No regrets for the wicked

A/N: Meh, just an one hour one-shot, don't expect too much.

Sasuke leaned against the tree, panting wearily. His clothes were torn and bloody, stained by the dozen small wounds that covered his body. One of his eyes had gotten a cut right above them and the blood blinded the eye. He hurt all over, his head especially, and weariness was slowly setting in. Still, as bad as he looked it was nothing compared to the mess that lay around him. Two dozen shinobi lay dead at his feet, several of them had been jonin too. A hundred meters in each direction the forest was totally demolished. Tree trunks were torn apart and lay scattered over the forest floor, fires could be seen here and there and dozens of craters covered the ground. Yet, it was quiet, at least for now. Sasuke stuck his sword into the ground, taking care to not push it too far down and blunt it on rocks or something. With both hands free he could tear off parts of his sleeve and make a bandage for his head. Wiping the blood out of his eyes with the help of the last water in his water bottle, he proceeded to tie the rag around the head to cover the wound. It would do, at least for now.

He was too weary to be upset about his failure as it was. All he could think of was to regain what strength he could before the enemy came at him again. A wry smile spread over his face at the realization that he probably had brought this upon himself. With the death of Naruto Konoha had lost all qualms about coming after him in full force, no longer hesitating to destroy the Uchiha "traitor". How droll, they had framed and feared the Uchiha without any reason, butchered his entire clan when decades of isolation and resent against them made his clan lose their reasons to believe in Konoha and now they had the gall to call him a traitor? Heh... Sasuke couldn't help but smile. He'd die soon, more Konoha shinobi would come and Sasuke, already wounded and weak, would in the end be taken down by their sheer numbers. Nearly a decade of cat-and-mouse play had come to an end here and he'd be dead before the sun set.

Yet... here, at the end of all things, he couldn't help but wonder. Where had it all ended? This road he had taken, when had it been the only road left? Had it been when Orochimaru's sound four had approached him, offering him power beyond what Konoha ever could give him? Perhaps Sakura could have swayed him? He had been tempted, he didn't deny that. Or perhaps later, when Naruto had chased him all the way to the valley of the end, screaming for him to return. The dobe had said that he understood Sasuke's pain, something that even now made him sneer in contempt. Only... it wasn't quite as strong as it used to be. Naruto's sheer willpower did make an impression, three years later he had still tried to "save" Sasuke. And if he had done that, if Sasuke had managed to leave his hate behind, or perhaps at least decided to stick with Konoha, what would have happened then?

If it had been that evening when he left Konoha, still reeling after Itachi's second use of Tsukuyomi on him... Naruto would have probably been ice cold with him for a day or two, perhaps gloated over his success. No... gloating wasn't really Naruto's thing, not too much at least. Who knew... perhaps he would have held out a fist towards Sasuke, telling him with that impudent grin that they still had to finish the fight, that Sasuke was welcome to challenge him at any time. And Sakura? If she had been the one to sway him she'd probably be as annoying as always. Or? She had grown somewhat, he could admit that looking back now. After three years she was different, very much so. He hadn't ever thought about girls back then, but if he had... what kind would he have preferred? Not the kind that had clung on him throughout the academy, that was a given. But the girl that had managed to kill one of the Akatsuki? The powerful disciple of Tsunade, fearless and dedicated? Who knew...

What if Naruto had defeated him at the valley of the end? Sakura would have thrown herself at him when he got back, that was for sure. Or yet again was it? If he had in the end not gone with Orochimaru, no matter the way... what then? Would he have become weaker? The dobe had prospered enough that when he died against Sasuke five years ago it had been one of the most pitched battle of Sasuke's life. What strength could he, the supposed genius, have gained in Konoha?

Orochimaru had made him powerful, very much so. But perhaps he could have tricked fate there after those three years? By going with Naruto when he came after him again, perhaps he could have claimed the best of both worlds? Kakashi had from what Sasuke had heard developed some new kind of jutsu from his Sharingan, a kind of jutsu never seen before. If he could have claimed that kind of jutsu, gained it from his old sensei, what would have happened then?

But no... that was not an option, he couldn't forgive them, not the ones who made his big brother kill his entire clan. Never... not ever. He had sworn that he'd raze everything they loved to the ground, claim the most terrible vengeance he could, anything to get back at them. Konoha had to die, there was no other option...

But what if they hadn't done it? What if Itachi's goals had been the ones he had claimed from the start? What if, instead of killing Naruto and aiming to destroy Konoha, Sasuke had stayed there? The grinning dobe had been recognized as a hero by Konoha, been given respect and admiration. Had Sasuke once wanted that?

He probably had, before the death of his clan. Weirdly enough; for a man that had been obsessed with avenging his loved ones it was strange to not even remember his parents' faces. The clan simply were a dark, amorphous blob in the back of his head,. It had once been his identity, his family, everything, and then in one fell strike Itachi had made it something he had to avenge, his reason for being was not the clan, but avenging it. More and more the details of the clan had vanished, leaving only a source of hate and anger.

No, what he had done hadn't been something he could have chosen. He hated too much, lived for hate and the dream of revenge. He could no more abandon it than Naruto could have abandoned his dream of being accepted and becoming the hokage. If he had done it it would have broken him, destroyed him. If only Itachi hadn't killed them all... if only his family hadn't been planning that coup... if only Madara hadn't made Konoha so fearful of the Uchiha... then he could perhaps have chosen another route.

Sasuke could vaguely feel other chakras approaching now. They were coming. Konoha's second wave came for him. The companions he had gathered after he killed Orochimaru, Suigetsu, Juugo and Karin were all dead. At one point he had started to care for them, there was no point in denying that. Yet, in the end his hatred had devoured that caring as well, making him see them only as expendable tools. Now they were gone and soon he'd be dead too. He looked towards the west and saw the setting sun. It was beautiful... Its flames licked the horizon, bathing it in golden light. The flames of life... life, unlike his flames of death... the Uchiha flames of death.

That was fate for you... the Uchiha were condemned to betrayal, hate and revenge, had been ever since they came in contact with Konoha. Who carried the blame in the end? Itachi? The elders who had ordered him? His clan who had conspired against Konoha? The Nidaime who had isolated and distrusted them? Madara who had caused him to do it? No... no one person carried the blame here... it was all fate... To what end they were born they would also die. Sasuke reached into his pouch and took out a soldier pill and chewed down on it. The refreshing feeling was instant and he felt how the weariness faded somewhat.

Fate had brought him here. He had been born for this. With him the Uchiha lineage would end and this hurricane of hatred would come to an end. Tearing the blade out of the ground, he took a deep breath and stood up. Strange that he would think of things like that now, at the end of all things. Perhaps the certainty of his death gave him clarity?

Then they came. With blurs of motion figures appeared around him, the Konoha shinobi coming again. This time they weren't a large group however: they were no more than three all in all. Only three? What was this? The group consisted of two men and one woman. One of the men wore glasses and seemed somehow a bit reminiscent of Kabuto. The other carried along scarf and had an angular face that somehow felt familiar. The women had long red hair done up in two long pigtails.

"Sasuke-teme..." the scarf-guy said now, his voice filled with anger. The tone in his voice surprised Sasuke, it sounded much like Naruto in a way.

"Do I know you, brat?" He asked, standing still with his blade in his hand. He hadn't moved a muscle, he dared them to make the first move. The scarf-man clenched his teeth and his hands balled into fists. The girl put a hand on his shoulder now, calming him down.

"You'll know me soon enough." he said after a second, somewhat calmer. "You killed the guy I considered my big brother."

"That so?" Sasuke looked around, "Mind pointing him out? I've killed quite a lot of you Konoha-nins this far."

"I'm talking about Naruto you traitor!" the young man snarled now, making Sasuke blink. Now what was this? "I am Sarutobi Konohamaru, grandchild of the third hokage." the man continued. "And I'm gonna make you pay for what you did to Naruto."

Sasuke couldn't help but smile. The grandchild of the third Hokage? How poetic. The grandchild of the third would finish what the third's master's had started. A dry chuckle escaped Sasuke now, his certainty of that fate had led him here only intensified.

"You mean you're gonna try, right?" He asked with a smirk. "My master killed your grandfather, I killed Naruto. What makes you think you have any chance against me?" he asked the question with a jeering tone, planning to rile his opponent. It was first now that Sasuke realized something however, the other guy wasn't there. His instincts flared up and he dodged in the very last moment as a kunai swept through the air above his head. The bespectacled guy had stabbed at his neck from behind, crept up behind him nearly without being noticed. Also, now the two others came from the front!

Sasuke weaved to the side, dodging a downwards swipe from glasses-man's kunai, parried a savage blow from the girl who wielded two sai which she used to lock his blade for just one moment. Sasuke got out of it quickly but not quickly enough to stop the scarf-man, Konohamaru, from stabbing towards his gut with a long combat staff, a staff which shot out towards him, grew several meters in a moment. Sasuke was his cleanly in the gut and propelled backwards, a choked grunt coming from him. When he landed it was with a somersault and he didn't lose his balance. The hit hadn't wounded him, only winded him somewhat. Yet, when he landed the three shinobi were all around him, forming a triangle around him. Konohamaru was in front of him, the man twirling his staff in his hands.

"Because I don't fight alone." he said, his teeth still gritted. Sasuke however, only smiled. Good, that was really good. They were head and shoulders above the earlier shinobi, no doubt of that. He wouldn't survive this, no chance. He neither could or would run and these three had him at a disadvantage.

"A loser is always a loser." he said. "If you plan to challenge that, come on!" Sasuke activated his sharingan and instantly wove a powerful genjutsu. Kicking into high gear, he charged as fast as he could with his sword ready to strike. Uchiha Sasuke went into his final battle without regrets, without remorse and without redemption. The path he had walked he walked to the end, no matter what corpses he left in his wake.

Thirty minutes later the last of the Uchiha was dead, the secrets of the sharingan lost for eternity.