Paradox

09 - Epilogue

The two boys landed rather unceremoniously, dropping straight into the water. They both swam up, and made their way to the shore, where their headbands laid after seemingly being swept up. They heaved, and lied down against the sandy shore. Sasuke wiped his cheeks, blood staining the back of his hand. Were his eyes still bleeding? He had unlocked the mangekyou with Itachi's death... surely that wasn't right? He remembered that he had been told to kill his best friend, and yet...

Naruto coughed, wiped his lips and picked up their headbands. He tossed Sasuke's one back to him.

Sasuke frowned, glancing down at the headband and the scratch through the centre of the Leaf symbol. Everything went so wrong, but he was rather powerful in the future... clearly. He jumped before patting down his sides, and reaching for the medical kit that Sakura had given him. He checked the contents and nodded to himself when everything seemed fine.

"We should go back..." Naruto said, now lying down and looking at the blue sky.

The Uchiha stayed quiet for a moment, before taking out one of each of the vials that he had been given. He opened each of them to check that they had not been damaged in any way, and saw that there was a note in one of them. He read it to himself, realising that it was addressed to Tsunade. Apparently, Sakura wanted Tsunade to understand what exactly this was. He then wrapped the bottles in his headband, leaving two of them there.

"You can."

"W—Wait—What!?" Naruto darted up straight away. "You're not still planning to...!?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I need to get powerful to take on Obito, and maybe Madara—" his voice became venomous at that name. "—at some point. Obviously, Orochimaru made me strong."

"Didn't you see what happened—Surely, there's some other way. Kakashi-sensei can train you!"

"We don't have long, I don't think. I don't have the time to—"

"You're a fucking idiot, teme!"

Sasuke looked away. "Maybe, but this might still be—"

"Ugh! Is there even anything I can say to stop you?"

The Uchiha heir shrugged. "Probably not."

"Fine!" Naruto huffed out. "I'll come with you then."

Sasuke blinked. Once. Twice. "What?"

The Uzumaki grinned and gave Sasuke a thumbs up. "Look, I can probably stop you from becoming a blood thirsty monster. And to do that, I'll go with you. To keep you in line."

Sighing, Sasuke stood up and dusted himself off. Naruto wearily placed his headband next to Sasuke's folded up one.

"Fine."

And the two boys headed off into the forest, where Sasuke had been told to go from the Sound shinobi that had attacked him previously. The boys (more Naruto) spoke about what to say to the snake sannin, with Naruto's choice of joining Sasuke.