(I think I'll try a short thing for this, and see what happens. [Luckily it's in Challenges, so no one will see it.])
Sasuke gingerly pressed onto his ribcage, the pain was immense, and he could almost hear the bones grinding together. His vision was blurry, but he could still see the light at the top of this new cavern. Sasuke remembered in perfect detail what happened to cause this crippling injury.
The dobe, sheathed in a red swirl, rushed at him and plowed a rasengan into Sasuke's ribs. It was actually a pretty smart move, preventing the Chidori in Sasuke's hand from doing anything more than fizzling out. Sasuke felt the rock shattering against his new wings, destroying them. Luckily they were still new, so the nerve endings in them, like most of the rest of his new demonic body, were still growing in. Had all of the endings been in place, Sasuke would likely have passed out when he first made a crater in the rocks with his body.
Sasuke managed to push his right hand up to prop himself up. Sasuke breathed deep, ignoring the pain in his side, and shouted, "Dobe!" Sasuke listened to the call echo through the cave he was stuck in. It was amazing, really, how the dobe managed to create it.
Naruto's rasengan was primed, it was supposed to dig through whatever was in it's way, but the ball itself was widened, providing a large enough surface that Sasuke's body was not pierced. Instead, the rasengan used Sasuke as a drill bit into the cliffside at the Valley of the End.
As Sasuke looked back on the statues that were there, he recalled who they were, the Shodaime Hokage, and Uchiha Madara. Naruto stood on Shodaime's hewn head, while Sasuke gloated from Madara's.
Sasuke flew down Madara's skull, down to where the eyes were, to make some comment to Naruto about, "The infinate power of the Uchiha, so great that even the man who made Konoha immortalized it, showing it as an equal to his. Or something like that, then giving Naruto a long speech about the Uchiha eyes, while Sasuke prepared a low Chidori. As Sasuke looked back at where Naruto was standing, Sasuke finally paid attention to the opponent he was fighting.
Naruto was covered in a dull, crimson chakra, small chakra tendrils led from the bottom of his sandals to the water hundreds of feet below them. The dobe had managed to walk on air? When Sasuke had barely managed to be able to manuever it! This would not stand! Sasuke started running to pierce Naruto with the lightning hand, but Naruto was too fast.
The Rasengan that barreled Sasuke through the mountain was larger than the others, and somewhat misshapen, but to Sasuke's unparrelled ego, that was just proof that Naruto was still a dobe, he had just gotten lucky.
When Sasuke felt the Rasengan slam into his body, and the spin immediately thereafter, Sasuke knew better. When the twisted heir tore his wings to shreds on the rock behind him, Sasuke knew that Naruto was stronger. When Sasuke noticed the light that he could see was outlining a shadow, Sasuke knew that it was time to find out why.
"Dobe! How?!" Sasuke yelled. But then he felt it. Sasuke didn't know what it was, but he knew how it felt. It felt like the entire weight of all the crimes Sasuke had ever committed were being dropped on his chest. The air was getting heavier, and the space he was in felt infinatly smaller. Sasuke saw Naruto standing at the entrance, still saturated in that blood-colored chakra.
Sasuke has felt true fear three times in his life. Once, from Orochimaru, when Sasuke was bitten. once from Itachi, when Sasuke was ripped into a place where his brother's disturbed mind held sway where Sasuke was forced to see his family die, and once when he was a child, his father trudged into Sasuke's room after Sasuke had broken a lamp of his mother's.
It was not so much a fear of his consequence, but Sasuke's father, Fugaku clomping up the stairs put a fear unlike any other into Sasuke. It was the sound of impending doom. Sasuke had seen his father incinerate several men while in his position of Cheif of Special Police of Konoha. And Sasuke had been privy to the fates of some of the fools who tried to take vengence on Fugaku. Sasuke had seen what the man could do, and Sasuke was afraid.
Sasuke could hear that sound now, the slow tromping of ninja footwear plodding toward him. Like with his father, Sasuke knew he had done something wrong, and now it was time for the punishment.
This event would mark the fourth time Uchiha Sasuke would feel fear in his life.
Sasuke felt, rather than saw, Naruto's chakra change back to normal. Emboldened, Sasuke yelled out again, "How dobe? How did you beat me?"
Naruto said nothing, but he grabbed Sasuke's ankle, and proceeded to drag Sasuke out of the hole he was in, Sasuke screaming the entire way.
When the two emerged from the hole, he asked again, in a whisper, "How did you beat me? How did you get so strong, dobe?"
Naruto turned to look at him, face serious. Sasuke had seen Naruto like this a few times before, one of which, was when he spoke to Inari. "Sasuke, tell me how you rose to power."
Sasuke looked at Naruto with an odd expression on his face, this was the last thing Sasuke had been expecting, but he answered, nonetheless. "I am an Uchiha, I am powerful by birth, and I was given power from Orochimaru. Kakashi also gave me power."
Naruto nodded his head, this action infuriated Sasuke, it was like the dobe was dismissing Sasuke, like Sasuke didn't matter. Only one person had treated Sasuke like he didn't matter, and Sasuke swore to kill him for it.
"So what power did you earn, Sasuke? What hard work did you put in to master yourself?" Sasuke fumed. Did Naruto actually insuinate that Sasuke didn't train hard enough?
Sasuke felt slighted, and he yelled himself hoarse to Naruto about it, "I spend whatever time I have training! Except for the final stage, I have perfected my eyes! I've just gotten access to my second level of the Curse Seal! And Kakashi has run out of things to teach me!" As Sasuke listed off what he had mastered, he pointed to each of them. His eyes, spinning tops with three tomoe each, the mark on his neck, and some of the wounds the Valley had from Chidori attacks.
When Naruto only shook his head in response, Sasuke felt a little sick. Sasuke knew that Naruto wasn't a dobe anymore, this fight had proved it. But now, Sasuke was afraid that what he knew was crumbling down. Sasuke's retaliation to Naruto sounded flimsy now that he thought about it.
It sounded mighty flimsy to Naruto, too. "No, Sasuke. I mean, what power do you yourself have? Not that copy-paste bloodline, not Orochimaru's brand, not Kakashi's second-hand jutsu. What can you do without those?"
Sasuke was speechless. Any bloodline ninja would be. Most with bloodlines focused so heavily on them, that living without one is something they can't imagine. And the power flow from Orochimaru's Curse Seal? It felt like every muscle in his body relaxed at once, who would give up that?
Naruto began speaking again, "The Sasuke from the academy was pretty cool. Before he opened those crazy eyes, before he got the love bite from Orochimaru, and before he got all that special training. He was a pretty good ninja. Had some clever tricks with wires and thrown weapons, and some good fire jutsu. You aren't him."
Sasuke quirked an eyebrow, he didn't quite know what the dobe was getting at, but it confused him.
Naruto continued, "Sasuke would never sell his soul to get stronger. He knew he needed to get stronger, yeah, but he was always human. He even jumped in the way of a lethal shower of icicles to save me. But you aren't him. You are a twisted, warped version of him. But he's still there."
Sasuke remembered that, the leap to save Naruto's life. It almost made him cry. To think, Sasuke had just spent almost an hour trying to kill Naruto. And not even a year ago, Sasuke had taken what appeared to be a lethal strike to save him.
"Sasuke," Naruto noticed that Sasuke had been drifting off, likely into his memories, but this was important, and Sasuke needed to hear it. "Sasuke, there is one thing I have that you do not, and with it, I will remain stronger than you."
So, Naruto had it, too. Something that wasn't his that made him strong. A small part of Sasuke's mind was happy that Naruto was admitting that taking outside strength wasn't all bad.
That part of Sasuke's psyche stopped backflipping at the next word from Naruto's mouth.
"Humility. My humility has made me strong. I accepted assitance from others, but did not lean on them. And they helped me to become powerful. Sasuke, your pride holds you back, it prevents you from accepting help, even if they want to make you better. Have you ever noticed that some of the greatest ninja are humble? They don't make a big show out of being who they are. That's because they know that the thing that kills fastest is pride. Sasuke, I ask you to cast aside your pride and come back with me. Toss off your gifts of false power and come with me to seek the only power that lasts."
As Naruto finished his speech, he kneeled down and offered Sasuke his hand. Sasuke looked at Naruto's hand for a moment, then grabbed it.
Sasuke looked Naruto square in the eye, and deactivated his Sharingan, the eyes stopped their motion, and the tomoe bled out over the red, creating the Uchiha void effect. The demonic alterations Sasuke had undergone reversed themselves. The broken wings pulled back into Sasuke's back, his hair receded, and the pigment of his skin lightened.
"Let's go back, Do- Naruto."
(So much for short. Alright, whatta ya think about that for a more human Sasuke? Would that work? I think I'll put this in ideas, too. See what kind of response it gets there.)
