For: sp_kathrine

[sne_mod]

For: sp_kathrine
Title: The Tower
Rating: R
Summary: Naruto destroys a village. Sasuke does something about it.
Warnings: Angst, violent themes, vague smut.
A/N: A future fic set some time after the destruction of Konoha. Gleefully assumes the current summit arc is Not Happening. The title is shamelessly stolen from a certain Vienna Teng song. It's way shorter than I'd like, and I'm sososo sorry I couldn't fit in your kinks, but I hope you enjoy, anyway. & I hope it does your prompt some justice. :[
Mod note: Reminder for the author/artist of this submission, please do not reply to comments signed in, if you want to reply anon commenting is enabled.





Sasuke was woken by screaming.

For the first groggy moments, he was sure it was a nightmare: another permutation of the night that had changed him forever.

Awareness bloomed. Karin was sleeping next to him again. The scream still ripped through the air. It was distant, but the tone cut through to his bones.

That wasn't a human scream, but it came from a human throat.

Six jumps brought him to a higher perch; his head cleared the treeline. Suigetsu was already there, face turned east-of-northeast. The scream carried chillingly well despite the distance and humidity.

Slowly, it ebbed.

"Bunch of birds just took off from about there." Suigetsu pointed. "Are Karin and Juugo still sleeping?"

Sasuke nodded without looking at him.

The scream came again--louder, and less human. It was changing. Talking over it, Suigetsu said, "This kind of thing's probably a damn lullaby to them."

Sasuke tugged at his right arm band. "Wake them. We're going."

"... What?" Suigetsu said. "You don't mean we're heading towards--"

An explosion.

Their heads snapped to the side. A mushroom cloud erupted. And Karin was suddenly there, fingers wrapped around his upper arm. "We have to go."

Another sudden boom. The screams were roars, now. Sasuke listened, rapt. It reminded him of--

"Sasuke!"

He looked down, at Karin's grim face. "We have to go," she repeated. "Whatever that is, it feels... damn!"

A pressure wave, rushing like a tsunami. The canopy rippled outwards.

Then their tree was shuddering. The tip whip-lashed. Karin said, "Shit!" Sasuke slid down two feet before he grabbed a branch, holding on with strength and chakra. He snagged Karin's hand. She was too distracted to be delighted.

The air stilled. Heavy silence descended. Sasuke's breaths reverberated against the outer shell of his ears.

Above them, Suigetsu said, "What the fuck was that?"

As if Sasuke would know.

"But we're so far away," Karin whispered. She curled the fingers of her other hand around Sasuke's wrist. She was shaking. Sasuke wondered if it really was from fear.

"Hey, Sasuke!" Suigetsu called. "Come back up here."

Sasuke did, detaching himself from Karin. His gaze followed Suigetsu's pointing finger. His stomach dropped.

The sky was burned deep red; it diffused like blood through water. Thick, black smoke veiled trees already hazy from dust.

A memory rose: blue eyes turned red, scars turned deep, a thick tail that bubbled outward and burned what it touched.

No. Impossible. Power like that would reduce the container to nothing. Sasuke realized his hands were clenched; he relaxed them.

"What monstrous chakra," Karin said. "I've never sensed anything like it."

"So." Suigetsu leaned against the trunk of his tree. "You still want to go there, Sasuke?"

He saw Sasuke's expression. The shark-like smile dropped from his face. "Fuck. You do."

"Pack up, and get Juugo," Sasuke said. "We're leaving."

They both stared at him: Suigetsu gaping, Karin with an expression edged with pure delight. After a moment, they obeyed.

-

They traveled swiftly. For once, Suigetsu didn't bitch.

As they moved, Karin gradually relaxed. "It's gone," she finally announced. Twenty-three minutes had passed. Suigetsu gave her the same look he'd been shooting at Sasuke, asking without words the state of her sanity.

Juugo said suddenly, "Look."

They stopped. On the forest floor, just fifteen feet below, lay a body.

Suigetsu jumped down for a closer look. "Probably got thrown by the blast."

Sasuke's lip thinned. "Karin. Are there any other survivors?"

After a moment of concentration Karin said, "A few. They're scattered. Most are injured."

"Go with Juugo," Sasuke said, "and find them."

Karin scowled. She didn't protest, though. Sasuke looked past her, to Juugo. His expression was unreadable. "Don't kill anyone," Sasuke said.

"Yes," Juugo agreed.

They split. Sasuke and Suigetsu continued on. Even here, the trees were broken, like over-sized sticks easily snapped. Closer to the blast site, they were stripped bare of their leaves: naked, burned, and broken.

Sasuke slowed down when they reached the village.

The smell hit him all at once: thick and sharp. He raised a hand to cover his nose with cloth and fought to maintain his stoic expression.

The ground was burned black. Splinters and shapeless, irregular remains formed a carpet near meters tall. Sasuke's eyes passed over what might have been a wall, or exposed foundation.

They had seen smoke, but there were no fires burning, here. They saw no one. The attackers had already cleared.

Then his gaze caught on the middle of the village. On what should have been the middle of the village.

Suigetsu said, "No. Fucking. Way," and gaped.

Sasuke ducked under a fallen column. His right sandal hit something that immediately crumbled to ash. He kept walking, until he reached--that--and his footsteps ceased. He looked down.

It was easy to see, but hard to understand. Something like a crater. A perfect hemisphere of absolutely nothing.

It stretched half-again the diameter of the village.

It was as deep as it was wide. Sasuke could see the layers of the earth, exposed for the first time in innumerable years. He dropped to his knees and reached down, to confirm with his hands the impossibility his eyes insisted on: the sides of the hole were perfectly smooth.

Hole didn't even describe it. But Sasuke was left grasping for any other word.

Suigetsu was, for once, completely silent. He was clearly in awe.

Sasuke wasn't, not at all. He felt, instead, near-nauseous. It wasn't fear. Fear froze him, sent him hurtling back to seven years old and Itachi. This feeling burned, and pumped tension into his muscles until his fingers curled involuntarily.

"We're meeting up with Karin and Juugo," he managed.

The hole--the chasm stared back at them.

Sasuke managed to turn away. He thought he might be sick, but he couldn't imagine why.

"What the hell made that!?" Suigetsu demanded, suddenly.

Sasuke thought of the red chakra they'd seen. He didn't answer.

-

Juugo and Karin had gathered the survivors into a clearing where the trees still stood proud. Sasuke watched a bird tentatively peek out, snapping its little head back and forth as if to confirm the world was safe again. It was the only living animal he'd seen that day.

The survivors were dull-eyed and still. They sat together, hands clasped.

Apart from their expressions, they didn't look like survivors of an eradicated village at all.

At least, Sasuke thought, they aren't alone. He walked closer until one of them reacted: a woman, her hair bronze under the dappled sunlight.

She spoke. "I was visiting my sister."

Sasuke didn't know how to answer. "What did you see?"

"I was visiting my sister."

She hadn't heard him.

From behind, someone approached. Sasuke turned his head; it was Juugo, looking immeasurably gentle despite being six feet of hidden, murderous strength. But maybe only other shinobi could sense the danger in him: the survivors all looked at him, the children and the single woman, as if they'd been near-drowned and he was the first breath of air they'd taken.

Juugo sat down, and didn't say anything. Immediately, a small child crawled towards him and clasped one of his fingers in her small hands.

"They said she was harboring a criminal," the woman said suddenly.

Sasuke looked sharply at her: her eyes were suddenly alive.

"She wasn't," the woman said. "But they wouldn't believe her. She told me to run. So I did."

She looked down, ashamed. Sasuke saw she wasn't a woman at all, but a girl. It was just that tragedy had etched decades onto her face.

"I ran," she said.

Sasuke surprised himself by saying, "It was the only thing you could have done."

She kept her eyes on the ground. "Yes."

"Who were 'they?' " Sasuke asked.

"Ninja," the woman said. "Men from Konoha. They had masks. There were just two of them."

"Just two?" Sasuke pressed.

"Yes," she said.

"Just two," Sasuke repeated.

He caught Juugo's reaction--curiosity, a questioning tilt to his brows. He didn't care. There'd been just the two, and....

He'd been wrong.

Sasuke closed his eyes, and told himself that the cool that swept through him wasn't relief.

What would he have done if he'd been right, anyway? Nothing, Sasuke thought. His goals remained unchanged. He'd left that idiot behind. He'd left Konoha behind.

"I wonder, though," the woman murmured. "What he was doing there. That poor boy."

Sasuke's eyes snapped open.

"Who?" he said.

"That poor boy," she repeated.

"Describe him," Sasuke said.

The woman stared at him. "He was in chains." A pause. "He had the bluest eyes."

And then she was looking down at the ground again, hands in her lap. "I ran," she said to herself. "She told me to run, so I did. But it was the only thing I could have done."

She glanced around her, at the children gathered around Juugo. "It was the only thing we could have done," she told them. A woman caught up in revelation.

Sasuke straightened, slowly. He walked out of the clearing, past Karin and Suigetsu bickering in low tones. Karin shut up long enough to tell him other ninja were approaching, and fast, likely for the same reason they had: to investigate. Sasuke grunted. It was enough of an answer.

He counted ten paces, then twenty, thirty. He stopped before a tree, raised his hand.

His fist smashed through half a foot of wood. The shock traveled up his arm, past his elbow, and settled at his shoulder. He struggled to control his breathing.

That feeling from earlier was back, and burning his insides. Sasuke was starting to expect it was fear, of a flavor he'd never experienced before. He'd have preferred to go without.

-

"We're going where?" Suigetsu said.

"I'm," Sasuke said, "going to Konoha. The three of you will stay outside. If I need you, I'll send a signal."

Suigetsu's brows furrowed. He and Karin shared a glance.

"Not that I mind, of course," Karin said, "but why the sudden hurry?"

It was a good question. Sasuke turned it over in his mind, but all he could think of was that red chakra, and that impossible chasm.

The echoes of that scream lingered in his ear, as if an entire hour hadn't passed.

"Sasuke?" Karin said.

"I'm going to investigate," Sasuke said. It wasn't a lie.

Suigetsu made an incredulous sound. "You think that... thing we saw. That...." He waved waved one hand, describing with a gesture the gaping void in the village. "It's connected to Konoha? Whatever caused it came from Konoha?"

Sasuke said, "Yes."

"Damn." Suigetsu looked impressed. Karin and Juugo glanced at him.

"What are you talking about?"

Sasuke let Suigetsu describe, in starts and stops, what they'd seen at the village. It didn't sound at all impressive when coming from the sword-bearer's mouth, Sasuke thought. Karin looked skeptical. He couldn't judge Juugo's expression.

"What's the signal? What do we do on seeing it?" Juugo asked.

"And why do we have to wait?" Suigetsu added.

"When you see it, just come," Sasuke said. "As for what it is...." He looked at Karin. "You'll know."

Behind the thick frames of her glasses, her eyes widened slightly. She nodded.

Suigetsu grinned, one arm against his sword. "You going to tell me not to kill people?" he said.

Sasuke considered. "No."

-

Sasuke waited for the rain before he cleared the wall of his former home.

He dashed inside, past half-constructed buildings and endless lines of temporary tents. It was, Sasuke guessed, an unfortunate time to be a genin.

Infiltrating a Hidden Village, especially one as large as Konoha, was easy. It was staying alive and undetected that was the problem.

Weakened or no, this was a village where jounin casually roamed the streets.

Sasuke pulled his hood down over his face and hunched his shoulders against the rain--and just like that, he was another citizen miserable in the current weather.

The drizzle was just hard enough to turn Konoha gray-blue and indistinct. He didn't know the faces he saw, nor did he recognize the streets. That was fine.

With his eyes, it wouldn't be at all hard to find Naruto's exact location. Under the dragging line of his hood, Sasuke scanned the people he passed, looking for a likely candidate.

-

It took him three hours to find his answer, another half-hour to locate the building in question, and just five seconds to get inside.

Sasuke left the guards outside under hypnosis.

He pushed open the door, hesitantly. Nothing happened. It was pathetic how little defenses there were for such a precious weapon.

Or maybe they didn't consider defenses necessary. Sasuke thought of the village he'd seen. He tensed.

He walked past a straight-backed couch and stained coffee table, and into the hall. Here he paused and looked down, frowning. Why was the floor so wet?

He listened carefully. A tap had been left running. It was impossible to walk on such a thin layer of water: each of his footsteps left a small splash, announcing his exact location.

For a prison--and Sasuke, thinking of the guards, had no doubt it was a prison--it was awfully accommodating. It must have been built quickly in comparison to the rest of the village.

The water came from the bathroom; Sasuke stepped inside. The grout of the tiles was likely ruined. He turned off the tap. Water sloshed over the sides of the bath, soaking his footwear and sneaking into the spaces between his toes.

At the very end of the hall was a door, cracked open enough to reveal a slit of darkness. Gently, Sasuke pushed. The door swung silently on its hinges.

Naruto was on a bed in the center of the room, sleeping. He didn't wake up.

It was completely dark. The only light came from the hall. Sasuke waited for his eyes to adjust, studying the bedroom dispassionately. Burn marks scorched the walls. Some were half-painted over, but carelessly.

Ramen containers littered the floor. Sasuke snorted.

In the farthest corner was a houseplant. It was alone, but thriving. Even in the dim light, the leaves were a lush green.

Sasuke approached the bed. Naruto slept on his side, one arm thrown out as if he were reaching for something. He was frowning; his breathing was two counts faster than it should be, in sleep. A nightmare, Sasuke guessed, and drifted closer.

Naruto's eyes opened.

The chuunin he'd caught had said they kept him drugged. These were the eyes of someone perfectly alert. Sasuke watched as Naruto's gaze traveled slowly up, to his face.

Naruto's lips parted. "Sasuke?"

And then he was sitting up, the blanket falling to his hips. Sasuke thought, absurdly: Why isn't he wearing clothes?

"Sasuke," Naruto said. "It's really you."

He appeared to be trying to keep still. Sasuke almost told him not to bother, because the effort was useless. Naruto vibrated with energy, coiled tight within his limbs.

He took a step away from the bed. He was still too close; he could smell something stinging on Naruto. Antiseptics, maybe.

Naruto tilted his head. "Or maybe I'm dreaming again," he said, more to himself. "When I wake up--poof. Just like that." His eyelids fell half-mast as he studied Sasuke.

Sasuke's lips moved. "Your dreams sound pitiful."

"Nah," Naruto's stretched into what could have been a smile. "Those were the better dreams." Quieter, like a boy divulging his greatest secret: "But you know what?"

He leaned forward; Sasuke didn't move back. He caught, once more, a whiff of that scent.
A single word occurred to him, then: Acid.

"I think," Naruto said, "that this isn't a dream."

Five seconds--ten--twenty.

"It isn't a dream," Sasuke agreed.

Naruto said, "Huh," and lowered his head. Sasuke didn't like this; it looked too much like praying.

Then Naruto was reaching out with a tentative hand. It brushed Sasuke's sleeve, stopped.

"Why the fuck," Naruto said, "are you back, Sasuke?"

Sasuke didn't know, so he didn't answer. He grasped Naruto's wrist, as if to stop it from coming closer.

He met Naruto's gaze. His blue eyes were set in a face he didn't remember: too drawn, stretched thin and tight. Even in the dark, he could see the unhealthy pallor.

Naruto looked fragile. Sasuke almost would have believed that he was.

Those eyes, though--

"I saw the village," Sasuke said.

Naruto inhaled. The words lingered in the air, held aloft by a drawn-out second. And then Naruto said, "Oh," and the moment was broken.

Sasuke closed his eyes. He thought: That woman, those children, they could have been me, dead-last. They could have been me.

He opened his eyes.

Naruto's left hand was on his cheek. His fingernails were uneven. His skin was smooth, as if he hadn't spent an entire lifetime throwing kunai and shuriken.

Sasuke shouldn't be noticing details like that.

He stepped back. The problem was, Naruto moved with him, and then pressed closer. His arm slid around Sasuke's waist; his cheek rested against the triangle of skin framed by Sasuke's collar. His skin felt cold, and sticky with drying sweat.

He really, really wasn't wearing any clothes.

Sasuke let go of Naruto's wrist, and Naruto's hand fell to his elbow and rested there. Sasuke breathed in, out, and kept himself absolutely, absolutely still. He didn't let himself react.

"I'm glad you came back today," Naruto said. "Saves me from running around looking for you after I... ah, damn."

Sasuke looked sharply down. And then he felt it: four identical stings as claws pricked his skin.

Naruto said, "Sorry."

"That village," Sasuke said. "What happened?"

"Don't remember." And then: "No. I got pissed. And then they--"

The claws dug deeper. Sasuke hissed.

"--pulled him out, just like that. After that, everything's hazy."

A clawed thumb slid through cloth, drawing his shirt open in a widening v. He couldn't help his shudder. He caught Naruto's hand again; the other boy's skin was fever-hot.

"What are you doing?" he said.

"What are you," Naruto returned, "doing here?" He raised his head; his eyes weren't blue anymore.

Sasuke's grip tightened. Naruto was too close; he could feel himself start to sweat.

"No answer, huh," Naruto said.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Did you destroy the village?"

Naruto froze. His jaw slackened; Sasuke caught the flash of teeth. And then, that stench--

It was the only warning Sasuke received. Chakra--

--exploded outwards.

Sasuke flung himself back. His feet hit the wall, and stayed. His hand moved on pure instinct: four inches of deadly metal slid free before Sasuke stopped himself.

It was suddenly hard to breathe; the air stung his nose, his throat, his lungs.

The world was crystal-sharp, each moment processed in his mind just before they happened--his Sharingan had activated. Red streams of chakra bubbled. Naruto reeked of burning flesh, and his face was contorted in a pained grimace.

The seal on his belly was faded, and flickering like a candle gone too low.

Sasuke remembered the window, and the door. He wasn't a coward, though; he slammed his sword back home. The snap, thin and fine, echoed throughout the room. It caught Naruto's attention: he raised his head, like a beast drawing focus on prey.

Then he fell to his elbows; his hair trailed against torn bedding.

Sasuke dropped to the floor.

"Shut up. Just shut up."

It was Naruto. Naruto was speaking--words stumbled out of his mouth, too fast for Sasuke to catch. They didn't grow any more coherent as he drew closer, a wary hand still on Kusanagi.

He didn't miss those two words, though--shut up. Again and again, like a protective mantra.

Sasuke took one step forward, and then another. It was like moving closer to a furnace.

This must be a usual occurrence. No one had come running.

Sasuke knelt. He hesitated. Then his fingertips brushed against the hair on Naruto's face.

Naruto flew forward and slammed Sasuke into the floor. Air rushed from his lungs; his hip jarred as he landed awkwardly on his own damn sword.

"Shut up," Naruto told him.

Sasuke frantically controlled his breathing. But he couldn't stop his own murderous intent from rising, not against the deadly chakra that swirled around Naruto and brushed against him. Naruto growled in response, pushing him deeper into the floor. His claws gouged the wood by Sasuke's shoulders, scoring marks a full inch deep.

"Who are you telling 'shut up?' " Sasuke asked.

Naruto's upper lips pulled back. His incisors were too sharp.

"Kyuubi," he said. "'Cause he never does. That's why my dreams aren't so great anymore."

A pause, and then: "Even when you're there."

Sasuke didn't answer. He couldn't help the heat coiling in his gut, and lower. Naruto was too close, too hot, and all around them the air sizzled with pure power--

Naruto tilted his head. He visibly sniffed, the action exaggerated and almost comical. He said, "You're... oh."

Not a muscle on Sasuke's face moved.

Naruto lightened his grip.

"Oh," Naruto said again, and dropped his face into the juncture formed by neck and shoulder. When Sasuke felt, a second later, a moist tongue trailing wet across his skin, his gut jumped. His fingers twitched.

He stared up, blinking rapidly; the chakra around them fizzled away the moisture. His eyes were too dry. Naruto was still--

--licking him.

It felt good.

"Naruto," he said. "Stop."

Naruto stopped. He'd picked an awful time to start obeying Sasuke.

They'd been talking about something else, before. What had they been talking about? Sasuke drew in a ragged breath. His lungs stung. He said, "The village, Naruto. How did they pull Kyuubi out? What did they do to the seal?"

"Village?" Naruto said. "What are you--right. Sorry."

He could feel Naruto's breath against his skin; each exhalation told him exactly where Naruto had licked him, defined them in cool strips.

Naruto said, "They can do it whenever they want. But that village..." He pushed himself up, looking down at Sasuke with serious eyes. "That village.... That was the first time I--the first time we--"

"The first time you what?" Sasuke pressed.

Naruto's eyes lost focus as he turned inward. Sasuke suspected he knew who--what--Naruto was talking to.

"First time I lost so much control," Naruto whispered.

"Your seal," Sasuke said.

"Yeah. Those poor motherfuckers. The only thing between them and Kyuubi, now, is me."

Naruto smiled.

He had always had a face built for smiling: rounder cheeks, eyes easily amused. This one didn't fit him at all, like a grotesque mask at a festival.

"It's fine," Naruto said. "I won't mess up again. I won't kill people like that again. Never again. Never--"

He stopped, shook his head. Snarled, "Shut up."

Cautiously, Sasuke rose to his elbows. His ruined shirt slid down, exposing more of his skin to the swirling heat around them. He looked down, expression carefully neutral. On the sharp-angled planes of Naruto's stomach, the seal really was half-gone. Sasuke touched it with his fingers fanned.

Naruto shuddered. Sasuke ignored it, and the hand Naruto put on his bare shoulder.

His turned his hand, followed the curves of the seal with his knuckles instead. Naruto's grip tightened. His claws broke through skin.

Curiously, in a tone without inflection: "What the fuck are you doing?"

Sasuke reached up with his other hand, placed it on Naruto's neck.

What was he doing?

Whatever it was, it wasn't helping with Naruto's control. That was both fascinating and alarming at the same time.

Naruto said, "You're--getting off on this."

Sasuke's hand moved, past coarse, curly hair, and--down lower.
Naruto hissed, sharply. His claws dug deeper. Sasuke moved, and Naruto did too--a rough jerk that scored four deep lines from shoulder to the middle of his back. He felt blood well and slick Naruto's fingers, felt the heat of that alien chakra cook his wounds. It was like being bathed with boiling water.

Sasuke said, "You idiot," because it fucking hurt. And then he snapped his jaw shut, because Naruto wasn't paying attention at all.

Well. Of course.

"I didn't come here for this," Sasuke said, working through the sudden need to explain. "I came here to s--"

"Sasuke," Naruto said. "Shut up." He brought his other hand up, slid it between skin and cloth until it rested against Sasuke's back. "And move," he added.

Sasuke obeyed, watched the way Naruto's eyes half-closed in appreciation: watched the curve of his mouth, the slope of scarred cheeks. Watched until he couldn't anymore, because Naruto's claws were sharp and oven-hot, and if he didn't close his eyes they'd be half-boiled in their sockets.

When he pressed his face against the side of Naruto's neck, all he could smell was that burnt, ruined village.

Naruto made a sound against the back of his throat, something that might have been Sasuke's name but probably wasn't. And then he shuddered, and his fingers spasmed.

Sasuke was going to have scars.

He waited until Naruto had stilled completely before reaching for himself. He'd be damned if he'd let Naruto touch him in that state, but he still needed--

Sasuke pressed himself closer, closer, as he came.

Then they were still. The air around them danced with power: energy in its purest, distilled form. Sasuke thought, suddenly, of that single houseplant: how the hell had it survived this far?

Because it's Naruto's. Because Naruto takes care of it.

He wiped his hand clean on the inside of his ruined shirt.

"Hey, Sasuke," Naruto whispered, against his ear. "Why are you really here?"

Too low. His voice was too low, and guttural.

Sasuke straightened himself, and winced. He remembered how easily Naruto had scored the wood of the floor, wondered just how deep the wounds on his back were. He decided in the next moment that it didn't matter, because Naruto was still waiting for an answer.

Sasuke pressed his palms against Naruto's neck, slid them down to his shoulders, the curve of one arm.

Naruto said, "What are you--"

"Shut up," Sasuke said, and threw himself into Naruto's mind.

-

Sasuke stood in shin-deep water.

It wasn't dark, but it should have been. The light source was indiscernible, and everything was tinted red: like a paradigm he couldn't dislodge. There was no horizon, here.

In front of him was the demon.

There were bars between them. They were more a courtesy than a reliable barrier. There was no way to tell who, exactly, the prisoner was.

Naruto was at his side, as dumbfounded as the first time. Sasuke ignored him.

Up close, the Kyuubi didn't at all resemble a fox. Sasuke's mind struggled to piece together the bigger picture, but all his eyes could concentrate on were the finer details: the six-foot incisors. The massive, glowing eyes.

That malice, leaking through tactile and corporeal, and smelling of acid.

"This place changed," Sasuke murmured, and raised his hand.

It was a simple trick. It should have been a simple trick: his will over the fox's. A forced suppression, pushed into place with pure, brute strength.

Except this time--

This time--

Nothing. Sasuke grit his teeth.

He raised both hands, and shoved.

For a moment--a bare moment, lasting little longer than a millisecond--he felt the fox give. That terrible presence receded, and Sasuke felt air hiss out from between gritted teeth in bitter triumph.

And then the Kyuubi rose, and roared, and--

(you will not stop me, Uchiha)

--the world exploded.

He was aware of screaming. No, Sasuke was screaming. And Naruto was yelling, yelling at the demon fox, and of course only Naruto would do that--

Sasuke dropped to his knees. His right elbow slammed against the ground. He was back--he was back, and his eyes were in complete agony.

It was like using Amaterasu, again and again.

"You really, really shouldn't have done that," Naruto said. "I told you, didn't I? Never again."

Sasuke swore at him. He could still taste ferrous water in his mouth.

"Seriously," Naruto said. He was unimpressed. His hand, when he pressed it against Sasuke's damp forehead, was blissfully cool.

Realization slammed into Sasuke.

He forced his eyes open. His eyeballs smarted. It was worth it, because Naruto's eyes were blue. The sunlight brightened them.

The sunlight. They were outside.

They were outside, because the world had literally exploded. Rubble shifted underneath him. Sasuke wondered if that houseplant had survived. Naruto said, "You should probably go."

Sasuke just stared. "You're still you."

"Is that why you hauled ass all the way back here, bastard?" Naruto said.

Sasuke pushed himself up. The blood on his back had caked unpleasantly. He couldn't reply, because behind Naruto his team had assembled.

Naruto straightened. "After I deal with Kyuubi," he said, quietly, "I'm coming straight after you."

Sasuke stood. He drew Kusanagi.

"That was one hell of a signal," Suigetsu said. "We could see the explosion from miles off."

His words were a bridge that led away. His team was waiting for him.

Sasuke looked at Naruto. He snorted. "Put on some damn clothes, moron," he said, and turned away to fight his way back out.

The next time he came back, it wouldn't be for Naruto.