Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Mirror Image ❯ Chapter 18 ( Chapter 18 )

 

Ch. 18

 

Valley of the End

 

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Hours Later…

 

 

 

 

Natsuki stood on the top most branch of a tall-tree surveying the surroundings, `I pray that Choji-kun and Neji-san will be alright…', she mentally hopes, `Though I'm worried about Kiba-kun, Shikamaru-kun, and my brother…', she adds to herself, “Just where are you, Naruto…?”

 

“Kon kon!”, an animal cries out in the distance, causing the teen to turn towards the sound.

 

“Sounds like Setsu has picked up both Sasuke's & my brother's scents…”, she smirks, leaping in that direction.

 

`Please don't let me be too late!', she mentally exclaims, as she clears the forest's edge onto a rocky out crop over-looking a waterfall-canyon headed by two giant-statues of two different-looking males facing each-other.

 

But she doesn't have very long time to gawk at the landscape when a burst of lightening up river quickly catches her attention followed by a muffled-scream of pain.

 

A gasp catches in her throat at the sight of her twin being held off the `ground' in a blood-soiled one-handed choke-hold; the hand belonging to her best-friend's twin, Naruto had a bleeding hole through his right-shoulder as well.

 

Suddenly, Sasuke lets out a loud grunt of pain as his wrist is tightly grabbed by Naruto's left-hand and wrenched from his neck, causing the dark-haired teen to shove himself away from his comrade cradling his left-wrist in pain.

 

Naruto is quickly and completely surrounded by a orange-red chakra and the gaping wound to his shoulder almost immediately heals without a trace, other than the puncture in his orange & blue jacket as he lifts up his head and from her location; through a pair of binoculars, she could see that his blue-eyes had turned red and he had tears streaming down his cheeks from said eyes.

 

“What the hell…?!”, she mutters.

 

“Sasuke! Orochimaru can't have you!”, she heard her sibling shout, as he takes on a guarded animalistic posture, “I'm gonna bring you home safe if I have to break every bone in your body!!”

 

She notices that Sasuke's mouth moved as if asking a question, but couldn't read his lips and her brother seemed to answer him in length before the blonde teen charges at the black-headed male.

 

Sasuke attempts to block a swinging-blow from Naruto with his forearm, but the smaller-teen lets out a animalistic-roar as he applies more force in his strike that causes the other male flying backwards, then he leaps into the air to pounce onto the unbalanced Uchiha.

 

Upon spotting the airborne attack, he lets loose a large fire-ball at the orange-clad ninja, but is strangely countered as Naruto simply bellows and his chakra flares up extinguishing the flames and forces him beneath the water's surface.

 

A few moments and streams of disruption underneath the water later, Sasuke is flung out and crashes against the canyon-wall; right below where she stood, only to be slammed further into it by Naruto's arm to his throat.

 

“You have to wake up!”, she heard her bother snarl, “If you don't, I will crush you and when you're mangled enough to stop, I'll drag you home”

 

`This isn't like my brother at all…', she worriedly thinks, `What happened to him?'

 

Suddenly Sasuke beings to chuckle rather darkly before he spoke, “You crack me up… You've got no parents, no brothers…! What can you possibly know about me?”, he scoffs, before continuing, “You were alone to begin with! What can you know about me?! Huh?!?!”

 

The statement catching the blonde-teen off-guard giving Sasuke the opportunity to kick Naruto off of himself, “This pain is born from my family bonds! How could you ever know what it means to lose anything?”

 

“It's true, I don't know a thing about having brothers, or real parents and I've only just got to know my sister…”, Naruto responds, with downcast eyes, “But… Whenever I'm with Iruka-sensei, I kind of get the picture. I think… no, I imagine, he's kind of like a father…”

 

“And whenever I'm with you…”, he continues, “I imagine… maybe that's what it's like to have a brother”

 

“Why?”, Sasuke questions, “Why do you waste so much effort on… me?”

 

“Because for me, you were part of my family”, he says, slightly smiling, “So, that's way I have to stop you!”

 

Natsuki watches as Sasuke rummages round in his pocket and pulls out his headband before tying it over his forehead, “Bring it on, Naruto”, he challenges, “It that's what you think, then all I have to do is sever that bond!”

 

`What?!?!?!?!', Natsuki mentally gasps, as she continues to peek over the cliffs-edge.

 

“Sever the bond?”, Naruto repeats, “So tell me, then what's with the headband?”

 

“I'll say it, you're strong”, the dark-haired teen states, “You know why? It's because you're like me. You felt the same pain of being alone and pain is what makes people strong”, he retorts, “If I cut our bond, I will become stronger… Much stronger”

 

Sasuke jabs indicating to the metal of his headband, “I'll fight you as my equal now, but… see up here? Not a scratch. There's no way you're changing that. Not now. Not ever!”

 

“Nothing I say's gonna sway you, is it…? Sasuke…”

 

“Yeah, we're done chatting. All we have left is to fight”, he replies, “So I said bring it on”

 

Naruto rushes forward towards the rebellious-teen swinging a fist, only for Sasuke to effortlessly dodge the strike by stepping to the side and lets the blonde skid-past, before spinning around to watch him as he quickly changes direction to charge him again with his fist raised and widely missing, but the force of the air-pressure from the punch slicing his right-cheek.

 

Natsuki observes her brother once again run towards his friend, only for a moment later it seem like Naruto stupidly ran into his fist, sending him skipping over the rocky cliff-side; like a stone skipping across the surface of the water, into the water.

 

Sasuke turns to walk up to the top of the cliff, only for an eruption of water to interrupt his departure, he quickly glances over his shoulder and plants his palms onto the rocks, swinging his left leg backwards and connects with Naruto's chin, and sends him flying back into the water.

 

She could only gasp in horror as the raven-headed teen began mercilessly beat on her brother, until Naruto was on his back in the water; his head beneath the surface, with his left-ankle in Sasuke's right-hand.

 

Suddenly, Naruto's violently wrenches his leg from the grip and he creepily rises to his feet as a orange-red chakra bubbled all-over his body until it combined and took on a shape that resembled that of a fox as he stood on his hands and feet; like an animal, with elongated-canines extending over his bottom-lip.

 

`The Kyuubi…?', Natsuki worriedly thinks, as she watches as her brother charges towards Sasuke again while running on all-fours with a roar.

 

He darts behind the dark-haired male and swipes at his head with the claws on his hand, only to have Sasuke feint to the side and narrowly dodges the strike, but the chakra around Naruto's arm branches off into a clawed-hand made of nothing; other-than pure-chakra, and slashes at Sasuke and hits him, sending him sprawling backwards.

 

Sasuke skips across the water's surface like a stone until he twists himself into a crouch and stares in disbelief at his team-mate as he stayed prone while still on all-fours, he rubs his left-cheek with the back of his hand to force feeling back into it before forming the hand-seals: Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger and lets loose a giant fire-ball towards Naruto, completely engulfing him.

 

“Naruto…!”, Natsuki finds herself quietly scream out, only to sigh in relief upon seeing that the Kyuubi's chakra had shielded him from the flames by forming an bubble around him.

 

Naruto lifts his left-arm up into the air as if he was going to swipe at someone, only to slash the air and a clawed-arm made of chakra extends at the older-teen, shoving him back against the cliff-face before the demon-powered male leaps into the air to slam him into the ground.

 

As the dust begun to clear, Natsuki could see Sasuke gasping for breath with the same black-marks that had covered his skin during his fight with Sara on his flesh, while her brother was still surrounded by the Kyuubi's chakra. And when the dust fully cleared, she saw that one of the chakra-created hand & arm was holding Sasuke like a figurine-toy before he is yanked towards Naruto and straight into his fist which sends him flying backwards.

 

Upon nearly crashing into the cliff-face again, Sasuke lands seated-upright looking like a discarded doll and with him still facing-downward he begins chuckling to himself, “Guess this is it…”, he says towards Naruto, as he slowly raises to his feet, “You leave ne no choice, Naruto!”, he scoffs, while the Curse-marks expanded & combined, turning his flesh to a grayish-color with a black cross-shaped star-marking forming on the bridge of his nose and a violet-colored lipstick-marking on his lips, the whites of his eyes becoming black; making the red of his Sharingan more prominent, as his hair lengthened and changed from raven-black to a faded dark-blue.

 

“Turns out you were pretty special. But in the end…”, Sasuke continued to taunt, as the transformation completed itself, “I'm still more special than you!”

 

`Sasuke…', Natsuki fearfully thinks, feeling her own body beginning to tremble.

 

“Is that all that makes you special?!”, she heard her brother question his comrade.

 

“I won't lose”, he laughs.

 

Naruto reacts to the comment by charging towards the teen and slashes at him with a chakra-clad clawed-hand, both of them skipping off of the rocks of the cliff-face several-times before stopping in an explosion inside the left-ankle of one of the giant statues. When the smoke started to clear, both Naruto and Natsuki could see that the attack had been shielded-against by a large webbed-fingered clawed-hand shaped-wing blocking Sasuke's body from view.

 

The giant-hand swings out and smacks Naruto clear-across to the feet of the other-statue on the opposite-side of the canyon, causing the blonde-ninja to smash into the ankle of the statue; shattering the stone and creating a crater, as Sasuke shifts his position into a crouch.

 

Sasuke bites back a scream of pain as a bulge develops on his right-shoulder and grows larger before it shreds its way through his shirt, revealing an identical hand-wing and forcing him to brace himself with his hands on the ground in front of himself to maintain his balance.

 

“Sasuke… you…”, Naruto whispers under his breath, as he watches as his friend winces from an unseen pain that obviously irritated the young Uchiha, only to noticed a moment later that he couldn't feel any sensation in his left-hand.

 

“Your power, looks like it carries some risk with it”, Sasuke sneers, “Do you know? We're at the border they call `The Valley of the End'…”, he states, looking up to survey the surroundings, “A perfect setting, wouldn't you say? Naruto…?”

 

The remark earns him a semi-shocked glare from his blonde-haired comrade.

 

“Oh yeah, I said we were done chatting, didn't I?”, he chuckles, recalling his own statement, “Well, it's about time we wrap up this little duel”, he adds, as he raises to his feet.

 

Natsuki watches in horror as her brother and her friend's sibling glare across the river at each-other as they channeled their chakra into their hands; Naruto in his right and Sasuke in his left respectively, Naruto's forming a ball the size of his palm which was blue in color with flares of red-orange surrounding it, while Sasuke looked like he was clutching an orb made of blue-lightening that changed into hazy white & black electricity.

 

Suddenly the two males leap from their places at the feet of the statues, converging in the middle of the canyon as their attacks make contact with the other, causing an whiplash of energy that swirled around the teens as it slowly expands; creating a disruption in the cascading-waters of the falls and destroys the rocks on either-sides.

 

The lone female-teen; and only witness to this battle, had to brace herself as the force of the impact nearly knocked her off her feet as she saw the raging-energy formed an orb around the two combatants that darkened until she could no longer see them, before the center of the sphere exploded outward with pure-white light that caused her to lift her arms up to shield her eyes against the brightness.

 

When the blinding-light finally faded, Natsuki immediately rushes to the edge of the cliff and peers down the steep-incline.

 

“No…”, she gasps in shocked-horror at the sight of Naruto laying on the ground with Sasuke standing over him.

 

She could only tremble in fear as she watches as Sasuke continued to stare down at her brother, the knot of his headband unknotting itself and falls to the ground next to Naruto's head, and in the silence of the area she could clearly hear Sasuke say, “Naruto…” as he still peered down at his team-mate.

 

The rain started to fall from the clouds above a moment later, catching the raven-haired teen's attention causing him to look up at the sky as it begun to descend faster, only for her to see him flinch in tremendous pain and hastily grab his left-shoulder; minutes after he turned his eyes upward, before collapsing to his knees and she could see him hack-up blood onto the ground.

 

He stayed motionless for several-minutes with his forehead parallel to Naruto's, blankly staring at his face at which time Natsuki decides to make her way down the slippery-slope.

 

Upon reaching the bottom she runs towards the males, slowing to a walk when reaching a few feet away before she sees Sasuke getting back to his feet and starts to stumble in the direction she had come from, shuffling past her like he didn't even notice her presence leaving her slightly stunned.

 

“Wait…”, she mutters at him, but hears him still shuffling away from her, “Sasuke-kun, I said wait!”, she angrily shouts, spinning around to glare at him, and sees that this time he did stop.

 

He slowly turns his head to glance at her with a degree of disinterest from over his shoulder.

 

“Where do you think you're going?”, she questions, only to receive a passive-stare from him, “It better not be to Orochimaru...”, she warns.

 

At that verbal-threat does the expression in his eyes change to anger, that would paralyze the weak-willed in fear; and weak-willed was something Natsuki wasn't, as she continued to glare him down.

 

Suddenly she feels her hair fall out of its ponytail and watches as the red-ribbon that held her hair up fluttered to the ground in front of her; still knotted in a bow, but she could see a clean-slice through it that caused the release of her hair.

 

“My ribbon… but…when…?”, she whispers, `Did he slice through it with chakra alone…?', she mentally asks, returning her gaze on Sasuke to see that he had turned his head away from her again and had resumed walking, `What do I do? I can easily take down Sasuke in his present-state, but my brother needs urgent medical-attention... What to do? What to do?', she ponders; internally torn, continuing to watch him leave, “I'm so sorry, Sara…”, she quietly sobs in apology, as she turns to rush to Naruto's side and applies Medical-Ninjutsu to the most fatal-looking of his injuries, `You may be like a sister to me, but Naruto is still my only blood-relative...', she mentally apologizes, `Please forgive me…!', she cries in her head, as tears begun to run down her cheeks, but the still falling rain was hiding that fact.

 

 

 

 

 

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