The Valley of the End
Sasuke stood atop the head of the First Hokage's stone likeness, his Rinnegan already active. The waterfalls thundered behind him as he looked down at Naruto.
"My view of being Hokage stands as my response," Sasuke began, his voice cutting through the mist. "Itachi's life path led me to this answer."
He spoke of sacrifice and peace, his words measured and cold.
"In order to protect the Land of Fire and the village, he sacrificed his clan and himself. So I first needed to know why. What is this land and village that he would go so far to protect?
The previous Hokage said that the village is a framework created to stop the slaughter of many clans and children. A framework that was supposed to lead to peace. Itachi was trying to sustain that peace all by himself, that's what I finally came to understand.
Suffering in darkness as a criminal and traitor to land and village, he was a shinobi who took on all hatred and protected the Land of Fire and the Leaf Village from the shadows. I feel that he was the true Hokage.
It's not the one acknowledged by all, but the one who accepts all the hatred that is worthy of that title."
Sasuke's gaze hardened. "But my brother made one mistake. By leaving me, his little brother, alive and being unable to hide the truth from me, he allowed the hatred to spread.
However, I'm not like my big brother anymore. I have no father, mother, brother, not even a single member of my clan. Which means that I am alone.
I alone can bear the weight of all the hatred in the world now. And I alone will deal with everything personally. I will handle all of the shinobi problems. I shall also dispense all judgment and punishment.
I'll concentrate all hatred upon myself and bring every single village under my control. Hatred inside darkness can't be destroyed.
And so I'd rather... to me, the Hokage is someone who uses his own flame to sear away the darkness of the five villages and then keeps on living by eating the ashes.
It doesn't matter what any of you think of me. And besides, I have the power now to control it all. With revolution, the villages will no longer have to bear darkness. I will become the one and only darkness.
I'll dispose of the deep darkness of the past and build a pure white future from scratch. I'm cutting ties with all past mistakes and doubts here and starting anew.
I'm going to begin by cutting you down. Your blood will be the last that I shed in the memory of my late brother."
"Do you really think I'll sit back and say yes to that?" Naruto shouted. "There are things you can do alone, and things you can't!"
They charged simultaneously, meeting in the center of the valley with a clash of fists. The battle began with pure taijutsu - a brutal exchange of blows that showed their mirrored training. They moved with identical rhythm, block matching strike, dodge matching lunge.
After several intense exchanges, Sasuke flipped backward. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
The massive sphere of flames roared toward Naruto, who stood his ground. "Wind Style: Rasengan!"
He pushed the swirling sphere of wind into the fireball, the enhanced winds violently dispersing the flames in a spectacular explosion.
Seeing their elemental techniques cancel out, Sasuke's chakra flared. The purple energy of his Complete Body Susanoo erupted around him, forming the colossal winged warrior.
Naruto responded in kind, orange chakra swirling into the massive form of the Kurama Avatar.
The two giants collided, their impact shaking the valley to its foundations. The Susanoo's blade met Kurama's claw, and the resulting shockwaves decapitated the stone statues of Hashirama and Madara, sending their heads crashing into the river below.
As the avatars separated, Sasuke's Rinnegan glowed intensely. The nine meteorites he had summoned earlier now pulsed with contained energy, the Tailed Beasts visible within their stony prisons.
Tendrils of purple chakra lashed from Sasuke's Susanoo to the meteors, drawing the raw power of all nine Tailed Beasts into his warrior. The Susanoo transformed, growing larger and more powerful, crackling with overwhelming energy.
"Right now..." Sasuke declared, "I am the strongest in this world."
Naruto, feeling his friends' pain, gathered every ounce of natural energy. His Kurama Avatar evolved into a three-headed, six-armed deity wielding a Truth-Seeking Ball staff.
"Indra's Arrow!" Sasuke launched the concentrated power of all Tailed Beasts.
"Nine-Tails: Ultra-Big Ball Rasenshuriken!" Naruto countered with his ultimate technique.
The collision created a sphere of white annihilation that scarred the landscape, leaving a massive crater where both avatars vanished.
.
.
.
.
.
Utterly drained of chakra, they lay broken among the rubble. The epic clash of their avatars had left them with nothing but their raw will.
It was Naruto who moved first. With a pained grunt, he pushed himself up. He saw Kurama, faint and translucent, gathering the very last wisps of his own chakra. A final Rasengan began to form in Naruto's hand.
Sasuke saw it too. With a final, agonizing effort, his Rinnegan pulsed. He reached out and silently absorbed the last of Kurama's chakra, stealing Naruto's final hope.
A weak, sputtering Chidori sparked to life in Sasuke's palm.
"Now... I can finally be alone," he stated, his voice thick with exhaustion and resolve.
He stumbled forward, the Chidori flickering weakly in his hand as he aimed for Naruto's heart. But as Sasuke lunged, Naruto surprised him. Instead of meeting the Chidori with his Rasengan, Naruto put the last of his physical strength into a single, powerful punch, connecting hard with Sasuke's chin.
The impact sent Sasuke flying backward. He crashed through a section of the rocky crater wall, creating a cloud of dust and a new, smaller hole in the stone.
From within the dusty crater, Sasuke's composure shattered. The frustration, the pain, the sheer impossibility of defeating Naruto's will exploded out of him in a furious, desperate scream.
"Over and over and over and over and over and over again...! Just give up and LET ME CUT YOU DOWN!!!"
Naruto stood his ground, his breathing ragged. He looked at his friend, his voice quiet but unbreakable. "I can't... because you are my friend."
Those words were the final trigger. With an enraged roar, Sasuke's Chidori flared back to life, its screech piercing the air. Naruto, with nothing left but his own determination, formed a basic Rasengan.
They ran at each other one last time, Rasengan and Chidori aimed for the other's heart.
In the exact moment their attacks were meant to connect, the Rinnegan, pushed far beyond its limits from the strain of absorbing the Nine-Tails' chakra in a state of total exhaustion, tore a hole in reality. A violent, black and purple portal erupted around Sasuke, pulling him in and vanishing in an instant, leaving Naruto's Rasengan to slam into empty air.
Naruto's POV
The bright light from our jutsu faded. I was lying on the ground, my body hurt everywhere. My right arm felt like it was on fire, but at least it was still there.
I looked up. The red moon was gone. The sky was blue again. The Infinite Tsukuyomi was broken.
But Sasuke was gone.
'Where is he?... What happened?'
Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan landed next to me.
"Naruto! Your arm!" Sakura's hands glowed green, pressing on my wounds.
Kakashi-sensei looked around, his eye serious. "The genjutsu is over. Where is Sasuke?"
I stared at the empty space where my best friend had just been. "I... I don't know," I mumbled. "There was a flash... and a weird black and purple hole opened right next to him. It sucked him in... and he's gone."
Sakura stopped healing for a second, her face pale. "A portal?... Gone where?"
I could only shake my head, a heavy feeling in my chest. We finally ended the war... but I lost him again.
Kakashi placed a hand on my shoulder. "We'll find him, Naruto. But first, we need to get you treated."
I nodded weakly, my eyes still fixed on the spot where Sasuke vanished. The victory felt hollow, like I'd won the battle but lost something much more important.
Sasuke's POV
One moment, I was clashing with Naruto. The next, a violent, tearing sensation ripped through my left eye.
'My Rinnegan!'
A swirling vortex of black and purple energy erupted from my side, pulling me in. It felt like my own power was betraying me.
"What!"
The world twisted. The Valley of the End, Naruto's shocked face—everything stretched and vanished into darkness. There was no sound, no ground, nothing.
Then, impact. Hard.
I pushed myself up, my body aching. I was in a small, plain room with white walls. A single bed, a desk, a window. Everything was clean and minimal. Too clean.
'Where am I?... This isn't the Pure Land.'
The air felt different - still and artificial. No natural sounds of wildlife, no scent of earth or trees. Just sterile silence.
I tried to sense chakra around me, but found nothing familiar. No Naruto, no Kakashi, no familiar chakra signatures at all. Only strange, faint energies I didn't recognize.
A cold realization settled in.
'My Rinnegan... it didn't just send me away. It sent me somewhere else.'
Suddenly, the world dissolved around me. The room, the window, everything melted into blinding white. I was floating in a featureless space, weightless and disoriented.
Before me, a figure materialized. A man, translucent and white, his features blurred and shifting like static. His form wavered, as if he wasn't quite solid, wasn't quite real.
Then his voice echoed through the mental space, distorted and glitching, each syllable scraping against my consciousness:
"Y0K0S0..._W4T45H1_N0_53K41_D35U"
Welcome... to my world
The words meant nothing to me, yet everything. They weren't spoken—they were forced directly into my mind. My Sharingan activated instinctively, but I couldn't read this being. No chakra patterns, no emotional wavelengths. Just... emptiness. A void given form.
I tried to move, to attack, but I was paralyzed. My limbs refused to respond. My chakra, usually a roaring river within me, was still and silent.
The figure tilted its head, the motion unnatural and jerky. Then everything went black.
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End of Chapter 1