The Battle of Wills of Fire: Part One
“Naruto, you are a fool.” Sasuke spat. His eyes flared as he activated his Mangekyō Sharingan.
“I’m here to bring you back to Konoha, as I promised.” Naruto was calm. He had envisioned this conversation a thousand times in his mind. His stood tall and firm, while chakra flowed into his body from his surroundings as he gathered energy for sage mode.
Sakura was behind Naruto, tightening her gloves as she glanced at her partner’s stern expression and Sasuke’s chilling stare.
Looks like these two aren’t going to show any mercy. Sakura recalled her near death experience with Sasuke when she tried to kill him herself after news of Sasuke’s attack at the Kage meeting. She also remembered Naruto’s ultimatum that he will die with Sasuke at their final battle. I must help Naruto, Sakura thought to herself. This battle is just as much mine as it is his.
“How many times do I have to repeat myself?” Sasuke replied. “The only reason I will go back to Konoha is to destroy it for what they have done to my clan!”
Sasuke charges, as his chidori shot through his arm and concentrated at his right hand. Naruto tensed, and summoned three shadow clones, one of which immediately molded a rasengan, as the rest charged back at Sasuke. The young Uchiha strikes through two shadow clones with ease and run towards the original. Naruto’s raises his rasengan just in time and the two ninjas lock in place; the sound of Naruto’s rasengan grinding against Sasuke’s chidori fills the air.
Sakura immediately seizes her chance to strike and leaps behind Sasuke, kunai in hand. This time, I won’t hesitate.
Sasuke senses her approach, and creates a full body chidori, rebounding Sakura back. At the same time, he draws his katana and slices Naruto’s arm, drawing blood. Naruto winces in pain and loses his rasengan as he retreats back. Sasuke immediately creates a fireball aimed at Naruto.
No time to rest! Naruto leaps to safety and summons a swarm of shadow clones and begins a taijutsu assault on Sasuke.
“Humph! It’s useless Naruto! With my eyes, I know exactly which the original is!”
Sasuke throws a storm of shurikens and eliminates all the clones and the air fills with smoke. Suddenly, the smoke clears as Naruto strikes through and lands a punch square in Sasuke’s face and sends him flying backwards. Sasuke regains his balance in the air and lands on his feet, but his expression betrayed his surprise and anger.
“You’re faster than before.” Sasuke creates a current of chidori though his katana and points it at Naruto. Naruto summons all his sage chakra and creates a rasen shuriken. The extreme energy concentrated at his palm pulses as he throws it at Sasuke.
What unbelievable energy! Sasuke quickly slices it with his katana; the two halves explode behind him. But Naruto has already created two more clones each equipped with a giant rasengan and charges at Sasuke once again. Sasuke quickly blows a stream of fire and dispatches both clones and with astonishing speed, he appears behind Naruto, katana ready to strike. Naruto reacts just in time and lands a kick, creating some distance between them.
Shit, my sage mode is gone. Looks like I used up too much chakra. Naruto looks up and his eyes meet with Sasuke’s as he activates the first stage of his cursed seal. Black streaks begin to spread and cover his face. Naruto clinched his fist. Damn you, Sasuke. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Sakura posed to strike.
“Stand back, Sakura! This is out of your league!”
“Naruto, let me help you! You don’t have to take this burden alone!”
“No. This IS my burden. This fight is reason I’ve trained so hard. Let me handle this.”
Naruto can feel his chest heat up while he summons the nine tail’s chakra and activates kyuubi mode. The burning red energy covers his body and his appearance begins to resemble that of a fox.
“Your appearance, it’s different than that in our first battle,” Sasuke said.
“Yeah, I’ve learned a few tricks since you’ve been gone,” Naruto smiled.
“So have I,” replied Sasuke. A black figure appears behind him.
“Naruto! Be careful, it’s Susanoo!” Sakura warned. The cloud formed into the shape of a warrior and it shoots two rapid giant arrows at Naruto. Using two giant claws formed by his new kyuubi chakra, Naruto grabs the arrows from the air and crushes them.
Sasuke strengthens his Susanoo as he pumps more chakra into it, but suddenly, he screams in pain as his right eye begins to bleed profusely.
“Call it off, Sasuke! That thing is too dangerous!” Naruto exclaims.
“Shut up!” Sasuke replies with more arrows, but Naruto dodges them easily with his new found agility.
Still using his giant claws protruding from his back, Naruto creates a bright red rasen shuriken and hurls it at Sasuke. The Susanoo, only a skeleton form now, quickly shields Sasuke with its ribcage, but it shatters from the severe force of Naruto’s attack.
“Ugh!” Sasuke covers his bleeding eye and summons all his strength to create a stream of black flames aimed at Naruto.
It’s Amaterasu! Naruto sprints to the side, but Sasuke’s flames take the form of a giant crow and follow him. Quickly, Naruto turns and with one swift motion, blasts it with a nine tails rasengan; the extreme magnitude and velocity of the chakra disperses the flames.
How is that possible! No one has ever extinguished an amaterasu before! This new form that Naruto has acquired will be much more difficult to defeat. I need more power, Sasuke thought. Slowly, Sasuke enters into the second stage of his cursed seal. Suddenly, the ground beneath Sasuke’s feet splits as a massive earthquake sends up a shock wave of energy from Sakura’s attack. Sasuke jumps out of the way just in time, but Sakura follows after him and bombardons him with punches and kicks; each strike heavier than the next, but Sasuke successfully blocks them with his wings.
“Hehe, I almost forgot about you stupid girl,” Sasuke sneers. With his Sharingan, Sasuke creates a genjutsu.
Sakura immediately freezes. It is night time and she is back in Konoha’s front gates. She looks down, and notices her small hands and long locks of pink hair. I’m a kid again, she realizes. She looks up and sees Sasuke, also as a child.
“Sasuke? What are you doing?”
“I changed my mind; I’m not going to leave Konoha after all. I’ve given up on revenge and I’d rather stay with you”
Sakura’s heart fills with joy as she wipes away her tears and let out a huge smile. “That’s wonderful! I knew you would decide to stay!” She walks toward Sasuke; her arms wide open welcoming him.
Suddenly, she notices two giant hand shaped wings unfolding from young Sasuke’s back and his right hand was flashing with a ball of lightening; the sound coming from it was as if a thousand birds were all chirping at once. The sound wakes her, but it’s too late; Sasuke’s hand has already begun to strike.
I’m going to die.
Suddenly, Sakura finds herself pushed out of the way. She lands hard on her side, dislocating her left shoulder. She winces in pain, but looks up to see Naruto still in midair, fully exposed and Sasuke sending the chidori through his chest.
“NARUTO!” Sakura screams at the top of her lungs. Naruto coughs, droplets of blood splatters onto Sasuke’s shirt and face. The red shroud of chakra slowly fades away.
---
“NARUTO! YOU STUPID BRAT!” the Nine Tails Demon Fox hissed within him. He rattles within his cage and growled in pain and anger. “NOW WE WILL BOTH DIE!”
Naruto, back in his usual form now, stood in front of the sealed cage. He calmly observed the raging demon inside him as it was going berserk with anger.
“Don’t worry, Fox,” Naruto replied. “It will be over soon.”
“Naruto, it’s not too late! Let me take over! I will show Sasuke our true power!”
“Thank you for lending me your strength all these years. I was hoping that one day we could be friends,” Naruto said.
“NARUTO!! LET ME OUT!!!”
“Sorry, Fox but this is something I need to finish on my own terms.”
---
Sasuke clenched his fist as currents of electricity flowed through. He could feel the weak pumping of Naruto’s heart at his fingertips.
“I’ve always wanted to fight you again, Naruto, and I’ve won. Now you die.” Sasuke proceeded to dislodge his arm from within Naruto’s chest, but suddenly Naruto grabs on.
“What are you doing? At least die in peace.”
Naruto ignores him, and with his free hand, he forms a new rasengan, the shinning blue chakra swirls inches from Sasuke's face. Sasuke desperately tries to free himself, but Naruto tightens his grip and firmly lodges Sasuke’s hand in his rib cage. Finally, with one final motion, Naruto sends the rasengan straight through Sasuke’s chest. Sasuke howls in pain, as the razor sharp chakra slices him open, bursting a hole in his back and completely blows off one of his wings. Immediately, Sasuke returns to normal and his Sharingan eye fades away. He gasps for breath as both ninjas collapse to the ground blood dripping and forming a puddle between the two.
Did he miss my heart on purpose? Sasuke's final thoughts escaped as he faints.
Naruto rolls over onto his back. He could feel his heart rate slowing. Blood is gushing from his wound. He looks over at the unconscious Sasuke and smiles.
I guess in the end, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill my best friend.
---
Sakura tried to stand up, but her legs were weak. Slowly, she crawled with one arm towards Naruto and Sasuke. The fight was over and both were in critical condition. Naruto was a little worse off. He had a minute, maybe two left to live. Sasuke was also badly wounded. Naruto’s attack might have missed his heart, but his lungs were punctured; without immediate help, Sasuke would also die from blood loss and lack of oxygen.
Sakura knew in her condition, she couldn’t help both of them at the same time. She had to choose fast. If she treated Naruto first, Sasuke would definitely bleed out. But there’s also no way she could treat Sasuke fast enough to save Naruto. Either way, one of them had to die.
Tears began flowing down Sakura’s face. In her entire life, she had always been a burden to others. In every critical situation, she always needed the help of her friends; never was she able to take care of herself. But now, faced with the most important decision of her life, she found herself utterly alone.
---
Am I dead?
I must be.
…
Wait, is that Sakura? What is she doing to me?
She’s healing me.
…But why…?
---
Sakura had to work fast. She had made her decision, but it still might be too late. The bleeding is getting worse and the damage had been more extensive than she thought. Even the airway has been damaged; all she can hear is the sound of him wheezing for breath.
I have no other choice. I need to use my own raw life force to heal the wound.
Sakura bit her finger and summoned all the chakra she had left to form one final seal as she recalled Tsunade’s words: “This technique is extremely dangerous because it not only requires chakra, but also your life force. It’s a powerful medical ninjutsu, but if you over do it, you can die in the process.”
I can’t worry about that now. I need to make things the ways they were before. I need you back in my life!
---
Who did Sakura save? It hasn't been written yet, so if there's enough demand, I will finish the arc!
[Reviews - 27]Chapter or Story
Table of Contents
- Text Size +