“ GOD YOU’RE SO FUCKING STUBBORN , ” runs through his mind and out his mouth faster than he can stop it ( not that he would ever hold his tongue around sasuke . he never has / he won’t start now ) .
but his anger ? justified . completely . to see such malice and anger and rage and righteous fury reflected back at him was oddly familiar . perhaps , because , naruto used to hold the same sort of anger any time he dared to look in the mirror . it would reflect back at him in spades and spades until he ended up punching anything that reflected such a heated yet empty gaze .
more than once , naruto has considered whether he could truly compare his life with sasuke’s . sasuke had known family in a way naruto would never be able to comprehend . and he’s tasted death in a manner that naruto has only sipped upon , never fully experienced , despite their wold being strife with war and death .
he KNOWS sasuke thinks all he is , is preaching fanfare . and he had a point , he did . if naruto truly understood then why stop him ? why not let him do this . why not JOIN him ? ( as if the thought has never crossed his mind before now . it always has . it may never stop running ) .
but , naruto was also incredibly stubborn . to fault . to one day , his demise . though the iron in his spine shook as he stood tall , and held sasuke’s glacial stare . fingers curled into fists , but not in fight . not yet , not now , at least .
“ YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT THAT THEY SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE . what the elders of this village has done in the safety of their shadows and secrets is … fucked up . ” for a lack of better words ! “ and they should have to pay . they should be called out . but you burn and you burn / you kill and you kill / and then what ? when does it stop ? when would you be satisfied ? ” he feels it , this itch . this pulsing , erratic , that ebbs under his skin . he feels heat pool and pool and he can’t tell if it’s rage or frustration or a mixture of both . if the heat in his eyes that burns and burns as he continues to stand across sasuke , the vision he has been chasing and running towards for years , is sadness and sympathy or something , unknown .
“ i have always tried to understand you . and i get that although our pain , our loneliness , may feel the same , they come from different places . but it’s not like i haven’t thought over and over again what it would be like to take them out in cold blood . to rip them apart . to make them hurt how i’ve hurt . but sasuke , ” and despite himself , his voice cracks a bit at the words . and the burning in his eyes grows . “ a part of me does want let you go . to see you finish your goal . but i can’t do that . and i won’t do that . because then you’ll be playing into your hands . they’ll only see you as the monster they painted your clan to be and that’s not how you win —– that SHOULDN’T be how you win . ”
because he’s thought about it . he has countless times planned what it would be like if he suddenly , snapped . snapped into the monster they whispered he was to their children as mothers tugged them away from him . the monster they tried to lock up in a dirty apartment and provided the bare minimum to keep him going for the next day . he’s thought about it endlessly , it’s almost driven him mad .
and then he thinks about itachi . who entrusted sasuke to him . and the iron in his spine fortifies .
“ let me help you . but let me help you get what you want , which is justice , without spiraling into the madness and hate . we can do it together . ”
HIS VENGEANCE, FOR all its calculations, is at heart but only the purest extraction of his emotions. stifling desolation at his very core as he seeks to cauterize the injury of his grief through the violence that he sees fit. but in their unsparing world of shinobi, to feel too much is to be a madman. perhaps that is what he has become now, what he will most certainly be when he delivers every living soul amongst both the innocent & the guilty to the grave. is sasuke prepared to cross that bridge into true lunacy? to annihilate all within the qualifications of his revenge without a trace of feeling? regardless of the answer, he must first deaden what sanity remains within himself in order to faithfully execute his ambition.
HOWEVER, THE DELIBERATE amputation of something one has always possessed is admittedly difficult. insane only to those who see him for his former affiliation to the turncloaks garbed in red clouds alone, there can be no question that he has still retained his mind throughout it all. eruptive, unquestionably wrathful, but not unbound of selective reason-- naruto’s words even feed his reluctance, inch by inch, as they bring into mind the image of his clan. the proud uchiha fan slated to become a symbol of treachery at the actions of their last, subject to little change from the doubts initially cast over it. since the moment he turned his back on the village, his body had become expendable as a mere container for power, but the fact has never changed that sasuke lives for the ideals that loom larger than his own life.
REVENGE, CLAN, FAMILY.. & at one seemingly forgotten point, even his precious bonds.
‘ . . .TOGETHER? IT’S FAR too easy, & also far too late to profess of teamwork, naruto. this is no longer the past-- just as i am no longer the one you once knew. frankly, i don’t even understand it. how you can speak out of any concern for me, even an offer to help me, when everything i’ve done should ensure that my fate means nothing to you. ‘ a shadow sweeps across his face, the fall of his hair guarding his eyes from appraisal-- except it’s not so that naruto cannot see him, but so that sasuke can longer see naruto. he doesn’t wish to be reminded, how much naruto has failed to deviate from that fierce, persistent boy who proclaimed to be his friend over the roar of a waterfall. even now, proving himself unfalteringly accurate to his moniker since those days long past: the number one unpredictable ninja. ‘ --someone like you claiming to know of the justice i want.. what do you suggest, then? what will allow me to find peace other than a river of konoha’s blood? depending on your answer, i'll understand that you’re taking me for a fool & you will be the first casualty of that accursed village. ‘