One More Light

Chapter 18

"Naruto. You look like shit. You really are pathetic." Sasuke taunted. It was true, Naruto was no longer concealing himself in a transformation. He was completely unveiled, pale and thin. His face had regained some colour and the rings around his eyes had started to fade but he still needed time.

"I am what I am." Naruto responded. He was stronger now. He knew someone cared. He wasn't in this alone. He had Gaara and Kurama. He could face this knowing he was loved.

"It's time we ended this Naruto. I need more power. I need you to die. I need to destroy the leaf. You will not stand in my way dobe." Sasuke allowed the venom to seep into his voice.

"It's ironic teme. If you would've done this a week ago, I wouldn't have even fought you. I would've let you end me. It would've made me happy. But I wanna see tomorrow. I want to see what this world has to offer. I finally know who my friends are, and I realise that as you are now, you are not my friend. I will not let you end me Sasuke and you will not destroy the leaf." Naruto responded, a hidden strength in his voice as he looked forward to his future.

Sasuke began channelling his chakra into a lightning blade, aiming for a quick blow. Naruto dodged easily, knowing his body could not handle a full-frontal assault and instead tried to analyse his surroundings. He knew escape was his best shot at a future, he just needed to find his friends and lose Sasuke.

Naruto summoned his clones, infusing Kurama's chakra with his own. Each of his clones formed a tailed beast bomb while the original Naruto slipped to the back of his crowd. He switched consciousness with Kurama, knowing he would be harder to track if his signature was in tuned with the forest. As his clones unleashed their beast bombs, Kurama used his chakra to perform a teleportation similar to the Flying Raijin technique. It worked through a shared chakra connection rather than a marking. Thanks to his previous exchange, Gaara was a viable option. This allowed Kurama to immediately transport to Gaara last registered chakra signature.

Kurama scanned the area and realised Gaara was nearby but hidden. He switched back with Naruto so he could find Gaara. Naruto clearly had some kind of inkling that Kurama did not. He started running as soon as his consciousness was in control. He ran for about 5 minutes before he turned down a hidden path that lead to a hidden oasis.

Naruto recognised the area from their trip to Suna. He figured the best place for Gaara to be recovering from the attack would be the hot springs they visited on their journey. He was, of course, right. Gaara, Temari and Kunkuro were all standing in fighting stances as he burst through the door. They quickly relaxed and Gaara grasped Naruto in a tight hug.

"Naruto..." Gaara whispered, clutching his friend tightly in the embrace, "I was so worried about you..."

Naruto returned the embrace of his friend and responded "If it wasn't for everything you have done for me, I would have just let him end me. But I owe you more than that."

Naruto broke the embrace and stepped away to speak to them all. "We need to go. I escaped but he won't be far behind me. I'm not strong enough to fight him. He wants to kill me and destroy the leaf. We need to warn them." Naruto was on full alert, scanning the room as the sand siblings tried to form a plan.