CHAPTER 11 – The Valley's Second Dawn
The sky was heavy with storm clouds.
Rain had begun to fall, but it wasn't the gentle kind.
It was the type that stung the skin, that felt almost like the world itself was crying.
Two figures stood in the shallow waters of the Valley of the End.
Naruto Uzumaki.
Sasuke Uchiha.
Both panting.
Both battered.
Both with eyes locked on each other like they had done countless times before.
Naruto's chest rose and fell with ragged breaths. His blond hair was soaked, his clothes torn.
Sasuke's sharingan glowed faintly, but the light was fading — his chakra reserves nearly empty.
"...This is where it ends," Sasuke's voice was calm, but it wasn't cold. It carried… something else.
Naruto clenched his fists, water splashing around him. "We've been through this before… I'm not letting it end like that again!"
Lightning cracked above them.
And for a moment… time slowed.
---
[Flash]
A battlefield. Not this one.
The three of them — Naruto, Sasuke, and another… a tall figure, long white hair, a face twisted in pain — not anger, not malice… pain.
The Otsutsuki progenitor.
But he wasn't an enemy then.
They were side by side… fighting against something else.
Laughter.
Shared victories.
A promise — one that echoed even now.
And then…
Betrayal.
Blood.
Naruto's hand reaching out. Sasuke's scream tearing through the void.
And that same figure turning his back, walking away into the darkness.
---
Back in the Valley, Naruto froze. Sasuke too.
It wasn't a hallucination. They both saw it — felt it.
Memories that weren't supposed to be theirs… but were.
"...You saw it too, didn't you?" Sasuke asked quietly.
Naruto's voice shook. "We knew him… before all of this."
The rain poured harder.
And then —
BOOM!
A pulse of energy erupted from the space between them, the water of the valley rushing outward in a wave.
It wasn't just chakra — it was something older, deeper.
A force that twisted the air, bending reality.
Naruto's eyes burned gold. Not just the Byakugan's pale hue — solid gold, and then shifting again, crystalline patterns forming — the Golden Tenseigan.
Sasuke's rinnegan flared in both eyes, the tomoe spinning faster than they ever had before, merging with a pale Otsutsuki glow.
Naruto staggered. "...What the hell—"
Sasuke clenched his jaw. "This isn't the first time we've fought like this… is it?"
Somewhere, in a place beyond life and death…
They could feel them.
Everyone who had fallen in that last battle with the progenitor — watching. Their voices silent, but their presence pressing against Naruto and Sasuke like a tide.
---
Slow motion now.
Naruto takes a step forward. Sasuke mirrors him.
The water splashes up between their feet.
Their chakra — no, their existence — begins to shift.
The edges of the valley blur.
The rain slows until each drop hangs in the air like glass beads.
And then it hits them — the truth.
They had been here before.
Countless times.
Always together.
Always failing.
Always watching him… walk away.
But this time…
They weren't going to let him.
---
Naruto grins despite the weight in his chest. "Looks like we got another chance, teme."
Sasuke exhales slowly, almost smirking. "Don't waste it… dobe."
The storm above tears open, light pouring down, engulfing them completely.
---
Somewhere far away, in the void between worlds… a shadow stirs.
---