How (alternate)
It had all started and ended in an instant. Karin had leapt towards Naruto, floating in the aura the statue had released. Jugo went after Zetsu, Suigetsu for Kisame. Sasuke was to take on Madara, but nothing had gone according to the plan. Before Karin was within five feet of Naruto, Kisame was on her. With one swing of Samehada, he sent her head and a portion of her torso flying across the cavern. He landed and turned to block the swipe of Suigetsu’s sword, laughing maniacally. Sasuke turned his eyes on Madara and activated his mangekyo. What Sasuke didn’t realize was that he had already moved to attack Suigetsu. Madara hit him from behind with a dragon flame jutsu, and Kisame added a blast of wind, increasing it to a flame so bright that Sasuke was forced to close his eyes. Suigetsu didn’t even have time to scream. Then Sasuke heard Jugo screaming, and a sound he couldn’t describe, but terrified him more than anything in his life. Sasuke opened his eyes and saw Kisame, standing in cloud of steam, still laughing. He turned, and rushed Sasuke, bring Samehada to bear on Sasuke’s left side. Sasuke brought up his sword to block, but it did him no good. Samehada smashed it to bits, ripped his arm open, and slashed his forehead in one swing. Sasuke stood there, his left arm hanging limply at his side, blood pouring down his face, and the shards of his sword scattered around him. How did it all go so wrong, he wondered. He looked to his left at what remained of Karin, and the cloud that was now Suigetsu. He couldn’t see anything that remotely resembled Jugo, so he assumed there was nothing left. They had resumed there positions atop the statues hand, clearly believing that Taka posed no threat to them anymore. He looked up at them, but all he could see now were blurs, his vision had faded rapidly from activating the mangekyo. And then he looked towards the statues mouth, and the one floating in front of it. Naruto’s face was locked in a silent scream of torment, his body writhing in agony. He had only moments left, and there wasn’t anything Sasuke could do for him. There was no way the combined forces of the Shinobi nations would make it in time, and with his left arm useless, he had no way of performing jutsu. He fell to his knees, and screamed. He looked at Naruto again, and whispered.
“I’m sorry Naruto, I couldn’t save you.” Blood poured from his eyes as he cried. Then the world went dark, and all Sasuke could see was his most precious memory
***********************************************
Naruto lay beneath him, a look of peace on his face. Just before losing consciousness, his lips moved.
“Sasuke, love you.” Naruto said, then promptly fell asleep, smiling.
********************************************
Suddenly, light exploded in front of his eyes, and the world was brighter and clearer than ever before.
“No, I won’t let it end this way. I will save him.” He put his right hand in front of him and began concentrating his chakra.
“Sorry Naruto, but I’m gonna steal your favorite technique.” He created the Rasengan, and then added wind chakra to it. He held it for a second to make sure it had stabilized. The he focused his right eye on it, and released the Amaterasu. When it mixed with the wind chakra, the heat of the flames increased beyond all imagining. The sphere became white hot, burning Sasuke even as he aimed it.
“Blazing Rasenshuriken!!!” He threw it with all his might, and as it sailed toward them it grew larger and brighter and hotter. Madara brought up one hand, and it simply vanished, as if it had never been, then continued extracting Naruto’s Biju. Then it was over, Naruto’s lifeless shell fell to the ground in a heap. Sasuke rushed to him, and grabbed him, sobbing and screaming for Naruto to wake up. Madara jumped off the statue’s finger and calmly walked to Sasuke. Sasuke looked up at him, and as he did his vision finally faded. Sasuke was blind.
“We’ve known all along you would betray us, it was only a question of timing. The reinforcement you’re waiting for won’t be here for several minutes, more than enough time for us to escape. Thank you Sasuke, without you we never would have gotten our hands on Nine-Tails. I had planned to kill you before we left, but I think it would be far more painful to let you live with the knowledge that you led him to his death, that you could do nothing for him.” He turned to Zetsu and Kisame. “Let us be off, we have a world to conquer.” With that they disappeared, leaving Sasuke alone in the darkness with the dead. Sasuke began crying again….not tears of blood, but true tears of utter despair.
**************************************************************************************************************************************************
This is the alternate version of a story I posted a few weeks ago. Here's a cut to the original:
http://mggrubb85.livejournal.com/3362.html#cutid1