Something Precious

Chapter Seventy Two

(A/n I am not writtingnout the entire battle scene. Sorry. It just wasn't really working and it was boring so I cut the majority of it.)

Naruto's perfect, empty calm was broken, and while he hardly missed a step in the battle he now fought, his mind was wreaking turmoil trying to comprehend the red drops that leaked to the ground.

Naruto had been wrong. It wasn't a clone. He wasn't a clone. So then what was he? A trick? An illusion? Had Naruto somehow been captured in some kind of genjutsu? But no. Kurama would have broken it by now it that were the case.

"Sasuke." he said while he attempted to disarm the. . . man(?) with a quick swoop of his weapon. It didn't land of course and the - whatever, danced out of range, crouching low, fingertips splayed in the dust to supply balance.

The figure's eyes flashed, for a moment sharpening beyond the clouded haze they had so far maintained. They winced as if something was hurting them and the figure was so much like him Naruto almost winced as well.

"Naruto?" they spoke his name with recognition and Naruto took a deep breath, trying to think rationally. The figure's eyebrows scrunched together slightly, in concentration or confusion.

The carved metal of Naruto's infamous blade glinted as he shook. It was held in an offensive position beside his head, pointed at the man.

"No." Naruto whispered. "No no no no." he scolded himself. He hated that he couldn't steady his hands; that he could barely keep his emotions behind the gates he had made just for them, to ensure they would never get in the way. But the gates were braking, cracking, threatening to shatter and cut him with the sharpness of their pitiful fragments. He knew it was him. Sasuke. Believing anything else would hint he still held the nievity he had so long cast off.

Sasuke's eyes clouded again and his eyes narrowed. His 'Mangekyo' flashed and the black flames of Amatarasu lifted from Sasuke's katana and quickly planted on Naruto's, spreading up it's reach and approaching his fingers. Naruto was quick to drop it in the dirt before the dancing death could reach him. He scowled. He had never liked the ameterasu flames. There was just something so ominous about them. The way they almost didn't look real. The way they were morbidly mesmerizing, like a lion stalking it's innocent prey.

"Susanoo" Sasuke was quick to activate the purple giant that was unique to his blood limit. Chakra poured from him and surrounded him in a sort of protective armor. Naruto's eyes widened as the giant's bow formed and was drawn, the string taunt and the purple arrow pointed at him.

In defense of such a powerful attack, Naruto tugged on his reserve of Nine-Tails chakra. Kurama gladly gave it. The glow of the power didn't even fully envelop him when he used it to gain speed enough to dart out of the arrow's range just as the string was released and the tension on it relaxed, driving the projectile ever forward. With out the target to stop it's travel, the arrow rocketed into the distance, making a crater some dozen kilometers away.

The battle was escalating faster than Naruto was able to comprehend. He barely caught his bearings before the next one was fired with black flames swirling around it.

This time, Naruto summoned a clawed hand of the golden chakra and caught it before it landed.

Now that he was in Nine-Tails chakra mode, Naruto could tell that this was no clone. He felt a sinking dread. Why was Sasuke doing this? How could he? Obviously, by hint of his clouded eyes, Madara had done something to him. What was it? Was Sasuke still in there? Naruto shook his head. Of course he was. He recalled the small microsecond of clarity earlier. He was still in there, and he was going to find a way to get him out even if it killed him. And maybe that was a selfish resolve, because the future needed him. But Naruto needed his brother. Now that he knew he was alive, he just couldn't leave him.