gale: Chapter 402 was lovely, Kishimoto-sensei.

aya: thank you, sensei..

Disclaimer: Naruto is the genius creation of one Masashi Kishimoto. Do you see a genius here..? Yes..? Well, this genius is not Kishimoto-sensei.. No? -raises eyebrow- What are you still doing here? Go read!

“I’m sorry, Sasuke. There won’t be a next time..”

“Teme! What do you think you’re doing?!”

“I have nothing against you. Move aside.” Naruto, of all people. I didn’t want to see you.

“What the hell!? What are you trying to say!”

“Move aside, Naruto. You’re not my enemy.”

“But you’re going to destroy-”

“It doesn’t concern you. Nothing concerns you.” Move aside. I don’t want to hurt you.

“Get down, Naruto!”

“NO! What the hell are you doing Kakashi-sensei! It’s Sasuke!”

“Kakashi-sensei! Don’t!”

“Sasuke! What-”

“NARUTO!”

Even if you came to hate me because of it..

“St-stop it, S-sasuk-ke..” Sasuke-kun.. why are you doing this..?Why?

Sharingan. Blood red. Mangekyou. The cursed.

“Thank you, Sakura..”

“You shouldn’t have gone in my way.” I didn’t want to kill you.

“Sasuke-ku-”

“S-sas‘ke..”

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.” But I have to.

Blades glinting. Eyes red. Blood. Red. Red. Red. Screams.

Red. Blood red. Blood.

“SAKURA!”

Red

He traded his pride for disgrace…

“How could you, you bastard?! She loved you! Even when you left the village, she never stopped loving you!”

Rage. Blue. Red. Rage. Hate.

“She never meant anything to me. Just like you. You were never anything. You were just annoying.”

“I’m going to make you pay for this!”

So much hate…

“Do you hate me now, Naruto? Do you want to kill me?”

“You don’t have enough hate, little brother..”

“You don’t hate me enough, Naruto.”

Not nearly enough

He traded your love for your hate…

“Sa.. Sasuke..?”

Panic. Pain. Confusion. Pain.

Pain. Pain. Pain.

“O..Oi.. Sasuke.. This..”

And even still…

“Na..”

Bloodstained. Cursed. Fate.

“Even if I break all the bones in your body..”

“N-na-naruto..”

“I’ll drag you all the way back to Konoha if I have to..”

Cursed. Mangekyou. Itachi. Sasuke.

Even still…

“Nii-san!”

“O-oi! Sasuke! Get up!”

“Maybe next time, Sasuke.”

“GET UP!”

Do you see it now, Sasuke?

“This isn’t funny!”

How clear can your Sharingan see now?

“GET UP!”

Dark. Cold. Calm.

“Nii-s-san…”

Free

He traded his pride for disgrace

He traded your love for your hate

And even still

Even still

“SASUKE!”

He died with a smile on his face

The skies were dark. The famed village was burning. To the ground… to the ground, it surely was going to burn to the ground. Konohagakure was in chaos, its children were running… to the ground, to the ground… It was all going back to the ground.

But he paid nothing any heed.

“Even if I break all the bones in your body..”

“Sasuke..?”

“I’ll drag you all the way back to Konoha if I have to..”

Naruto dropped to his knees, mind numb to all the panic filling the air. Sakura eyes were staring at him, unblinking, glassy. Kakashi’s body was a few feet away, his severed eye was still so red… still cursed by the Sharingan he was never able use fully… But at his feet…

At his feet…

“Sasuke..?” Naruto reached out a hand to touch his face, the face that had been haunting him for years… The face he’d been dreaming of since three years ago…

That face

He was cold, and his skin felt clammy. Blood was trailing from the both corners of his mouth, down, down
his chin, down to his neck. There was a gaping wound right in the center of his bare chest, and all Naruto could think was how wrong the picture was, how unreal the person in front of him looked.

How dead his smiling face seemed

He brought his fingers to his hair, fingers tangling with the strands. He tucked them behind one ear, sight getting blurry as he did. He didn’t know why the world was so hazy… was it a genjutsu? Surely, Sasuke wasn’t the one lying in front of him… Surely, this was just another one of his tricks… Surely, this was just an illusion…

Just a dream

“O-oi! Sasuke! Get up!”

Sasuke wasn’t dead…

“GET UP!”

He was coming home…

“This isn’t funny!”

He was coming home… He had achieved his goal…

“GET UP!”

Sasuke…

“Nii-s-san…”

Sasuke wasn’t dead.

“SASUKE!”

“I’m sorry, Sasuke.”

“Maybe next time.”

“I exist as the ultimate obstacle you must overcome.”

“How clear can your Sharingan see now?”

And we’ll continue to exist together..

“I’ll make them pay, Sasuke.”

“Tche. Usuratonkachi.”

“I promise.”

“Stop going after me Naruto.”

“I’ll defeat Akatsuki.”

“Forget about me, Naruto.”

“I won’t forget you.”

”And we’ll continue to exist together..”

“As one.”

From the rank depths of his chamber, the Kyuubi howled.

gale: Who got confused? Raise your hands!

aya: -raises both hands plus her feet-

gale: uh.. I said hands.

aya: you confused me too much, I don't even know which is which anymore.

gale: -twitch-