Chapter Text
Sasuke does not sit up immediately. No matter how loudly his mind and instincts scream at him to get up, to move, his aching body would not obey. His thoughts are jumbled up and he feels disoriented, unable to remember where he is and why he's there. The bright sunrise drills into his sensitive eyes as he tries to stand up, to ignore the pain he was feeling everywhere from-
He stops, looking to his side. Everything comes back to him as he stares at the person next to him.
Naruto.
It's impossible for him to not recognize the whiskered face, even as beaten and bruised as it is. He looks almost... peaceful, as he lays there, the early morning light making his blonde hair glow. Sasuke lets himself feel a moment of triumph.
Once again, he has won.
They've had this battle a million times, in this life and, as he's learned, in a million others. They were different, though. Indra and Ashura, Madara and Hashirama. They ended the same, with the Sage's favored son winning in the end. He is not Indra or Madara, and Naruto is not Ashura or Hashirama. He will not let himself be bound by something as fickle as fate, and the very proof lays only inches away from him.
Slowly, he makes his way over to Naruto. Even though he's only a couple of inches away, he takes his time. How ironic, he thinks, that this place is called the Valley of the End.
For him, this is only the start. This place is where he will begin shaping his world as he sees fit.
This is where his eternity begins.
Is it arrogant to think of the world as his already? Sasuke doesn't think so. Who was there left to oppose him? To change his mind? There has always only been one thing, one person, that prevented him from falling completely into the dark.
He comes to a stop, bending over slightly. Underneath him, Naruto's body is still, unmoving.
Naruto does not speak. He does not wake up. And, Sasuke realizes, as he looks closer, he does not breathe.
He begins to feel slightly lightheaded as the realization sinks in. Nothing else stands in his way. No one in this world was strong enough to beat him now. Now...
He's completely on his own.
It's almost ironic, how he ends up killing the people he cared about the most. First Itachi, and now Naruto. But their deaths mean as much to him as their lives had. Itachi's death guided him to the path of his dream, and Naruto's makes it possible.
Farewell, my one and only, he said not so long ago. As he hovers over Naruto, mirroring their first battle here, he lets himself feel the stabbing pain in his chest that does not come from any wound.
He would no longer deny the bond he had with Naruto. Perhaps only Itachi could compare with the impact Naruto seemed to have on him. But their connection, the reminder of simpler and happier times needed to be removed. It's a weakness he could not, would not allow himself to have.
"Now I am alone," he says, his voice cutting through the silence. No one answers.
They're the only ones left, after all.
Suddenly, he feels something. It's minuscule, tiny enough that he's overlooked it until now, but as he recognizes what it is, what it means, he can no longer ignore it.
As gentle as the flap of a butterfly's wings, Naruto's chakra signature maintains its slow but steady pulse.
Sasuke almost laughs, but any bit of humor he has left in him is quickly lost in the sea of anger he feels rushing up inside him.
"You... you always..."
He can't even manage to finish the sentence. His voice doesn't rise above a whisper, but the tinge of hysteria is loud and clear. Only moments ago, he'd mocked his predecessors, vowing to never become a part of the pattern that seemed to go on forever. But it seems that once again, he's underestimated the stubbornness of Naruto Uzumaki.
He could end it so easily. This tiny, fragile thing that was left of what they were and what they had been. It was already cracked and broken, so close to coming undone.
Even the slightest bit of force would shatter it.
Sasuke sits there, the sharp edge of his kunai against Naruto's tan neck for what feels like hours, trying to find the resolve he had moments ago to bring down the kunai and finish it for good.
Naruto's tone softened, and although Sasuke was nearly blind, he could hear the smile in his voice.
Even after all this time, he remembered it perfectly.
"I'm really glad I met you!"
Sasuke urges his protesting body into a standing position, and picks Naruto up.
If he dies, Sasuke will have to wait for the Kyūbi to reform in the human world. It's simply more convenient for him to extract it later. That's the only reason.
Sasuke doesn't know who he's justifying himself to. He ignores the tiny voice mentioning that his words don't seem to have any conviction backing them up.
He arrives at the battlefield just as the sun reaches the horizon. It's just as he had left it, a mess of debris, corpses, and weapons. There are many ways to describe the sight before him, but the word that stands out the most to him is tranquil. The sky is cloudless, and the sun is a vivid orange. It's rather warm for the time of year, and he finds himself leaning into the light breeze that sends strands of his hair dancing in front of his eyes. He can hear the faint call of birds in the distance, and can't stop a tiny smile from forming on his face. He's reminded of the few days he and Itachi had spent lounging around, stress and duties forgotten for a while.
He thinks for a moment to stop and enjoy the evening. It was so calm he’d nearly forgotten for a moment that he was walking on the blood of thousands. A tiny part of him was tempted to leave the Infinite Tsukuyomi as it was. Everyone would be able to live the perfect version of their life out in blissful ignorance, and the world itself would continue as he sees it now. The only ones who would know it was a lie were him and…
His pace slows down as he approaches the last two people left awake.
"Still alive and kicking? I'm almost impressed."
Kakashi and Sakura's eyes land on him for a second, before moving to the unconscious figure in his arms.
"There's… there's no way… Naruto wouldn't lose… he couldn't have-!"
Tears pour out of Sakura's horror-filled eyes as she tries to make sense of what she's seeing. Kakashi sinks backward, looking older than Sasuke has ever seen him.
"Do you finally have what you want, Sasuke?"
"Relax, he's not dead yet. But he will be, if you don't hurry," Sasuke drops Naruto where Sakura is sitting. She flinches, moving at the last second to catch him before his body hits the floor. Her shoulders tremble as she looks up to meet his eyes. Kakashi places a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugs it off, exploding with anger.
"Can you get any lower? All he ever focused on, everything he trained for, was you, and now-"
She gets over her grief quickly enough after she realizes Naruto is alright (in the loosest sense of the word), or at the least she's shoving it down to make room for her fury. There is only disgust left in her gaze, along with a hint of relief as she places two fingers on Naruto's tan wrist, medic instincts taking over as she runs glowing green hands across his chest. Hadn't she claimed to love him such a short time ago? It seems she has her limits- and he's finally reached them. All the better for him. Whatever she thought she felt for him was artificial, the remnants of a teenage girl's obsession. She didn’t know anything about his past, his hopes and dreams, and as he thinks about it, she likely doesn't even know about Itachi.
Just another person who only lived through his sacrifice, and she repaid him by cursing his name as everyone else did.
He's being slightly unfair, he concedes, but he's had enough of people who think they know what's best for him. People who think he should just let everything go, and live in ignorance as they do. He feels sickened at the thought of that village that enjoyed its prosperity while his brother paid for it, wasting away all those years. Thinking of his brother makes his heart clench painfully, so he turns his focus back to Sakura, who's muttering softly to Kakashi as she continues to heal Naruto.
"Well?"
She turns her head towards him, features tight with anger.
"What do you need to know for? So you can finish the job? I won't be a part of that."
He notices how tense she is, and as he focuses, he feels the slight but subtle shift of chakra as she begins to amass it, likely attempting to do so undetected. Do they still think they stand a chance? Adorable.
"If I wanted to kill him, it would've been done by now. And I expect an answer."
It's clear who holds the upper hand, and Sasuke won't let them forget it. Sakura bites the inside of her cheek hard, before spitting out,
"His vitals are stable for now. His chakra stores are close to nothing, but he's hanging in there for now. And… he's in some kind of coma. I don't know what it is, or how to wake him up. The Kyūbi seems to be in the same state as well, maybe his body is mimicking it until he's strong enough to wake up."
Sasuke processes the information. So he's not dying, then?
The thought doesn't bother him as much as it should. But he has more important things to worry about.
"That's all, then. I suppose I should thank you.".
His fingers lace together in a seal. Sakura and Kakashi flinch back, trying to get away from him as best they can in their condition. Their efforts are pointless, though. Two branches from the Divine Tree zip down, wrapping them up tightly. Sakura easily breaks through the restraints, her incredible strength making an appearance, but more and more replace them until she is completely covered.
The last Sasuke sees of them are two pairs of betrayed eyes.
He almost feels bad. He won't deny that Team 7 had been an important part of his life and that he's somewhat fond of all of them, but he's doing them a favor. They'll wake up in a better world.
And if things go the way he plans, they won't even remember this.
Sasuke considers starting then and there, but the injuries he's been ignoring come back full force. He feels exhausted. It doesn't make much of a difference anyway. He can afford to wait. He has all the time in the world now.
Sasuke lays down next to Naruto, his heavy eyelids fluttering shut. A gentle rain begins falling, and he lets himself be lulled to sleep by the quiet pitter-patter.
When Sasuke awakens, the sun is high in the sky, bright rays of light warm against his face. He squints, raising a hand to shield his eyes. He can't tell how many days have passed, but the ache all over his body has settled down to a dull throb. He sits up, dragging a hand over his face as the last bits of fatigue slip away. As he leans against a boulder, stretching his arms above his head, he thinks about what he plans to do in a short bit.
His plan is simple. As of now, the entire world is under a genjutsu, and he's the one in control of it. Although his original plan was to be the villain that united the world against him, he's decided that isn't the best course of action. He desires peace, but he doesn't care enough about the world to suffer for their sake for the rest of eternity. What he wants is to ensure that there is never another person that has to experience what Itachi had. So he decides to take a page from his book.
He'll fade into the background, guiding things along from the shadows.
The best lies have some element of truth to them. It makes them easier to remember, more believable. Knowing this, Sasuke crafts the perfect story.
It's simple enough. The remaining White Zetsu mutated after absorbing the remnants of chakra from the Tailed Beasts. They're dangerous, unpredictable, and seemingly invulnerable. The entire world is at their mercy, and there's no one strong enough to stand up to them.
The five Kage had died fighting Madara, after all.
With a simple curl of his fingers into a seal, every human being absorbs that as fact.
He watches as 5 bundles drip crimson blood onto the soil below. He distantly recalls that Naruto was rather fond of the Fifth Hokage, and the Kazekage. He remembers a boy his age crying out of sympathy for him, for the anguish they were both familiar with, for the people they'd become because of their villages.
He holds his shaking hands in the seal until the bandages are drenched with the same red as his Sharingan.
For a plan to keep the entire world under his control, it’s pretty easy to accomplish in the end, The Zetsu don't even need to be real. With Kakashi's fading away, he is the last Sharingan user in the world. And combined with his Rinnegan, there's no shinobi left that can see through his illusions. There's just a final finishing touch to add to his masterpiece.
There can be no story without its heroes.
Even as the last ones to go under it, Kakashi and Sakura are the first to awaken. Sakura blinks rapidly, disoriented, her vision blocked by something white. She shuffles uncomfortably at first, but begins to panic as she realizes her entire body is bound by the mysterious thing. Her breaths shorten, and she feels dizzy and claustrophobic. Forcing her limbs outwards in all directions, she hears the material snap from her massive strength. One hand reaches up quickly to tear it away from her face, and she takes a deep breath as the cool air blows over her.
She makes her way over to Kakashi, who is in a similar state. She offers him her arm, and he smiles at her tiredly as he swings his arm over her shoulder. All around then, the cocoons are being lowered to the ground. She sees familiar faces come out from underneath the wrapping, and she wants to rush over and help, but something is on her mind that she can't ignore.
"Sensei, do you see Naruto and Sasuke-kun anywhere?"
Kakashi blinks, looking around the area. Shinobi from every corner of the world surround them, but she can't see the distinctive orange and yellow that signify Naruto's presence anywhere. Reaching out with her chakra, she can't find their prominent chakra signatures, either.
She feels something heavy in the pit of her stomach. Naruto and Sasuke's chakra stand out like beacons in the dark. She's never felt signatures quite like theirs, and there was no mistaking them. She knows them like the back of her hand, Naruto's massive wildfire and Sasuke's sharper but no less intense chakra as familiar to her as Kakashi's rainstorm or Tsunade-shishou's cool summer breeze.
She remembers the last time she saw her teacher. Tsunade laid there, cut in two, her blond pigtails spread beneath her and the bold marks of the Hundred Strength seal burned into her skin.
Thinking about it makes her choke back a sob. Kakashi must notice, because the arm around her shoulder squeezes for a second. Her sensei has never been good with comforting, never known how to deal with his students emotions, but she appreciates the gesture anyway.
Rule 27. A shinobi must never show their tears.
She straightens her back and brushes her shaking hand over a diamond mark that only one other person has. Had. That she had just earned. She had been so proud of herself at that moment. Look at me, she had wanted to tell her, look at what I have accomplished. I've lived up to your legacy. I haven't put your teachings to waste. I've finally made you proud.
(She hears a soft laugh, before a hand that could crumble mountains dropped onto her hair, ruffling it. Don't be silly. You've already made me proud. Now, we have a patient in room 201 that's entering surgery. No time to slack now! Show me what you've learned, then.)
rule 27. a shinobi must never show their tears.
They make their way across the battlefield like that, leaning on each other for support, neither wanting to think about what could have happened while they were unconscious.
All of a sudden, Sakura feels Kakashi stop and go nearly completely limp. Her mind races to figure out what could have caused it, until she sees a flash of eye-watering orange out of the corner of her eye.
No, she thinks. Please, oh god no.
Naruto and Sasuke lay side by side a few feet away from them. Their eyes are closed, faint smiles still there. Their heads are tilted towards each other, still gravitating to each other even in their state.
Their hands are joined together, moon and sun, in the seal meant to end the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
She can't feel their chakra signatures. She's so close to them, but she can't find them no matter how hard she searches. Their chests aren't rising and falling.
Her hearing goes out of focus like she's underwater. White noise is all she can hear, and she feels like she's watching a memory. Like someone else has taken control of her body, and she's just watching it play out. She falls to her knees, and her hands dig into the rocks on the ground. They crumble in her fists, and she feels a few sharp pieces tear deep into her skin.
Her grip doesn't loosen.
She feels someone pull at her fingers, trying to stop her from hurting herself any further. There are large jagged pieces nearly pushing through the other side of her hand, but she can't feel it. Distantly, some part of her mind tells her that isn't good.
That's alright, she thinks. I'm a medic.
I'm a medic, she hears someone say. I can heal people. I can heal.
Oh. That's her talking.
Someone kneels in front of her, and her vision goes back in to focus. Shaking hands come up and rest on her cheeks. She can feel that.
"Come on, Sakura. Snap out of it."
She sees blond hair that's barely staying in its ponytail, and blue eyes that are tinged red from crying. She sees pale skin covered in dirt and dried blood mixing together with tears.
It's Ino.
She reaches up and grabs one of the hands still on her face. She holds it like it's the only thing left on earth, and her grip must be too strong, because she sees Ino's features tighten.
I'm sorry, she wants to say. I can't tell how much strength I'm using.
"I'm a medic. I can heal them. I can heal them, I can heal them," is what comes out instead.
Ino doesn't say anything for a while. She stares at Sakura and the hands on her cheeks shake and shake and shake. Her head drops down, bangs covering her face. Then, all of a sudden, she throws her arms around Sakura, dragging her close, and now she can feel her whole body trembling, not just her hands. Her shoulder grows wet, and there are nails digging into her arms.
She can feel that, too.
“It's okay,” she says again, and it feels like all she can do. “I'm a medic.”
"I know," Ino sobs into her shoulder, holding her even tighter.
Oh.
Sakura feels something warm running down her cheeks, and realizes that she's crying. Everything bursts out, and she's holding Ino just as tightly, hard enough to bruise, burying her head into her shoulder and sobbing like she hasn't since she was a child. Tears and snot are running down her face, soaking Ino's shoulder, but she feels the same on her own. They sit there holding each other, and even as their sobs quiet and their limbs ache from staying in the same position for so long, they don't let go.
Sakura lets herself have this. She lets herself take comfort in the arms of a girl who smiled at her and told her she was a flower who just hadn't bloomed yet. She lets her petals fall off and wither away, but she feels a twitch from the seed buried deep inside her.
She hopes that she can give Ino just a little bit of the solace she feels.
///
As they walk away, Sakura stops by their bodies. She kneels next to then, places a hand on each of their shoulders, and feels numb. The wave of anguish she feels tells her she won't for very long. She tries to think of something to say, something that will put into words just how important these two were to her, but nothing feels right. Staring at the faces of the two boys she's loved in different ways, she can't help but remember, a medic is always the last member of their team to fall
I'm a medic, she hears. It sounds like a curse to her now.
She leaves them there, hands joined. When they return later to collect their bodies, someone will separate them, but she can't bring herself to now. Their time together was short as children, and even shorter now as nearly-adults, but it seems time had done nothing to their bond but intensify it.
Eclipses were a marvel. Harsh rain slowed to a light drizzle, howling winds silenced for a moment, vicious waves settled into an eerie calm. The world paused in wonder to witness the event.
But they were never meant to last. The sun and moon's meeting was brief, leaving the observers with a hazy memory and a feeling of awe at watching their dance.
She remembers the cheesy fairy tales she'd adored as a child. She remembers the words time stopping, awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, larger than life, remembers every phrase she'd looked back at with embarrassment.
She remembers the way Naruto and Sasuke fought together, their abilities and combat styles working together seamlessly in a way that should have been impossible for anyone, let alone people who'd exchanged nothing but harsh words and inscrutable looks in the past 5 years.
She remembers two broken boys whose rough and jagged edges fit together perfectly.
I saw the sun and moon meet, she thinks, and it was glorious and terrifying at the same time.
I saw the sun and moon meet, she thinks, and stares again at their joined hands, at their soft smiles, at their heads tilted towards each other.
She witnessed their eclipse, the terrifying dark and the glorious light around the edges. And now, she watches as the sun and moon drift apart, on their separate paths once again. She watches the blinding light and pitch black dark settle into a dim sunlight that reminds her of a late summer evening.
“I saw the sun and moon meet,” she says softly, and it's awestruck and sentimental and melancholy all at the same time.
////
As she takes her first step into Konoha's gates, Sakura pulls out the one keepsake she took with her.
In her hand rests a green gem the same shade as her eyes, nestled in between two silver beads. It hums with the residual chakra from all of its previous wearers. The jewel is cool against her hand.
It was warm when she lifted it from around Naruto's neck.
She can sense the chakra of her teammate and shishou, and she holds it to her chest and blinks away the moisture in her eyes.
(rule 27. a shinobi must never show their tears.)
It's a reminder. Not just of the people she loved, but of everything they stood for and protected.
It's a promise. A promise that she will do whatever it takes to preserve this village that they lived and died for. That she will make sure that the only faces on that mountain are ones that share their beliefs and care for the village as much as they did. She sees the slump of her sensei's shoulders a couple of feet away, and she makes him a promise, too.
She pulls the necklace over her matted and dirty hair. It feels heavy around her neck.
Far away, on the outskirts of Rice Country, Sasuke sits outside. The weather is nice enough, so he’s decided to have a cup of tea outside.
He’d been to this place before, doing a mission for Orochimaru during his time in the Hidden Sound. It’s a small town with not too many people, and the ones that are here mind their business and keep their heads down. They certainly wouldn’t be too interested in a young man looking for a place to stay to take care of his sick friend, especially shortly after a war that’s affected all of the Elemental Nations. Just in case though, he puts on a Henge that he keeps up around town. Only in the safety of his house, where he’s sure no stray eyes will catch sight of him, does he drop the transformation.
He’s settled into the quieter lifestyle easily enough for now, helping with construction around the town and taking odd jobs. He can find harder missions if he wants, and if he’s really interested, he can find Orochimaru’s old contacts around town.
Naruto... hasn’t woken up yet. He hasn’t moved at all from the bed he’s in now. If it weren’t for the faint pulse on his wrist, Sasuke would think him dead. He can’t help but feel a little relieved. If Naruto were to wake up, he has no idea what he would say, what he would do. As a person who sets his goals and doesn’t stop until he achieves them, the situation is odd and foreign to him.
To be honest, Sasuke doesn’t know where to go from here. The mutated Zetsu had made an appearance at the edge of the battlefield, retreating in plain view so every shinobi got a good look at them. Any that were attacked seemingly shook it off as if the attacks went through them, probably because they did. The illusions held up perfectly, and Sasuke felt a little smug that this was going so well.
There isn’t much to do now, though. The villages are still recovering, counting their losses and trying to find a new sense of normal, which is probably hard to do without a leader. From what whispers he’s picked up in town (or maybe he should say what whispers Satoshi has picked up), the Kage positions have mostly been filled. Gaara’s sister he vaguely remembers from the Chunin Exams has taken up the position of Kazekage, and it seems Kakashi’s returned to his position as well. In Iwa, the Tsuchikage's granddaughter has taken the hat. There hasn’t been much information about Kumo or Kiri yet, but he can’t say he disagrees with any of those choices.
In a few months, when everything has settled down, then he’ll make his next move. Sasuke reaches for the teapot on the table, pouring himself a steaming hot cup. He lifts it to his lips, ready to take a sip, when a voice startles him.
“Gross, you drink your tea plain like that? No cream, or sugar, or anything? Not even something sweet to eat with it?”
“Shit,” Sasuke swears, after spilling piping hot tea all over himself.
“Fuck,” he says, after staring at the owner of the voice, a translucent Naruto Uzumaki who stands over his shoulder, giving him a ridiculously judgmental look.