"You're really going this time, then?"
Sasuke stopped mid-step. He'd sensed him from a fair distance already, but Sasuke owed him enough to go along with this mystery meeting he wanted.
Turning, he came face to face with the Hero of the Leaf. "You could have said goodbye at the gates like Sakura and Kakashi, you know?"
Naruto grinned. "That wouldn't be as cool."
Sasuke snorted. "It still isn't," he told him, smirking back. "You're the uncoolest person I know, loser. You should know that by now."
That stupid smile didn't falter. The wind gusted through the forest around them, blowing leaves in the air and flapping the empty sleeve of Naruto's right arm.
Hiding his frown, Sasuke couldn't help bringing up a hand toward his left arm. The new one. Even after the war and everything, he'd still given Sasuke the first pick of Hashirama's arm.
Foolish and naive as he was, a man couldn't ask for a better friend than Naruto Uzumaki.
In another time, Sasuke wouldn't have taken that deal. He would've left the village months ago on his quest for solace and repentance through the Elemental Nations.
He wasn't that man anymore. Not after what the Sage of Six Paths told him in his dreams as he languished in a tiny jail cell, with eyes covered and a straitjacket wrapped around him.
Go, he had said. Your Rinnegan will lead you where you must be. Go and live. Live and learn and love. Help those who need help. That's your penance, Sasuke Uchiha. This world will wait for you.
Given the journey he had ahead of him—though where it would take him he knew not—he would accept any advantage he could get. Arm and all.
"I came to return this to you," Naruto said, and held his remaining arm out. In his hand, Sasuke's old forehead protector sat scuffed and scratched, but whole. Slash through the center notwithstanding.
For some reason, Sasuke hesitated. Should he take it? Did he deserve it, after all he'd done? Frowning for a moment, Sasuke shook his head. No. The Sage said it himself. He still had his penance before he could be whole again.
A sad smile found its way to his lips. "Keep it, Naruto. I haven't earned the right to wear it again, not yet."
Naruto opened his mouth to complain, as he was wont to do, so Sasuke lifted a hand to stop him.
"Listen, I'll accept it from you one day, but only when you can also give me a new one too—one that's unbesmirched."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Oh right." Sasuke chuckled. "I forgot I can't use big words with you."
"Asshole!" Naruto scowled and pulled his hand back, fingers tightening around the leaf symbol. "Well now you're not getting it anymore. Not from me, anyway. I'll give it to one of your fangirls to keep, then. One of the loyal ones that didn't care that you deserted. I'm sure they won't do disturbing things with it."
Sasuke shook his head, amused. For all they'd been through, it was nice to see some things never changed. "I meant you can give me a new one because you'll be the Hokage, loser."
Naruto stopped fuming in an instant. "Oh." He coughed into the crook of his elbow. "Well, uh, yeah, I knew that. Sure, sure. As the Hokage, of course."
Giving his best friend one last look—in which he dredged up as much gratitude as any Uchiha could, Sasuke walked up to him and gave him a pat on the shoulder. Naruto, for the first time in his life understanding the seriousness of the gesture, simply gave him a firm nod.
Then Sasuke was gone, hopping up into the trees and swiftly leaving the Leaf and his past behind.
No. Not behind. He'd carry it with him wherever he went. It was his burden to bear.
xxxxx
Hagoromo wasn't lying. The world would really wait for him. All around him in the forest clearing, time had come to a stop.
Leaves and branches defied gravity, hanging askew in a wind that was no longer there. A squirrel stopped halfway up a tree. Two sparrows that had been circling each other hung in the air like wooden carvings frozen in the moment. The beehive a few feet away stood silent.
Nothing moved. Nothing breathed. Only Sasuke and the portal in front of him, shimmering in the sun, showed any signs of life.
Unlike the times he used this ocular ability during the fight against Kaguya, he couldn't see what manner of world stood on the other side. Even the Sharingan couldn't bypass the dark filter that'd gone up the moment he brought the portal to bear.
Sasuke would be lying if he said that the Sage's ability to affect the world and Sasuke's power, even dead and gone as he was, didn't rankle him. The idea that he was so heavily influenced by others didn't sit well after all the years he'd spent razor-focused on Itachi.
How many years had he wasted from his life trying to catch up to his brother? A brother that, in the end, loved him more than anyone else.
Shaking himself from the memories, Sasuke let out a sigh that he'd been holding ever since he decided to take on Hagoromo's advice. That's why he was doing this after all. He was really leaving his world behind.
His world, his friends… his village, if he could call it that. All so that he could learn who he was—who was Sasuke Uchiha—when there wasn't some bigger goal spurring him on: to kill Itachi, to destroy the Leaf, to kill Naruto and break the village system of the Elemental Nations.
Whatever world he found out there, he doubted it could be any more terrifying than the darkness that lurked within him, hidden behind nothing other than the words and the iron will of a friend.
Sasuke was never one for hesitating, and he wouldn't change that now. Without waiting any longer, he plunged through the portal. Toward his future.
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Sasuke says his goodbyes to Naruto, but that doesn't mean this will be the last they'll see of each other. Maybe Sasuke will even visit his own world, only in the past...
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