Naruto lay in the frozen snow for only a heartbeat, the taste of blood filling his mouth. Then, his fingers dug into the ice. He didn't use a shadow clone. He didn't reach for a kunai. He got up to his feet, his face twisted in a mask of raw, tearful fury.
"You think I wanted this?!" Naruto screamed, his voice cracking as he ran forward.
"Naruto, no!" Sakura shouted, her hand reaching out to grab his sweater, but he was too fast. He didn't aim a calculated strike. He grabbed Sasuke around the waist, the force sending them both crashing into the stone wall of the alley.
They hit the ground in a tangled mess of blue kimono and orange fabric. Naruto swung blindly, his fist crashing into Sasuke's shoulder, while Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hair, pulling his head back to land a desperate punch against his ribs.
"STOP IT! BOTH OF YOU!" Sakura's voice ripped through the air, shrill and breaking. She was sobbing, her hands pressed against her mouth as she watched them tear each other.
Hinata fell to her knees a few feet away, her breath coming in short, terrified gasps as she watched the blood hit the snow. "N-Naruto-kun... Sasuke-kun... please..."
"It was the only thing I had left!" Naruto sobbed, blood dripping onto the snow. "It's who I am, Teme! I'm not some nameless ghost in the snow! I'm a shinobi of Konoha!"
"You're a corpse!" Sasuke shouted back, his hands locking around Naruto's throat to shove him off. "You're going to get us all killed because you're a child who can't let go of a toy!"
Lee ran forward, his face pale with shock. "Sasuke-kun! Release him! This is not the way of a comrade!" He grabbed Sasuke's shoulder, trying to pull him back, but the boys were locked in a death grip.
Sasuke rolled on top, crushing Naruto's arms down with his knees. He raised his fist again, his knuckles already split and red. "You always do this!"
Sasuke yelled, his voice cracking with a mix of fury and fear. "Your stupidity is going to cost us everything! I'm going to beat some sense into you myself since your Parents never could!"
The words hit Naruto harder than the punch. His eyes, already clouded with tears, filled with a sudden, dangerous light. The mention of the parents he never had—the guidance he had to invent for himself—snapped something deep inside him.
Mini Sasuke, watching from the shadows of the wall, let out a small, choked gasp. He looked at his older self with wide, horrified eyes, his small body trembling at the cruelty of those words.
"TEME!" Naruto screamed, his voice a rough, broken shout.
With a surge of desperate strength, Naruto slammed his forehead into Sasuke's nose. The crack of bone echoed in the alley.
"Enough!" Neji's voice cut through the air like a blade. He moved forward, his fingers targeting Naruto's pressure points, his face a mask of icy fury. "You are acting like animals! Do you want to be spotted and killed by those Samurais?!"
As Sasuke fell back, his grip loosening, Naruto threw him off and jumped, slamming Sasuke against the rough stone wall.
"SASUKE! STOP!" Mini Sasuke's voice finally spoke, a high, thin wail that sounded like a wounded animal. He moved forward from the shadows, his small hands grabbing at the air as if he could pull his older self back by his shadow.
His eyes were wide and drowning in terror—this wasn't the person he thought he would become; this was a nightmare.
"Don't you talk about them!" Naruto sobbed, landing a heavy, clumsy blow to Sasuke's chest. "At least I care about the village! You're just a coward who's scared of getting caught! You don't care about Konoha, you just care about your own skin!"
"They're going to hear us!" Tenten muttered, her voice trembling with a panic she couldn't hide anymore. She was leaning against the opposite wall, her eyes darting to the street corner. "Neji! Lee! Get them apart or we're all dead! This isn't a training ground!"
Naruto raised his fist to strike again, but his vision was blurred by tears. "I'd rather die as a ninja of Konoha than live as a coward like you, Sasuke!"
He swung, but Sasuke caught his wrist, his own face filled with blood. "Then die!" Sasuke shouted, his voice trembling. "But don't take us with you!"
They collided again, falling into the snow in a heap of tangled limbs and muffled grunts, two broken kids trying to beat the fear out of each other.
"STOP IT!" Sakura's scream ripped through the freezing air.
She didn't hesitate. She didn't think about her crush or her feelings. She just ran. With a burst of speed, she slammed her entire body—shoulder first—into Sasuke's side.
The impact was loud. Sasuke was so focused on hitting Naruto that he didn't see her coming. The force of her push knocked him completely off of Naruto. Sasuke tripped, his boots slipping in the ftozen ground, until he fell backward into the snow.
Sakura didn't stop to apologize. She immediately dropped to her knees pulling Naruto's head away from the ice and into her lap, her hands shaking as she wiped the blood from his lip.
"Are you guys crazy?!" Tenten shouted, finally breaking her shock. She rushed forward, grabbing Sasuke by the shoulder to keep him from charging back in. "We're in the middle of a literal death trap and you two are trying to kill each other? Have you lost your minds?"
Sasuke shoved Tenten's hand off, his breathing came out in ragged bursts. "He's the one who lost his mind! He kept the headband! He's the reason we're in this messy situation!"
Naruto's head throbbed, the world spinning in shades of grey and red. He felt the sudden warmth of Sakura's lap, the shaking, trembling touch of her hands on his face. It felt unreal.
For a second, he wondered if he was dreaming—Sakura was here, holding him, and for once, she wasn't looking past him to find Sasuke. She was looking at him.
"I don't care!" Lee shouted, stepping between the two groups. He didn't look heroic; he looked heartbroken. "Sasuke-kun, you hit a comrade! You mentioned his parents! That is not how a shinobi of Konoha acts!"
"Don't talk to me about acting like a shinobi." Sasuke snapped, wiping his bleeding nose. He looked at Sakura, waiting for her to get up, to come back to his side. "Sakura, get up. We're leaving before the guards find this alley."
Naruto froze at the coldness in Sasuke's voice. He struggled to sit up, his fingers digging into Sakura's sleeves for balance. He looked at Sasuke—not with the usual rivalry, but with a hollow sense of betrayal.
"Is that it, then?" Naruto's voice was rough, catching on the taste of blood in his throat.
He looked at the boy he called his brother, his best friend. "You're just... you're just gonna separate yourself from me? Like I'm some piece of trash you're throwing away to save your own skin?"
Sasuke didn't answer. He just kept his eyes on Sakura, his jaw set in a hard, stubborn line.
Sakura's grip on Naruto's sweater tightened until her knuckles were white. She looked up at Sasuke, and for the first time, she didn't see the boy she loved—she saw the boy who had just insulted a dead mother to win an argument.
Naruto felt her heart racing against his shoulder, he could feel how terrified she was to speak up.
He looked up at her, and despite the blood and the pain, a small, sad smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He didn't want her to be afraid. He didn't want her to be hated because of him.
"It's okay, Sakura-chan," Naruto whispered, his voice soft and tired. "Go on. Go with him. I... I won't mind. Really. You'll be better with them."
Sakura froze. She looked down at him, her eyes wide with disbelief. She could see he was being genuine—he was actually trying to give her permission to leave him behind.
"N-No," she whispered, her voice trembling so hard she could barely get the words out. She was terrified.
She knew how strong Sasuke was, and she had never stood against him like this. "I'm... I'm s-staying with him, Sasuke-kun. If you can be... this m-mean to him when he's down... then I don't... I don't even k-know who you are anymore!"
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📊 BATTLE REPORT: 76-IRON 📊
LOSER: Uzumaki Naruto 🍥🟠
SNEAK PEEK LINES💬
"Go follow him! I don't need any of you! I'll survive this on my own!"
"I'd rather die here with a real friend than live one more second with a fake like you!"
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—With love, one forehead poke away from collapse,
Sakura Shinomiya 💫
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