Chapter One: Mulling Over Things:

Sasuke Uchiha’s POV (3rd Person)


Sasuke Uchiha wasn’t paying attention to his teammates’ useless bickering that evening. Instead, he was lost in his own thoughts, silently mulling over his recent decision.
The decision on how to obtain the Mangekyo Sharingan and finally defeat his older brother, Itachi.

He was going to kill his best friend, something he should’ve done a long time ago. 3 years ago, in fact.

Sasuke was going to kill Naruto Uzumaki.

“SHUT UP SUIGETSU!” a particularly shrill shriek jolts the raven out of his thoughts. Looking up, Sasuke watches Karin, his annoying, red-headed, female teammate, slug Suigetsu, another annoying, and loud, white-haired teammate, in the face.

The sharp-toothed teen yelps and grabs his already-swelling jaw. “OW! THAT HURT KARIN!”

Jugo ignores the two and continues to whisper to his bird friends. Sasuke fights the urge to roll his eyes. How come any teammate that he has had turned out to be loud and annoying? He didn’t understand at all…

Without any warning, the raven suddenly stands up from his spot. “Breaktime’s over. Let’s go.” Not even waiting to see if his team was ready, Sasuke leaves the clearing. Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo get up as well and start to follow their leader. None of them say anything, not even Suigetsu, because it was as plain as day that Sasuke was in no mood for conversation.

By the time the group was a couple miles from their destination, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, it was nighttime. If you were to look up at the sky, sometimes you could see all the stars and a full moon. Of course, none of Team Hebi paid any attention to this and continues to move forward.

While the other three members of the team were lost in whatever they were thinking, Sasuke couldn’t help but think about his old teammate. The blonde dobe was always happy and loud and…..well, had acted like a dobe. Naruto was always grinning and brightened up everyone’s day. Hell, he even made Sasuke happy, even if it was only for a brief period of time.

Suddenly, Karin, who was a couple paces behind Sasuke, halts, thus, causing the other three males to stop as well. “There’s someone coming this way!”

“How many are there?” Sasuke asks. This could be a problem. If there were a lot of enemy ninja, then we wouldn’t be able to escape unscathed. And there could be reinforcements as well.

“Only one….” Karin replies, her eyes shut tightly, meaning that she was trying to sense anymore chakras that could be masked. After a few moments, the red-headed female shakes her head. “I only sense one person, and their chakra’s weird. It’s as if there are two different chakras in one body, and the darker, secondary one seems to be repressed. And the main chakra seems to be weak. I almost didn’t catch it.”

Two chakras?...the raven thinks to himself, and one of them being dark?....Could this possibly be Naruto? The Uchiha knew of the Kyuubi that resided in his ex-teammate from his time spent with Orochimaru. It didn’t really surprise him when he found out because it explained the villagers’ hatred towards to blonde.

Without saying a word, Sasuke continues ahead, towards where Karin said the person was at. He ignores the couple protests that were followed with the sounds of them catching up. Now the Uchiha was thinking about how to handle the fight with his ex-teammate. If this person was truly the blonde, then he probably has gotten a lot stronger after three years of training, and his determination would keep him going at all costs.
Naruto Uzumaki’s POV (3rd Person)

A certain blonde jinchuriki was walking along a small hardly-used dirt path, his cerulean-blue eyes fixed upward at the star-filled sky. His eyes were dull and his gait was uneven. He was wearing the traditional ninja mourning clothes (a black long-sleeved shirt with black pants) that one wore when someone had passed away. However, no one had died recently. Or at least not yet.

The blonde also had no shoes on, but he didn’t care. He paid no attention to the sharp gravel that pricked his bare feet. He didn’t care one bit.

A razor-sharp kunai hung from his fingers. The blade gleamed darkly.

A montage of thoughts and memories ran through the blonde’s head.

Demon!

Die you monster!

Why can’t you just go crawl in a hole and die demon?

A single tear falls from his unfocused blue eyes. Soon…he promises, soon, it’ll all be over.

After a few more moments of traveling in silence, the lone blonde arrives at a small clearing. The area wasn’t that impressive-just a clearing filled with knee-high grass -but it would be efficient enough to serve his purpose.

The blonde stood in the middle of the clearing. He takes one more look at the night sky and sighs. This is it….my time is up…..

Then, just as he was about to raise the arm with the kunai up, a dark figure steps out of the shadowy woods directly in front of him. “Naruto.”
Sasuke Uchiha’s POV (3rd Person)

The sky-blue eyes that were previously dull and unfocused widened and lit up. But not with the happiness that the Uchiha was expecting. Instead, those eyes were filled with fear, which shocked the raven to a stop. Fear? In Naruto? Impossible! And what’s with the dobe’s outfit? It’s black! Where’s the orange at? Random thoughts flitted through Sasuke’s mind while he stared at his ex-teammate.

Naruto’s spikey blonde hair was lighter in color than it once was, and it also lost some of its wildness. His once bright-blue eyes were lifeless-looking until he saw Sasuke, and they were now filled with fear. There were dark circles underneath his eyes and his black clothes hung limply from his body. Is he not taking care of himself properly? What’s going on!?

Sasuke narrows his eyes, and in one swift movement, the Uchiha was standing in front of the Uzumaki.

This sudden movement, plus the raven’s intimidating glare, causes the blonde to let out a small scream and steps back. In the process, he also drops his kunai. The shock of seeing the raven causes Naruto to slip, landing on the cold ground with a slightly audible thud.
Sasuke winces softly at the sound. What’s the dobe doing?

While the said blonde lies on the ground, momentarily stunned, Sasuke stares at his ex-teammate, his face void of emotion. When he raises a hand towards Naruto, the jinchuriki rockets up and scrambles away from him. “Please! Don’t hurt me! Please!”

Once again, Sasuke is speechless. What is going on here!?!?
Naruto’s POV 1st Person

I try to put as much distance as I could between me and…..him.

What’s Sasuke doing here? Is he here to finish the job? Is he here to kill me?

At that last thought, there’s a disturbingly familiar feeling in my chest. It felt like I couldn’t get enough oxygen no matter how hard I breathed.

By now I was on my knees, one hand keeping me steady on the ground and the other clenching at my heart. My heart was beating erratically, I was gasping for air, and I felt deathly cold.

NononononononononononNO! Not another one! I can’t have another one of these! Not now! Not in front of him! I was in this position for what seemed like forever, forever trying to breathe in enough air and failing to do so, in a state of utter panic. Then there’s a sharp pain from the back of my neck-something that I never felt before while having an attack-and there was nothing but black.
Sasuke’s POV 3rd Person

The raven stands above the now unconscious blonde, still shocked. Naruto, what’s going on? Sasuke picks up his former teammate from the ground and starts to walk back to his team.

When he reaches the trees, Juugo was there waiting for him. From the expression written on his face, Sasuke didn’t have to ask him what all he saw. After all, he saw the whole thing.

Now what to do with the dobe?