from sadness to anger to happiness. He couldn't describe it.
"… Sasuke-kun…" Sakura said softly.
Sakura's eyes were filled with many mixed feelings as well, from worry to hope to fear. She also couldn't describe it.
"…"
Sasuke however, wasn't feeling anything at all. He stayed quiet all the time; he kept his composure, never letting his guard down for any reason.
"Sasuke!" Naruto called out, Sasuke glanced at him.
"… What?" Sasuke let out simply.
"This is the last chance… either you come back with us to Konoha with your own will…" Naruto said letting his sentence to hang for a moment. Sasuke kept staring.
"… Or I'll forcefully take you back even if you don't want to…" Naruto continued.
To Naruto and Sakura's surprise, Sasuke let his guard down and smirked. He lowered his sword and laughed for a moment before looking at Naruto once again.
"Dead-last… I'll go back to Konoha…"
Upon hearing those words, both Naruto and Sakura were filled with hope. That was until Sasuke spoke once again.
"However…" both Naruto and Sakura looked back at Sasuke with a serious face.
"I have only one condition…" Sasuke said with seriousness pasted on his face.
"And what would that be?" Naruto asked as if mocking his ex-teammate.
To both Naruto and Sakura's surprise once again, Sasuke smirked and pointed at his ex-loudmouth teammate.
"Naruto… I want to kill you…" Sasuke glared at Naruto, who was stunned.
Naruto and Sakura weren't expecting this. They were frozen by Sasuke's condition. Sakura was trembling as she hid her mouth with her right hand. Naruto stayed silent in disbelief as Sasuke began to lower his hand.
Naruto lowered his head, closed his eyes, and gritted his teeth. He clenched his fist and a sweat fell from his face.
Once Naruto opened his eyes, his words will surprise Sakura even more.
"Alright… But you have to promise me and Sakura that you will go back to Konoha…" Naruto said with determination.
Sakura gasped at her companion's statement. Her eyes grew even wider. She tried to speak, but words won't come out. She held the blue-eyed boy by his arms. He looked at her.
"Don't worry, Sakura-chan… everything will be just fine…" he smiled at her.
"…N-Naruto… N-no…" Sakura said between sobs as she started to cry.
"Dead-last, you do know that we won't be fighting, right?" Sasuke asked Naruto, who turned his attention back to the raven-haired boy.
"Sure I do… beside, it's even faster that way, don't you think so?" Naruto asked.
Sasuke just smirked while Sakura, who was already frightened, felt at loss. She didn't understand what they meant. Sure she understood that Sasuke wanted to kill Naruto.
"Then… shall we do it?" Naruto asked but Sakura held his arms tighter.
Naruto created a Kage Bunshin, who appeared behind Sakura. She glanced at the Kage Bunshin wondering what will it do. The next moment, she was frozen. She couldn't move her body.
Sasuke noticed and smirked. "I see you picked up that lazy bastard's jutsu, ne Naruto?"
"Yeah, well, it was supposed to catch you…" Naruto said chuckling.
"Then why don't you use it?" Sasuke asked, his sharingan glaring furiously.
"Because… of many reasons…" Naruto's eyes saddened. Sasuke noticed but stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.
"… My promise… Kyuubi… Betrayal… Hurt…" Naruto muttered those words.
Sakura was still frozen by Naruto's Kage Bunshin's Kagemane no Jutsu. However she was trembling furiously while Sasuke soften his stare.
"I already promised Sakura-chan, to bring you back no matter what happen… I think that this is a chance to bring you back, even if it will cost me my life… of course if that would be the only reason, it's no use to die…" Naruto stopped to catch his breath.
"However, I believe that I'm stronger than you… if I lose control of Kyuubi that is… I can't afford to kill you while I lose control. But I can't defeat you with my own power, at least not yet…"
Sasuke glared at him once again while Sakura could only gape.
"If you can come back while I give you my life, then I'm happy… that mean I won't die by the hands of Akatsuki or anybody else… also…" Naruto stopped to look at his pink-haired companion, who muttered Naruto's name in silent.
Naruto gave his foxy grin as he continued, "This way I've kept my promise to you, Sakura-chan…"
Sakura was in tears, Sasuke stayed indifferent, and Naruto looked back toward Sasuke.
"… I still am not convinced… why would you want to die now?" Sasuke asked.
"… I think it's probably due to Kyuubi? Who knows? But I do feel that nowadays, the Kyuubi's power is consuming me bits by bits… who knows when I will totally lose control and annihilate everything in my sight?"
Sasuke looked at him in the eyes and closed them. He put his sword to the ground and began to form many seals.
"… you should be feeling lucky, Naruto… you're going to be the first to experience my original jutsu…" he said as he glanced toward Naruto.
"Katon: Nenshou Chidori no Jutsu" (A/N: It basically means burning chidori...)
As Sasuke said those words, a chidori was formed in his right hand, however it was different. It was still the same chidori but it was burning. The chakra was in the form of electricity with blueish color only there are spitfires all around it.
"Correction, it may not be my original jutsu but at least I perfected it…" Sasuke said as he raised his hand at stomach level forward.
"… I see, you've grown stronger, Sasuke… it's too bad that I couldn't show you mine…" Naruto gave a sad smile.
"Hm, you'll show it to me sooner than you think…" Sasuke smirked.
"I will? But… Ah, yeah, I know what you mean…" Naruto said and took another glance toward Sakura.
"I'm sorry Sakura-chan… the least I could do is to bring Sasuke back momentarily to you… I'm really sorry… Sayonara…" he said and turned back toward Sasuke who was already charging.
Sakura kept on inaudibly saying Naruto's name but she was still frozen, she couldn't move. Normally she would but her concentration wasn't well-centered. She was emotional. Naruto's bunshin kept his kagemane no jutsu but closed his eyes.
The next moment, Sasuke's right hand went through Naruto's heart. Blood was spurting everywhere. Naruto coughed up blood. He could feel his heart being stabbed, to add his pain, he also felt his chakra tubes burning.
"… I-I see… (cough) s-so… th-that's th-the use o-of your b-burning… Ch-chidori…" Naruto smiled as blood started to drip.
"Yeah, it burns your chakra tubes. While chidori alone is already like a sword, I could easily cut and the fire would enter that wound and burn my opponent's chakra tubes till he dies…" Sasuke said calmly with blood all over his face.
Sakura was finally released as Naruto's Kage bunshin was dispelled. She wanted to run toward her teammates but her feet won't budge. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Sasuke took his hand out of Naruto's body and Naruto fell backward. He was dying. As he was on the ground, he knew that he only have less than a minute to live.
"T-teme… I-I'll b-be wa-waiting…" he said smiling.
Sasuke just stared at his ex-teammate and rival. The next moment, Naruto has taken his last breath. Sakura was finally able to move. She ran toward Naruto.
"Naruto! Naruto! Oh no… don't do this to me, Naruto no baka! Wake up!" her tears were flowing down her cheeks.
Sasuke stayed indifferent as he was still staring at his best friend's dead body. His heart was pumping fast. He felt a change within. Sakura was holding Naruto's head on her chest. She was crying hysterically.
When she was about to face Sasuke, her eyes grew wide.
"S-Sasuke-kun… y-you…"
Sasuke was crying, his expression still impassive but he was crying. What's even more surprising, were Sasuke's eyes. From his pupils, it seemed that he obtained the highest of the Sharingan, Mangekyou Sharingan. However, it wasn't black and red like Itachi's.
It was white and blue.
"… Dead-la… Naruto baka…" Sasuke said as tears kept falling down.
Sakura couldn't say anything, she held Naruto tighter as she cried some more.
"Sakura… I will keep my promise…" Sasuke said suddenly.
Sakura looked up but she couldn't find a hint of happiness, in order to get a friend, another friend had to die. It wasn't what she wanted.
"I'll protect you… in Naruto's place… I won't run away ever again… I promise… I won't go back on my words…"
This time Sakura was surprised, her eyes grew wide as she was already familiar with those words.
"Naruto?" she let out.
"He's within me right now… you don't need to worry…" Sasuke said with his new eyes still letting out tears.
"Come, we're going back…" Sasuke held his hand toward her.
"… Sasuke-kun…" she nodded and stood up.
"But we can't leave Naruto here…" Sakura said.
"Of course, we'll bring him back… We'll face Godaime straight away, I hope you're ready with whatever consequences it will be…" Sasuke said as he took Naruto's dead body over his shoulder.
"W-what do you mean?" Sakura asked.
"Remember when Naruto said that the least he could do is to bring me back to you momentarily?"
Sakura nodded, and Sasuke continued.
"He probably meant that by the time I step foot in Konoha, my death will be imminent…" Sasuke said and Sakura gasped.
"But then again, there's the issue of being the only Uchiha survivor… some may overlook my crime in order to revive the Uchiha clan, but some may think that it's rather a chance to get rid of one power completely…" Sasuke closed his eyes and opened them firmly.
"But, with these eyes, that Naruto gave me… the odds might be in our favors…"
Sakura was worried but she let out a small smile, knowing that Naruto was somewhere inside Sasuke.
"Let's go…"
As Sakura nodded, they went back to Konoha.
Tsunade was getting worried. She won the lottery, she got twenty sake as a gift from a daimyo, she even won an island. She was getting more nervous.
"… I even won an island?! What kind of misfortune will this bring upon me? Oh god, I hope nothing bad happened to Naruto…" the busty hokage thought.
At the gate of the village, Kotetsu and Izumo were doing their guard duty as usual. They were relaxing since nothing unusual happened. Until two figures appeared at the gate.
"Hey, Kotetsu! Look!" Izumo pointed toward the gate.
"H-hey, isn't that?!..." Kotetsu said hanging his sentence in the air.
"We want to see Godaime, now. Don't interfere." A certain black-haired boy said with a threatening voice.
"You… Your eyes…?!" Kotetsu gasped but a certain pink-haired girl spoke up.
"Kotetsu-san, Izumo-san, please let us through… it's important…"
Kotetsu and Izumo noticed the hurry in her voice and decided to let them in. As soon as they were allowed to go, Sakura and Sasuke with Naruto on his back jumped from roof to roof to avoid people.
"Kotetsu… wasn't that Naruto?"
"… He's dead...!?"
The two jounin looked wide eyed at the direction of the Hokage tower.
Somewhere in Konoha, a certain blonde-haired girl was looking up from outside her family's store. She sighed as she had nothing else to do, until she noticed two people jumping from her neighbor's roof.
"Eh? Wasn't that Sakura… and Sasuke?!" she asked herself.
Ino instinctively ran to the direction they were heading. She didn't notice Naruto's presence however, and she was starting to smile at the thought that Sasuke came back.
Sasuke and Sakura arrived at the Hokage tower. Fortunately for them, they didn't encounter any shinobi even until they stood in front of the Hokage's office.
Sakura gulped and knocked twice, when she heard her voice telling her to enter, she reluctantly opened the door.
Sakura went in first, shadowing Sasuke's from Tsunade's vision. What she was about to know may be too much for her.
Tsunade beamed at Sakura's presence but she suddenly frowned when she noticed the trace of blood all over her clothes.
Sakura noticed that Shizune was also in the room, not only Shizune but also many of the jounin. "No wonder we didn't meet any of the jounin on the way…" she thought.
"Sakura… what happened? Are you alright?" Tsunade asked worried at her apprentice.
Sakura nodded and spoke, "Tsunade-sama… please forgive me…"
"What? Whatever do you mean?" she asked as she felt even more worried especially when she saw a hint of sadness in her apprentice's eyes also because she noticed that someone was missing, a certain blond-haired loudmouth.
Sakura opened the door to reveal Sasuke, who had his eyes closed and Naruto who also had his eyes closed on Sasuke's back.
Everybody in the room gasped at the sight of the Uchiha survivor. Sasuke stepped into the room, still having his eyes closed.
Tsunade stood from her seat, her eyes wide, her mouth gaped.
"You did it, Sakura! You brought Sasuke back!" she said. But Sakura stayed silent.
"I thought something bad really happened, but what's wrong with Naruto? Did he exhaust himself?" she asked but then Sasuke walked toward the Hokage and every jounin that he passed gasped at the sight of Naruto.
Tsunade began to worry again as the Uchiha, still having his eyes closed stopped in front of her desk. The moment Sasuke put Naruto gently on her desk, her eyes frowned, she was frozen, she felt as if she was hit by every Jutsu Orochimaru could throw at her.
"N-no… thi-this isn't possible… n-no… noo!" she said in disbelief as tears started to flow down her cheeks. Shizune closed her mouth at the sight and dropped some scrolls that she was holding.
Everybody in the room was in state of disbelief, they couldn't accept the fact that Naruto had died.
Kakashi, Gai, Asuma, Ibiki, Anko, Kurenai, and Genma could only stare in disbelief.
Sasuke then opened his eyes to reveal his new eyes. Tsunade looked at him and was even more stunned.
"Y-you… those eyes…" she let out as she pointed a finger at him.
"I got them… after I killed him…" he said calmly.
Everybody in the room took their attention toward Sasuke and noticed that his eyes were different.
"That's the mangekyou Sharingan… but why is it white and blue?!" Kakashi said in disbelief.
"I told you already, I got them after I stabbed Naruto in the heart. As to why it's blue and white, beats me…"
Tsunade held Sasuke by the collar as she was angry beyond pissed. "YOU! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!"
"Calm down, baa-chan…" Sasuke said, surprisingly enough his voice was similar to Naruto's.
Tsunade was surprised to hear that voice. "N-Naruto?"
"Yes, Naruto is, technically within me… I've killed him but I've also made a promise… which is to go back to Konoha and protect Sakura in his place." Sasuke said.
Tsunade let go of him and fell on her chair. Suddenly the door went open to reveal the former rookie 9 and Gai's team.
"Sasuke! You're back!" Ino said and was ready to hug him but was stopped at the heavy atmosphere.
"H-hey, what's wrong? This room feels really heavy…" Kiba said.
"Hm? What's Naruto doing on the desk?" Shikamaru asked.
"Hey, you're right… what's he doing there?" Tenten asked.
Hinata was peeking from behind her teammates.
When Sasuke turned around, he revealed his mangekyou sharingan to his friends.
"O-oi, Sasuke, weren't your eyes black?" Shikamaru asked.
"Minna… Naruto is dead…" Sakura said sadly.
Everyody was stunned. They couldn't consume what Sakura said.
"S-stop joking around, Sakura!" Ino let out as she thought Sakura was joking.
To everyone's surprise, Hinata stepped forward, she was walking toward the crying Hokage. She gulped as she was getting closer to her secret love.
Sasuke looked at her and stepped aside to let her have a good look at Naruto. When Hinata saw a hole at Naruto's left lung, she gasped and tears were falling down. When she was about to faint, Neji came just in time to catch her.
Neji's eyes widened as he, too, saw the hole in Naruto's left lung. He closed them as soon as possible and looked away. The others quickly went toward Naruto to check if what Sakura said was true.
One by one gasped as they confirmed what they didn't want to believe. Ino, Lee, Tenten, Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru cried. Shino and Neji stayed silent, battling their desire to cry at the loss of their friend.
"H-how could this happen?" Ino asked.
"I killed him… " Sasuke said nonchalantly.
Shikamaru held him by the collar now and was glaring at him. "Y-You…!!"
"Calm yourself Shikamaru… I am ready to take any kind of punishment, I too feel regret for killing the dobe, but, it vanished as soon as I got these eyes. They're Naruto's…" Sasuke said as his eyes softened.
Everybody in the room stayed silent, until Kakashi spoke.
"We can't stay like this forever, Hokage-sama. Let's have a proper funeral for Naruto… we'll inform everyone… we'll think about Sasuke later…"
Tsunade was feeling lost, she couldn't even feel her hands. She was numb, frozen. Kakashi could only sigh at the sight of a lost Hokage, he then decided that he'll let her and everybody else mourn some more. He also decided to leave the room and went to the Konoha memorial place. Soon, he will mourn not only for one name on the stone, but two.
In the room, everyone has now tears falling down their cheeks, even the coldest jounin such as Ibiki let a single tear falling down, Tsunade however was broken.
"Nawaki… Dan… Naruto…Why do you guys have to leave me?..." she asked herself.
Blood were all over him, yet he was at peace as a smile was pasted on his face. Sasuke looked at the corpse and thought.
"Don't worry, Naruto… I'll be by your side soon, but not now… until then, Sayonara…"