Dark •Sequel to Bright!•

The Price of it All

Naruto was the next to take off and I took off after him. He stumbled along the way but I pulled him up. There was no way I could let him face this alone. We both ran out into the open area, and my eyes took a bit longer to adjust. It had been a few days since I was able to actually see sunlight. I was surprised I hadn't gone crazy yet.

"Sasuke." Naruto whispered, and I followed his eyes up to where Sasuke was standing. I protectively stood in front of my brother, staring up at Sasuke in disgust.

"Well Naruto, you came too, I assume Kakashi is here?" Sasuke saying my brothers name was enough to make me want to punch him. I refused to let him anywhere near Naruto. Never again.

"Unfortunately Kakashi couldn't make it, so I'm here in his place, Team Kakashi has come to escort you back to the Leaf and retrieve Akari Uzumaki." Their new leader spoke, and I stared at him in shock for a second. There was no way Sasuke would come back with us. Surely I wasn't the only one to see that.

"Team Kakashi.." Sasuke's eyes traveled over to Sai. Sai looked back at him before pulling out the small blade that was on his back.

"I knew it! Sai don't!" Sakura yelled, catching everyone else's attention.

"So that guys my replacement? I thought the team already had a weakling, he was saying something about wanting to protect the bond between Naruto and me."

"Sai I thought your mission was to assassinate Sasuke?" Sakura looked at her teammate. My heart stopped for a second at the thought. 

"It's true, I was given a classified mission to eliminate Sasuke, but I'm done following orders, from now on I think for myself." Sai replied, and everyone seemed to look at him in shock. I let my eyes go back up to Sasuke though, and stared at him. He really was too far gone..

"Naruto, I think you can help me remember, bring back those old feelings I thought were lost, things that were once important to me," Sai's speech caused me look back at my brother, he had a way with people that I would never be able to understand.

"I really don't know that much about you Sasuke, but I do know that Naruto and Sakura would be willing to risk just about everything for you, and that Akari already has," I looked back at this stranger, "They don't want to lose their connection with you, they would do anything to protect those bonds, I still might not understand it that clearly, but you Sasuke, you must understand it!"

"You are right, I did understand, and that's why I severed them!"

As if my heart wasn't already broken enough by him, it was as if he walked through and stepped on all the pieces, crushing them even more.

"You see, I have a different bond now, between my older brother and me, it's the bond of hatred,"

"Having too many ties in this world will lead you astray, it weakens one ambition, distracts you from what truly matters," I looked over to Naruto to see him visibly starting to shake, I grabbed my brothers hand giving it a small squeeze, he grabbed it back, but didn't let go.

"Then why didn't you.. If that's all true why didn't you kill me that day?!" Naruto yelled and I felt my stomach drop, Sasuke did spare him, but it was only because he wanted to forge his own path, not follow the one that Itachi had laid out for him.

"Weren't you going to break our bond, Sasuke?!" Naruto continued on and Sasuke just stared back at him.. As emotionless as ever..

"The reason is simple it's not that I couldn't break our bond Naruto, I was doing nothing more than what my older brother had done before me, it was nothing more than a strategy to gain power," Sasuke's words caused Naruto to flinch back, and then step in front of me.