kyuusaisha (savior)
authored by: phoenixdown7

Black eyes opened stickily against the still pressure of exhaustion.

Sasuke contemplated the black stone ceiling above him, his eyes tired and sight blurred at the edges. His tongue darted out across his dry lips automatically, tasting the metallic tang of dried blood. He sniffed the air ruefully before pushing himself up against the cobalt ground. It smelled like sulfur and metal, mixed in with blood.

He pushed a dirty, blood-crusted hand through his obsidian locks as he surveyed his surroundings fully. The images that passed through his eyes fought with his hazy mind, awakening him to the strange reality around him. He was within a large, monolithic cave, perforated only on one side with a hole to the outside. Weak sun rays shone through this hole and other small cracks in the cave's wall, alighting softly upon black and red heaps strewn across the ground.

Trembling slightly, his breathing ragged, Sasuke slowly pushed himself to his feet. He winced when a stabbing pain entered his lower thigh, but he ignored it - eyes widening slightly at the clarifying destruction around him. The heaps were the dead bodies of many men, their distinct black and red cloaks flared around them like bat wings. Blood mingled with the once brilliant cloth, snaking out through the cracks in the floor and almost reaching Sasuke's shaking feet.

He walked between the bodies as though in a trance, pulled by some unknown force towards the opening of the cave. There, one body lay beside another - hated, raven tresses next to gold. Sasuke let in a small breath, his knees almost collapsing below him as the pale, unmistakable skin came into view. A marred Konoha head band lay lopsidedly upon the once unmarked forehead. The unremarkable black eyes now unseeing, unmoving - as though made of glass. Sasuke's eyes traced the stiff body of their own volition, confirming as though in hindsight that the once powerful man was, in fact, dead.

This, however, did not send shivers up and down his spine. No, it was the body beside the hated one that sent him scrambling, suddenly delirious with foreboding. He dropped beside the blond one gracelessly, pushing away golden bangs now unhindered by a war-torn head band. The bronze skin was cold to the touch, as his bloodied fingertips brushed the dirtied forehead and scarred cheeks.

Sasuke's mouth grew dry as the boy failed to move, even to twitch. The slowly paling skin mocked him in time with the unnatural coldness that entered his fingertips and palms. Shivering slightly, Sasuke slid his hand down one cheek, past the jawline, until it rested upon the boy's chest. Sasuke held his breath.

The chest remained still.

Sasuke let out the breath in short bursts, his vision blurring atop his damp cheeks. He failed to remember that he hadn't cried since that day in his childhood, as he reached up to wipe his stinging eyes. He failed to feel the sunlight warm his back like an alien comfort in a strange desolate land as he hunched over the body below him.

'dobe...' His voice rang out across the cave's echoing walls, though it had been barely a whisper. He hadn't known the word had escaped his lips, because it reverberated so loudly within his blackened, hollow heart. 'Naruto...'

'I...found you...'

Sasuke's eyes shot open as the barely whispered words reached his ears, and he raised his head to meet with sparkling blue eyes. His heart reached up into his throat, and he unconsciously swallowed. Only then did he realize how easily he had forgotten himself.

'bastard.' Naruto's lips mouthed, the sound barely escaping this time.

Sasuke just continued to stare at him, not knowing what to say. He hadn't seen the boy since he had left for Sound four years ago. He hadn't spoken to him since then either. Only in his dreams, which swept through his mind nearly every night since the Valley of the End, had he ever interacted with the boy.

Naruto's lips turned up into a weak smile, reminiscent of the cocky grin he used to send Sasuke's way when they were still teammates - when they were still friends. He took in a shallow breath befitted for one near death and spoke weakly once again. 'You look so different, Sasuke.'

Sasuke stiffened a bit at both the words and the uncharacteristically tattered voice behind them. His hands unconsciously fingered the large purple rope wrapped around his waste - a sign of his future as Orochimaru's vessel. He looked away and mumbled, 'So do you.'

A smile grew upon Naruto's lips, which framed his shallow gasps. 'It's been a long time.' He let in a shallow breath. 'I guess.'

'Hn.' Sasuke muttered uncomfortably, not really knowing what to do with his fiddling hands, and his gaze. He fixed his eyes upon the stone ground to the left of Naruto's whiskered cheek. So that he would not have to look at him. So that he would not have to feel the guilt and the sorrow which inevitably ate away at him from the inside. He sat this way during the long silence following, only broken by Naruto's harsh inhalations.

'Sasuke...I...' Naruto finally spoke, his voice barely escaping his throat. 'Thank you for saving me.'

'I didn't save you.' Sasuke replied almost instantly, his fists clenching against the grey white cloth of his long shirt. He finally remembered the battle leading up his awakening in this foreign cave. Months ago, he had begun to hear through distant sources within Sound about his brother's activities. He had followed Itachi's movements during the kidnapping of Gaara from Sunagakure and during the subsequent clash between the Akatsuki and certain Konoha shinobi. He knew that Naruto was one of these shinobi. A fact that was never far from his mind, no matter how much he wished it was. Then he had learned that his brother had overpowered the 'Kyuubi vessel'. At first, Sasuke didn't make the connection, but soon it was obvious who it must be. He replayed his last battle with the dobe often enough within his head. And he remembered his brother's inexplicable hunt for Naruto before the fight as well. It wasn't long before he deduced what that foreign power belonged to. Why his brother must have wanted a dobe like Naruto. Thus, he decided to finally confront Itachi once again. He wanted to end it. So he intercepted the Akatsuki at a cave he heard they would meet when they were most vulnerable - when they would perform a ritual to extract the Kyuubi and take its power for their own. And, using his new power given him by Orochimaru, he killed them all. It wasn't for Naruto. It was for his clan. It was for vengeance, nothing more, nothing less. 'I fulfilled my destiny.'

Naruto chuckled weakly, half wheazing now. His eyes remained unemotional, however. Only Sasuke, who finally looked into their depths, noticed the emotional pain that lay just beneath, like the submerged half of an iceberg. 'I know.' The smile slipped away. 'I'm glad.'

Sasuke kept his face blank, but inside he felt a tumult of emotions. He had the inexplicable thought that he didn't want that smile to go away. Or maybe it was that he didn't want Naruto look serious when he said those words. They were better as a joke. A cruel joke.

He looked down at Naruto's face, as the boy clearly fought for a fleeting life. His blue eyes were already half-lidded and slightly rimmed by blue bags. His once sunkissed skin was of a strange pallor that let the abnormal whiskers stand out in stark relief.

'I was too late.' The words were out of Sasuke's mouth before he could take them back. He hadn't realized that he was frowning now, silent tears sliding down his cheeks.

Naruto's smile came back. He grunted a bit, and he lifted his bloody hand to press softly against Sasuke's cheek. 'Not too late. I still got to keep my promise.'

Sasuke leaned in to the unexpected touch. His once emotionless eyes remained locked with Naruto's as the boy's breathing slowed and his eye lids drooped. He watched rising sun light dance across the shining, golden locks, showing through the transparent skin of Naruto's slackening face. Eventually, the breathing shallowed out until it stopped altogether. Then the cool hand upon his cheek slipped away, falling back to rest beside the dead boy's hip.

Sasuke continued to sit there stiffly for long moments in the silence that followed. His tears stopped and his frame noticeably slumped. All of his spirit left him in that moment. All became nothing, except for the boy below him.

A warm breeze blew through the throat of the cave, ruffling the clothes of the bodies on the floor as though mimicking movement. Finally, Sasuke brushed his long bangs out of his face and leant down to place a chaste kiss on his best friend's still warm lips.

He left soon after. Where he would go, he did not know, and he was never seen or heard from again. But the wind carried back a few whispered phrases, meant for one boy alone.

'I didn't save you, Naruto. You saved me.'

owari

….

AN: Thanks for reading