Naruto knew he was doing the wrong thing. When he returned to Konoha, if he returned to Konoha, Naruto knew Kakashi would be hurt by his decision, but Sakura would see it as a betrayal. From the moment Naruto failed to bring Sasuke back, together, they vowed they would bring him home. Sai would be the only one to not care about his lone decision.

But Sakura didn't know how far the blonde really went, desperately searching for information on where Orochimaru's latest hideout was. Naruto always searched alone and always dealt with the failure of another dead-end alone. Just as he was beginning to give up, he found something. Something that seemed undeniably genuine, something Naruto simply could not pass up.

As he approached the location, the blonde felt it. The very thing he had been dreaming of for years; Sasuke's chakra. It felt the same, yet so much more powerful. The blonde closed his eyes and sighed; he let the raven's chakra surround him. Sasuke's presence was overwhelming. Finally, his search had come to an end.

The blonde followed Sasuke's chakra. It led him right to the raven and Naruto felt something cold and sharp against his throat in a very threatening manner. The blonde ignored Sasuke's kusanagi that pressed against his neck and he stared into Sasuke's dark eyes that were glaring back from the eerie candlelight. "You really are an idiot." Naruto didn't move.

Sasuke was right. He was an idiot, in so many ways. "Are you still living under the delusion that one day you will actually be able to bring me back to that pathetic little village?" the raven said with a slight sneer. Naruto didn't look away from Sasuke when he replied, "I need to know, Sasuke." All this time, all Naruto could think about. He spent almost every moment, wondering. It was the one thing that made Naruto have hope for Sasuke, and it fuelled his dream of bringing the raven home. "Go ahead. I need to know…if you really can." Sasuke's eyes narrowed as the blonde talked softly. "Its just us now, Sasuke. No one is here to stop you. Can you really kill me?" Naruto asked in a whisper. His reply was a smirk.

"You've just walked into your own death, dobe."

"Perhaps." Naruto closed his eyes. He braced himself for what Sasuke might do. The blonde felt Sasuke's grip waver. The motion made a small, shallow cut on the blonde's neck. The crimson liquid travelled in a thin line down the cut and pooled on the sword. Hope soared within Naruto; Sasuke was hesitating. A cold-blooded killer, like Orochimaru, wouldn't have hesitated for a second. Naruto opened his eyes and smiled a little. The feeling felt strange; he hadn't truly smiled for years. "You can't, can you?" he asked gently. The sword was pulled back and Sasuke had a strange look on his face, akin to confusion.

"I knew that my Sasuke was still in there somewhere."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sasuke spat angrily. He couldn't believe it; his own body had betrayed him in removing the sword from its threatening position. "I'm talking about the fact that the Mangekyo sharingan is within your reach, but you wont take it…because I still mean something to you." The blonde replied.

"Haven't we been through this, baka?" he snarled. "I don't want to give Itachi the pleasure of seeing me obtain power in his ways." Sasuke spat the name like it was poison. Even his voice was betraying him now; it was wavering slightly, a problem Sasuke had never encountered before. The sword was raised again, with a burst of determination. It didn't quite reach Naruto's throat again. It hovered above Naruto's shoulder. "I'm feeling generous, and I'm not in the mood for blood. Get out now, and I wont kill you." The blonde ignored him.

"We can do it together, Sasuke. I hate Itachi as much as you do." Sasuke was incensed by this. "What reason would you have for hating Itachi?" he asked angrily. Naruto had no right claiming to hate his brother the same. Naruto hadn't had his entire family brutally murdered by the man. In fact, Naruto had hardly even had any contact with the older Uchiha for such a severe hate to form. The blonde's gaze hit the floor. "He took away the one person who was important to me. He made you like this. He made you leave. He took you away from me and I hate him for that."

Sasuke just glared. "You know nothing of hate. This is my destiny, my revenge. Don't make me kill you." The blonde looked up at Sasuke once more. Naruto gently placed his fingertips on the end of Sasuke's blade and pushed it across until it rested back on his throat. "Kill me then. You keep threatening to do it, so go ahead. Because I'm not leaving."

"D-don't fucking push me!" Sasuke snarled. The blonde simply stared at him with those unbelievably blue eyes. With a growl Sasuke threw the kusanagi on the floor and grabbed the blonde's jacket. "Why do you always have to ruin things?" he pushed the blonde against the wall. Sasuke felt a hand on his chest.

Naruto wasn't pushing; he just gripped onto Sasuke gently. Sasuke pulled Naruto forward a little, only to slam him back against the wall. Naruto couldn't help but making a pained whimper as his head collided painfully with the stone wall behind him. Naruto's eyes fell on the discarded kusanagi. "Well?" he asked Sasuke wearily. Sasuke gripped harder on the blonde's jacket. "What the fuck is wrong with you? Your acting like you really do want me to kill you!" Naruto stared back with lifeless blue eyes.

"But will you, Sasuke?" Sasuke knew what Naruto wanted; the blonde wanted to fucking hear it.

"No." Sasuke spat through gritted teeth. Naruto smiled and let his head rest on Sasuke's shoulder. "Thank you." He whispered.

The raven felt the warm puffs of breath on his shoulder as Naruto spoke, and wondered to himself why he couldn't pull away. Still, as Naruto put his arms around Sasuke, the raven didn't pull away. He was frozen, by the unfamiliar feeling. Sure, Sakura had hugged him before, but all he felt was a desire to get away from her. This was different. Sasuke decided this charade had continued for long enough. "I'm never going back with you." Once again, Naruto had blinded him from the things that mattered. Power and vengeance. Just as Sasuke went to move away from Naruto and pick up his katana, he felt something warm and wet trickle down his shoulder.

That could only mean one thing. He finally pushed the blonde away and tilted Naruto's head up and confirmed that Naruto was crying. The cheerful, smiling dobe that never seemed to let anything get to him, was actually crying. The blonde just didn't deal with things that way; he'd just laugh it off and hide his pain. But…the naïve young idiot he used to know had changed in ways Sasuke hadn't foreseen. Naruto looked down, ashamed of his tears. His blonde hair fell down and covered his eyes. "W-why…?" 'Why are you crying?' The question was left unsaid, but the blonde answered anyway.

"For you." Naruto mumbled.

He looked up again, tears spilling from his eyes. "And for what we could have been," Sasuke stepped back. That feeling, the one he thought he had banished years ago, appeared. Was Naruto saying…what he thought he was saying? That emotion, again, filling him. But that emotion was exactly the thing that made him weak. It was stopping him from fulfilling his destiny.

It was holding him back. That part of him that wanted to hold Naruto, return home, and explore these unfamiliar yet exciting new feelings he had rediscovered. That disgusting part inside him that wanted to make sure nothing ever made Naruto cry again and keep him happy. It needed to stop. "You wont find me again." Blue eyes widened in shock; Naruto knew exactly what was coming next. He quickly moved forward and kissed Sasuke urgently, just before he felt the familiar pain in the back of his neck.

"Love you," he muttered quietly before falling against Sasuke. The raven pretended he hadn't heard what Naruto had just said, and dumped the blonde unceremoniously on the floor. Sasuke simply stared at Naruto, a part of him longing for something he couldn't quite place. Naruto's blonde hair was splayed out across the floor, making him look so…angelic.

Sasuke shook his head violently. Or perhaps, more accurately, was too scared to place. Because Sasuke knew he couldn't let those feelings free. He couldn't admit them, not when his destiny was within his reach. So he did the only thing he could do; he walked away, leaving the blonde to wake up and find a completely empty hideout.

Naruto didn't even bother getting up off the floor. Sasuke would be long gone. He pulled Sasuke's old headband from his pocket, held it against his chest, and cried.

A/n: just a shot little one-shot I wrote, trying to clear a little writer's block. I felt a little obliged since I haven't written anything since 'Naruto's Angel'

Hope you enjoyed!

Whippasnappa x