Limitless Potential

The Honoured One

"You idiot!" Sasuke screamed, his eyes flooded with unreleased tears while his heart thumped in a fear he wished he'd never had to feel again.

Naruto just weakly coughing up a terrifying amount of blood. The blonde looked down at his torso, and laughed a nervous laugh when he saw the dozens of kunai rammed firmly into it.

Naruto definitely didn't consider himself smart, he didn't know a lot of things. But he certainly knew this.

He was dying.

"Why would you protect me?! Don't you have your own life goals?! Who's going to be Hokage now?!" Sasuke's voice got hoarse, staring at the fragile form of potentially the only friend he'd ever made stand between himself and Zabuza's little ice user ally, who was mere inches away from killing Sasuke.

She didn't make any move to attack either Naruto or Sasuke any further while they were distracted, instead she was simply staring at them curiously, watching the trauma as if she was a spectator and not the cause.

Naruto shrugged, wincing as he did so as it only seemed to dig the kunai in further.

"You've got life goals too. And I'll be damned if I'm the reason my friend can't achieve his dreams just cuz I was too scared of death to help him." Naruto reasoned, turning around to face the distraught raven-haired man he'd saved, smiling once more.

He took the opportunity to look around the miniature battlefield, getting one last glance at all the people involved in his extremely short ninja journey.

His sensei, Kakashi, was intensely fighting Zabuza near the bridge, but despite that, Kakashi's eyes (or rather, Kakashi's EYE) were firmly locked on the bloody blonde, and with each passing second that Naruto grew closer to death, Kakashi's panic and therefore, his killing intent, grew that much stronger.

Naruto just grinned and winked at the Jonin, non-verbally thanking the man for the role he played in Naruto's life.

Sakura was nearby that old man who they were meant to be protecting, Tazuna, a kunai in her hand facing the wrong way, and her ugly dress flapping in the wind.

Naruto grinned at her, but in return, he got an apathetic look of indifference. Naruto would be lying if he said that didn't hurt, that the woman he'd spent his entire life wanting to be with was so unbothered by his impending death. Honestly, he'd prefer a look of disgust or hatred than that, it would at least show that she felt something towards his existence.

Because after all, what's the point of existence if nobody cared you existed in the first place?

Naruto felt his eyes well up in tears, but he shook them off, not letting his last moments be a pathetic mess of self-pity and hurt.

He'd die a proud ninja who grinned with the people he loved in his last moments.

Naruto looked down towards Sasuke, feeling his life-force really start to slip away now, he was getting weaker with every moment he stayed alive. It was getting close, maybe twenty seconds left.

Sasuke was staring at the ground in grief and despair, his tears touching the wet ground of the Wave Country and seeping into the soil without leaving any trace.

"Look at me, Sasuke." Naruto requested, and the Uchiha slowly looked up, his throat hoarse from his sobs.

"Don't cry, your tears are wasted on stupid old me. Don't feel sad that I'm dead, just be happy I could help you in your journey towards your goals." Naruto beamed, feeling his legs quiver as he began to buckle under his own weight.

Sasuke wiped away his tears, but new ones took their place. He shook his head indignantly, before sighing and nodding, accepting the noble death of a great man.