Naruto - Cyclical Series: Naruto Characters: Team 7, Jiraiya Pairing: Nothing overt Type: death fic, angst, potential future Warnings: I'm terrible with main characters, some language and gore Spoilers: Sasuke retrieval arc Word Count: 595 Etc: This is lacking something, but I'm fond of the idea and wanted to get it out there. This might've been done before, but as I don't read much fanfic for Naruto I have no idea. Hopefully I didn't fudge the characterization too badly. Perhaps I should add more to it, a drabble might be too little. Gaaah, rambling. Have the "History repeating Sharingan" fic.
Sakura wonders at the irony of it all, that Naruto and Sasuke’s final battle took place at the very valley they’d first fought. But this time, she refused to be left behind. This time, she teamed up with Naruto, and they won.
If only it didn’t have to be so bitter.
Never before has she been so glad of her medical training as she repairs the left side of Naruto’s face, scorched by Chidori and clawed up by Sasuke’s disturbing curse seal form. She winces at the empty eye socket, and regrets that the demon fox isn’t able to regenerate it.
Hands glowing she sits between her unconscious blond teammate and her almost-dead former crush, desperately wishing it could’ve been another way.
Sasuke watches her, silent as he bleeds from the massive hole in his abdomen. He speaks, and Sakura can’t help but wonder how. "Give my eye to him."
She whirls, voice deadly soft. "What? After all this, after you try to kill him, after he kills you, his best friend, you're offering him the Sharingan?"
"Somebody needs to kill Itachi. The idiot needs all the help he can get."
Sakura looks at Sasuke and in that moment sees the boy she fell in love with, not the traitor who nearly killed Naruto. She knows her remaining teammate will try to fulfill his last wish, even after all this. She knows she’ll help because she feels the same way. "I missed you, Sasuke-kun."
"I know," he closes his eyes. "Hurry, I don't have long. I have to explain a few things Kakashi can't teach him."
Naruto's rapid healing abilities couldn't repair a ripped-out eye, but they ensure there's no scar.
He's disoriented when he comes-to, not understanding why he his vision is strange until he sees Sasuke. Sakura is crying and her gloves are bloody, and the whole area is covered in entrails as his best friend lies dying.
"Sasuke..." his voice wavers.
Suddenly, the sky is black and colors inverted. Genjutsu?
"SASUKE! What the fuck did you do?"
"It's a time-distortion genjutsu." Whole and alive, his teammate appears. "There wouldn't be time to tell you everything otherwise."
"What?"
"Kill Itachi for me."
He nods, because there is no other option. Of course he’ll fulfill Sasuke’s vengeance—perhaps then he can finally rest.
Sasuke talks for three days straight, revealing everything he knows about Akatsuki, the secrets of the Sharingan, his family history. He talks about techniques, experiences, Orochimaru, but never how he felt, what was going through his head, if he even cared about his old teammates at all.
Naruto only interrupts to ask succinct questions, but his eyes beg for answers.
Suddenly, Sasuke stops. "Time's up." He ignores Naruto's snotty tears, doesn’t apologize, but puts a hand on shaking shoulders and smirks.
Naruto wakes up a second later and his best friend is dead.
He grabs Sakura’s hand, and she doesn’t utter any protests. They both squeeze to the point of pain.
While Naruto mourns by thrashing up tree trunks, Sakura slips Sasuke’s other eye into her water bottle, infusing it with chakra to prevent decay. She isn’t sure what compels her—research, morbid attachment, or potentially helping another friend.
When Kakashi sees Naruto, the eye hidden under his hitai-ate tears up. He leaves quickly, and is atrociously late to every scheduled event that week.
When Jiraiya sees Naruto, he curses whatever kami is responsible for this cruel joke, then himself for not preventing the tragedy he saw coming from the day Orochimaru expressed interest in Sasuke and history began to repeat.