Maybe Now You'll Finally Get It
He is winning.
He is winning and it feels good.
The dregs of his chakra flicker weakly, a minor cause for concern. Then a whirling ball of rage fizzles out in Naruto's palm and the idiot trips over himself. The most powerful ninja in the world, taken out by a loose rock.
Sasuke leaps up and darts forward, aiming a kick at his best friend's chin that sends him flying backwards. He chases after, landing on top of Naruto and pressing him roughly into the dirt. One hand grips Naruto's tattered mesh shirt, the other balls into a fist, arm pulled back. As he starts to swing, Naruto smiles.
The fist crashes into Naruto's cheek, knocking his head to the side. He looks up at Sasuke with an eye that reflects the sky, lips quirking to reveal too sharp teeth.
In a voice rough with dust and exhaustion, he asks, "Is that it?"
Sasuke punches him again for good measure.
"Why won't you die?" Sasuke shouts, eyes burning with the need for all of this to end. His vision is hazy, Rinnegan stuttering with his waning power and unable to resolve the dying world around him.
Naruto laughs, a sound so raw and out of place Sasuke halts another savage fist.
“The fuck is so funny?”
Naruto tilts his head to face him fully, tongue darting out to lick blood seeping lazily from his split lip.
"You killed me four years ago,” he says, baring his teeth in a feral grin. “Right here. Don't you remember?" His empty laughter scatters across the water, filling the wrecked and hollow valley. "I've been dying ever since."
Naruto closes his eyes and throws an arm across his face. Sasuke sits back and lets his hands fall to his side. The throbbing of his swollen knuckles flares all his other injuries to life.
A moment passes, and Naruto drops his arm back to the ground. Golden eyelashes shimmer with tears, red-rimmed eyes forever scarred into Sasuke’s memory by his cursed bloodline.
“Just end it, Sasuke,” Naruto says. “Finish what you started. I’m done.” He closes his eyes again, a sad smile playing on his lips until it fades and there’s nothing. “I’m tired.”
Sasuke examines Naruto's face carefully, and for once relays his thoughts out loud.
"This isn't like you."
It makes Naruto laugh again, offending the few remaining shreds of Sasuke's dignity. Naruto abruptly sits up, knocking Sasuke off and onto the ground.
"What the fuck do you know about me?" Naruto demands, eyes tear streaked and blazing, face dangerously close to Sasuke's. "It's been four years. Four years. You think you know who I am? I barely know who I am! My whole life, this whole world, has been reduced to you and your stupid clan, all your self-loathing and your drama."
Sasuke watches the display, watches Naruto struggle to his feet and stagger off towards a discarded kunai.
"You told me back then that I couldn't understand you," Naruto says, picking up the dull blade. He chuckles, turning it over in his hand. "As if you understood me. Or even cared to."
Sasuke eyes him warily, rolling into a crouch.
"Did you know today was the first time anyone said 'happy birthday' to me?" Naruto keeps his eyes on the kunai, turning it over and over again. "My dead father is the only person. I didn't even know who my father was until a few months ago. Or who my mother was, until a few days ago. Do you know what that's like, Sasuke? To have nothing? To have no one? You had a family. You had a clan. Nothing of mine exists anymore."
He looks up, gives Sasuke another brittle smile. "Except me, I guess. The loser, the dead last. But you'll take care of that soon. I kinda feel bad about all those people in cocoons. When I'm dead there's no chance of releasing them. Oh," he says, seeing the subtle surprise in Sasuke's widened eyes. "Didn't think of that, did you, genius? I guess you can repopulate the world with Sakura." Naruto chuckles again. "At least someone will be happy."
"Naruto…"
"Shut up."
Naruto walks towards him, considers the kunai in his hand. "You want my life?" He throws the blade and it skitters across the rocks, spinning to a stop at Sasuke's feet. "Take it. I don't need it anymore." Naruto slumps back to the ground, waiting.
Sasuke ignores the weapon and pushes himself to his feet, swaying slightly with the unbearable weakness caused by fighting a goddess and fighting his only friend.
"So that's it?" He says, running a hand through his hair. "You're giving up? Letting me do things my way? What happened to your nindo?"
But Naruto doesn't answer him, his attention drawn elsewhere as his eyes scan the forest surrounding the valley, glazing over as they pass by Sasuke.
"The pain of you leaving," Naruto says, staring at something unseen. "Every day, it was like my heart was being ripped out. I couldn't eat, I barely slept. I always wondered if I should have left with you. I mean, I ended up leaving anyway, but I wish it was with you."
Sasuke puts a hand on his face, hiding his emerging blush with a scoff. "Back to talking me out of it?"
Naruto rolls his eyes. "Out of what? If I live, you'll be living in the world we make together. If I die, it's just you, Sakura, and Kakashi. It doesn't matter what I do. So no, asshole, I'm not trying to talk you out of anything. Not anymore."
"Then what?" Sasuke asks, taking a step forward. "You don't care about Konoha anymore? Or being Hokage?"
"Fuck Konoha," Naruto says. "And, honestly, fuck being Hokage too. None of that matters without you."
Sasuke drops to his knees in front of Naruto, grabbing him by his shirt. "Because I'm your friend?" He sneers. "Because you want to, what was it? Break every bone in my body and drag me back home?"
Naruto shakes his head. "I'm not going to take you back to a place you hate, and a place that hates me."
"But you're their hero now," Sasuke says, relaxing his grip. "Isn't that what you wanted? Everyone to acknowledge you?"
"I was sacrificed to the village the day I was born," Naruto says. "I should never have had to fight to be treated like a person." He meets Sasuke's gaze. "And there was really only one person I wanted acknowledgement from."
Sasuke tenses as Naruto encircles his wrists, moving Sasuke's hands to his neck. "It's funny. You thought you had to leave to get stronger. Everyone loved and supported you. You had money. You were wanted. But you ran off with some creep. And still, you ended up being second best."
It has always been so easy for Naruto to stoke Sasuke's anger, to prod recklessly at his weaknesses. His fingers flex around Naruto's throat, strangely soft and unmarked despite the endless days of fighting.
He pushes Naruto back to the ground, climbing on top of him, wanting some kind of reaction from the boy who promised never to give up on anything. Who promised never to give up on him.
"Is that why you're so obsessed with me?" Sasuke asks, voice dripping with contempt. "Because you're jealous?"
Naruto looks scandalized by the accusation. "Are you really that stupid?"
"Tell me, or I'll—"
"Kill me?" Naruto says, grinning like a fool. "Come here," he says, grabbing Sasuke's collar and dragging him down. "Maybe now you'll finally get it."
Sasuke barely has time to catch himself before Naruto's lips collide gently with his own, and thoughts and feelings he's relentlessly pushed down suddenly stir to life. He's torn between strangling Naruto and tearing his clothes off, and settles for tracing the whiskers on his cheeks.
For the first time in years, things are starting to make sense.