My world remains the same, it keeps turning without you - Deadline

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Chapter 1:
Eyes

These eyes have never been the same since that day.

The day that I killed my brother.

Twenty Four hours ago

A drizzle of wet drops landed on the leaves around them, the sky becoming grey and shadowy. Streams of light lanced through the blanketing cover, but slowly disappeared as the clouds shifted and hid all traces of the sun.

"Rain!" A silver-haired man turned to look at the dog that ran next to him. "Pakkun, have you lost their scent!?"

"It's okay. I've still got it… They're both here!" the ninken replied as they bounded forward, following the scent and trail that they had picked up. "They're both still he–" The dog/human duo burst through the foliage, jumping down Hashirama's large stone shoulder to land on the rocky shore of the River of the End. "Oh no…"

Two boys lay on the ground.

Both were still alive.

…But not for long.

"H-hey. Sensei." The boy smiled, grimacing in pain. "Looks like– *cough* *cough* Looks like this is the end, isn't it?"

"No. Nobody's dying here." Kakashi said, gritting his teeth. Not again. NO!

"Don't… lie to me." The boy tilted his head up, and looked at his lower half.

Twelve feet away.

The water falling around them increased, becoming sheets. Streams of blood mixed with water flowed away like little rivers, collecting in puddles of sanguine liquid, pools that reflected Kakashi's face tinted in red.

The boy let his neck relax. "He… he called me his brother. I told him–" He started hacking, blood spitting out of his mouth and dribbling down the side of his face. "I told him that when two truly skilled ninja's fists meet, they can understand each other." He took a wheezing breath, his lungs protesting, as if knowing they were at their end. "I understood. That last strike. I understood. I understood him." He coughed, but kept his eyes locked on Kakashi's face. "Why he's doing this."

The boy's breaths began to become shallow. "How much he… loves. everyone. …Loves me." He reached out a shaky hand and gripped Kakashi's pant-leg, dripping bloody water onto the fabric as the rain pelted everything around them. "Give them to him. So that he can protect th–" He coughed again, but it had become weak and pitiful. "the people he loves… Like I couldn't. Tell him… tell him I'm sorry."

His eyes held only sincerity. Sincerity embedded in that blood-stained defeated face, resigned to the fact of his death at the hands of his best friend. There was no better death that he would have wanted.

Kakashi nodded. "I'll tell him."

The boy smiled. The first true smile he'd made in months.

"Good."

And with one last sigh,

Sasuke Uchiha died.

Fourteen hours later

"Hah. Hah. Hah." A blonde boy shot up, taking gasping breaths, twisting his head around. "SASUKE!?"

"Whoa, whoa. Easy, Naruto." A hand landed his shoulder and pushed him back down, his head descending into the pillow behind him. "Take it easy."

Everything was black. Why was everything black? He'd been fighting Sasuke, and then… nothing. He had to be in the hospital; he could smell that sterile scent of formaldehyde and rubbing alcohol. And then it registered whose voice he'd heard.

"Kakashi-sensei?" The boy turned towards the sound of the voice. "…where are you? Why's everything dark?"

The boy lifted his hands up to his eyes, until they were stopped only inches away by rough fingers and glove-covered palms gripping his wrists.

"Don't. Don't touch." the jōnin ordered.

"Wh-what's going on? Where's Saskuke?" the boy asked shakily.

A loud sigh permeated the room, the sound echoing off of the walls.

"Naruto…" Ice spread throughout the boy's veins at the sound of his name spoken like that. It was the way the Third had said it whenever he'd had bad news that he didn't want to say. "Sasuke… Sasuke died from wounds incurred during his fight with you. He's dead."

The boy's thoughts ground to a halt, everything freezing up save for one remaining echo.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

The word reverberated around his skull. Bouncing through his mind ceaselessly.

It's your fault. the darkness buried within him whispered. Your fault.

"h-h-h-he's dead?" he stuttered out in shock. "No… no. no. no. no. NO! He can't, I-I didn't! No! NO!"

A heat in his head, in his eyes, started forming.

"It's not your fault, Naruto." It is. It's all your fault. "Nobody blames you." They do. They all do.

The heat spread, growing hotter and hotter until it was almost burning.

"K-k-k-kakashi-sensei… why… why can't I see?" Naruto asked, a sinking cold feeling settling inside of him. "My eyes… they feel hot."

The man sighed again. "Sasuke… asked me to tell you something. He wanted me to say that he was sorry. That he understood you, in that last strike." He took a breath "That he knows how much you love everyone, that you love him. And because of that, he wanted you to have this, so that you could protect the people you love, like he couldn't." Kakashi told him. "He gave you his last gift. To the person he considered a brother."

No.

The fire in his eyes exploded, white-hot, and he reached up to tear at the gauze that covered them, to expose them. To give relief to the pain.

Kakashi's hands shot out and grabbed his wrists again. "Don't. I already said don't touch, Naruto."

The pain grew to be too much, too hot, and the boy known as Naruto passed out.

Four hours later

Sakura Haruno entered room 324 quietly. But not quietly enough to avoid the notice of the silver-haired jōnin who sat in the corner, keeping an endless vigil over the blond boy on the bed in the center of the room

She halted, frozen by his glance, until she regained her wits and closed the door silently behind her, walking as softly as she could to the seat that was next to him.

Wet tracks of tears stained her face, and her throat was raw and sore from the sobbing.

But there were no more tears to give anymore. They had all run out.

She felt numb. Anesthetized. The technical term was 'shock'. It was something she had never felt before that time in Wave. And now, it was even worse.

Sakura sat down in the chair next to Kakashi, staring at the blonde boy on the bed.

This was all her fault. She knew she shouldn't have made Naruto make that promise.

She knew that it was manipulative and cruel to force that on him.

But she had done it anyways, because she had been too weak to stop the boy that she loved, and so she had turned to the only other person she knew who had a chance.

If she had only been stronger. Only been able to stop him. To make him stay. To give him a good enough reason, then none of this would have happened.

The boy she loved wouldn't be dead.

And the blonde idiot she considered one of her best friends wouldn't be here, in critical condition.

"He's going to be fine." The man at her side said, staring at the same place she was.

Sakura nodded silently in response, unable to even think of any way to respond right now.

"You know how I always say, 'Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are lower than trash?'" She nodded again. "Naruto tried his hardest to bring Sasuke back, despite the fact that he had broken that. He tried everything. It just, wasn't enough…" he trailed off.

Kakashi stared at the gauze covering Naruto's eyes. "I take full responsibility for this, as your jōnin sensei. Naruto shouldn't have been the one in that position. It should have been me. It's my responsibility to see to my team's safety. To make sure that nothing like this happens. And I've failed you." A tear crept down the man's cheek, soaking into his mask. "I've failed you all…"

They fell into silence, only the sound of the rhythmic rise and fall of the blonde boy's chest audible in the room.

"He's going to need you. He's going to need to know that you don't blame him. Because he'll feel like it's all his fault, when it isn't. I know it's going to be hard. But he's going to need his friends now more than ever. Especially you." the silver-haired man said. "Especially us."

"… I know." she whispered.

It wasn't Naruto's fault. As much as she wished she could say that it was, and hate him, and blame everything on him, she knew it wasn't.

It was hers.

One hour later

Hinata Hyūga had run here as fast as she had been able to once she'd learned that Naruto-kun was in the hospital.

"A-a-ano. W-what room is N-naruto Uzumaki in? Please?" she asked the receptionist at the front desk.

"Hm? Oh! Hyūga-sama. Forgive me. He's in room 324." the lady answered. "Would you like me to get someone to show you the way?"

Hinata shook her head and slipped away as quickly as she could, rushing to the elevator and punching the 'up' button. She'd only heard a little of what happened from the doctor's passing by.

She'd been waiting to see if Neji-niisan would be alright, and it had only been an hour ago that the doctors had said he'd stabilized from his surgery. But then she'd found out that Naruto-kun was here too. And that Sasuke had died.

The elevator 'dinged', and she hurried inside it just as the doors opened, pushing the number '3' and standing still, waiting for the doors to close.

The doctors had said something about 'eyes' as they had walked passed. Had Naruto-kun gone blind?

Hinata felt like she might cry. He didn't deserve that. He'd gone through so many things. So many hardships He didn't need something like that too. His dreams would be crushed.

The elevator reached its level, and she stepped outside, looking both ways and then moving to the right, in the direction of the numbers lower than 50. Hinata halted at the end of the corner, turning left, and then immediately stopping again, reaching a trembling hand out to the doorknob and then stopping, retracting it.

Should she really be here? What was she going to say? What if Naruto-kun was awake? She didn't know if she could face–

The door opened, and a single eye peered out of the crack, accompanied by a mouth and nose covered by a black mask. "Hm? Hinata? Come in. Naruto's still asleep." Kakashi moved backwards, opening the door to let her in.

Hinata stepped inside, and then froze in shock.

The blonde boy lay in the center of a plain hospital bed, propped up on two pillows at his neck. Heavy curtains hung over the windows, preventing a great deal of light from entering the room, making everything dim and murky. But that wasn't why she had frozen.

Naruto's eyes were covered in gauze and padding. Dried blood tinged the edges, like he had been crying sanguine tears. It was like her fears were realized.

"H-h-h-he's b-blind?" Hinata asked frightfully. Tears started to well up in her eyes at the injustice of it. How this boy who she admired so much now had to endure even worse trials.

"No." the jōnin at her side said softly. "He's not blind. His eyes are fine."

A wave of relief swept over her.

Hinata slowly walked over to the chairs on the other side of the room, joining the girl she hadn't even noticed when she first entered. Naruto's other teammate. Sakura.

The Hyūga girl crushed the small amount of jealously that revealed itself at seeing the pink-haired girl. Now was not the time.

Sakura just stared at her hands, her head hung down, and Hinata could sense the sadness and self-loathing the girl held for herself, practically a cloud of depression hanging over her.

Oh, Naruto-kun. Hinata watched the boy's sleeping face. I wish you knew how much people care about you.

Kakashi, sensing that it would be best to leave the two girls alone, stepped outside to report to the Godaime on Naruto's condition the next time she was free.

"Was– was I a bad teammate?" Sakura asked hoarsely. "Why… why did all of this happen?"

Hinata had no response. What could she say? Those were questions that nobody, least of all herself, could answer, except Sakura herself.

"We were getting so much better! Everyone was happy, and then… the Chūnin exams happened. And it all just started to fall apart…" she said bitterly.

Hinata tapped her fingers together nervously. She couldn't understand why the pinkette was talking to her like this. They'd never even had a proper conversation before now.

"Oh, Hinata!" Sakura dove at the blue-haired girl's shoulder and started sobbing, causing Hinata to 'eep' in response at the sudden close contact and lock up.

After a few minutes passed, filled with unintelligible sounds and Sakura's tears soaking into her beige jacket, the female member of Team 7 drew away from the Hyūga, rubbing at her cheeks. "S-sorry."

"I-it's o-okay." Hinata replied.

"I think… I think I need to go sleep." Sakura stood up. "… take care of Naruto, alright? He… he needs you."

Hinata nodded. She got the sense that Sakura wasn't just talking about for today.

And in a voice she would years later swear was the beginning of her new self, she said, unfaltering:

"I will."

The Godaime Hokage Tsunade Senjū sat behind her large wooden desk, light streaming in from the windows at her back, falling across her desk and the floor, illuminating the piles of paperwork on both sides of her.

But she paid them no heed.

Instead, her eyes were fixed on the two files in front of her.

On the left, Sasuke Uchiha.

Uchiha heir.

Son of Fugaku and Mikoto.

Younger brother of Itachi.

Top marks in the Academy.

Bright. Smart. Loved by his peers.

But anti-social, withdrawn, unwilling to accept friendship.

Deceased. Declared DOA at the Konoha Shinobi Hospital.

On the right, Naruto Uzumaki-[REDACTED]

Son of [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]

Jinchūriki of the Kyūbi no Yōko

Lowest scores of his class in the academy.

Considered dumb, stupid, annoying, and a public nuisance at best.

But also tenacious, driven, outgoing, and willing to trust and make friends with anyone who proved themselves worthy.

Such as Sasuke Uchiha.

Tsunade picked up the glass tumbler on her right and sipped at the amber liquid inside, ice clinking and settling when she set it down onto the solid oak desk made by her grandfather.

A knock sounded on the office door.

"Yes? Who is it?" The large wooden door opened, a swath of silver hair poking inside, followed by a half-lidded right eye. "Kakashi. How's Naruto?"

The man slipped in and closed the door behind him, walking towards the Hokage's desk and sitting down in one of the chairs off to the side.

"He's… alright. He woke up once, about five and a half hours ago. Highly lucid. Much more than I expected. He immediately asked about Sasuke, and I…" The man winced at the memory of his bluntness. He could have broken the news better than he had. "I told him the basics of what happened. I tried to reinforce that it wasn't his fault, and that Sasuke didn't blame him either but…" Tsunade nodded in understanding. "He passed out, likely due to a combination of blood pressure, fatigue, and… adjustment to the transplant."

The Senjū steepled her hands.

"Good. Do you think he needs any sedatives? Did he appear to be in any pain?"

"He complained about his eyes feeling hot… but I don't think it's a rejection, just a reaction. My own Sharingan felt similarly immediately after transplant, although I didn't pay much attention to it." Tsunade accepted that. "I left him with Hinata Hyūga and Sakura watching him. He should be safe from anybody with them there."

She 'hm'-ed in agreement, closing the files on her desk and pushing them to the side.

"There will be no charges pressed. At the time of death, Sasuke Uchiha was a missing-ninja of Konohagakure no Sato, a willing deserter. That should keep the civilians off his back. And if they really start pushing, I'll remind them that this is village is a military autocracy. Kami knows they don't need any more reason to discriminate against him. His eyes are just going to make things worse."

Kakashi nodded. "I'll be keeping a close watch over him from now on."

"Jiraiya will be taking over the majority of his training, as the Akatsuki are beginning to show disturbing motions towards him. Originally, the plan was for them to leave the village…"

"I think he's going to need his friends. Isolating himself from the people he's close to may be the worst thing for him right now, as extroverted as he is." The silver jōnin commented.

"I agree. Completely. Therefore, his training will be taking place in the village for at least the next six months. We will re-evaluate the situation at that time. Jiraiya will be available in two-month blocks, as he still needs to keep up-to-date with his spy network. During that time, would you be able to take over?" she asked.

"Yes."

Tsunade eyed him. "None of that half-training, late-to-meetings bullshit I hear you pulling. You need to get your head out of your ass, Kakashi. Obito and Rin are in the past. And it may be harsh, but you need to leave them there and move on. It's been fifteen years. You need to focus on the team you have. Not the team you had. Naruto needs you."

"I understand." he said, fully serious.

"Good. I'll keep up-to-date on Naruto's condition, but let me know if anything major changes."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Dismissed."

The man nodded, stood up, and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Tsunade leaned back in her leather chair and sighed.

Things were getting complicated.

Kurama growled in his cell.

He had been so close. The closest he had gotten yet.

His human container had been drawing on his chakra, the acidic quality from containing his anger and bitterness at humanity eating away at the channels of the seal that held him.

If the boy had only used more, he might have been able to make him lose himself and escape.

He was fully aware of the effects that would have on his container.

Why should he care?

But instead, the Uchiha boy had a change of heart at the last minute, and now his Kami-damned container had those same cursed eyes as him. And even more frustrating was the fact that the boy's natural faculties of Yang chakra combined with his gigantic reserves and absurdly strong life-force ensured that those eyes wouldn't even be a hindrance.

He roared in anger and annoyance

This was not looking good.

Five hours later

Hinata had only gone home once in the past five hours: to prepare a lunch box for herself (and Naruto-kun if he woke up).

It was simple. Just rice and some vegetable soup. But she knew he wouldn't be up for eating much of anything with the amount of injury it looked like he had. So soup was the best thing for him.

She had eaten her food quietly, and then passed the time watching over him and thinking.

Hinata knew she wasn't confident. She knew she had problems facing authority, especially her father. But she also knew, that if Naruto-kun had been in her place, he would have sucked it up and dealt with it. He wouldn't have taken anything lying down. He would have stood up for himself and the things and people he believed in.

In the chūnin exams, it had been him that had given her strength. Strength to face Neji-niisan. To stand up for herself.

And now, Naruto-kun needed her. Sakura herself had said it.

Now it wasn't just about standing up for herself. It was standing up for him, too. Supporting him because he needed it. Supporting him, because he couldn't do it for himself right now.

She wouldn't be able to do that the way she was now.

Hinata avoided conflict because of her lack of confidence in her abilities. But now? If she was to stand up for him, to protect him when he couldn't do it for himself, like now, conflict became unavoidable. Confidence became a requirement. If she was to support Naruto-kun, to help him, to take care of him like she had been told to, she needed to be stronger. She would do anything to be able to help him the same way he had helped her.

Even change who she was.

No more stuttering.

No more staring at the ground, unable to meet people's eyes.

No more accepting her 'role' as the former heiress of the Hyūga.

No more eternal passivity.

She would become a different girl.

It would be hard. Very hard. But she was willing to do it. To try. To give it her full effort.

For Naruto-kun.

A shadow appeared from the window, and she turned to it anxiously, only to see a large man wearing geta squatting on the windowsill. Jiraiya-sama.

"How's the gaki doing?" he asked, keeping his voice down.

"Um, he's… better." she answered, softly.

Hinata had been able to watch as the chakra of the Kyūbi had repaired his muscles and organs, knitting tears back together and mending bone. And it had even gone to his eyes, working on them as well. She couldn't understand why his eyes would be damaged, but the orbital muscles had been swollen, and his nerves had looked almost …frayed.

"I heard what happened, and came as soon as I could." the Sannin said. "It's good that he's doing okay."

Hinata nodded.

The door of the room opened, and Kakashi stepped inside. When he saw the sage, he walked towards him, standing next to the man who had finally extricated himself from the window and was now standing in the room proper.

"Did you get a chance to speak to Hokage-sama?"

"Yeah. Hime told me what's up. I agree with her. He needs to stay here for now." Jiraiya said, nodding.

Stay here? What were they talking about?

"Urghhh." A sound from the bed halted them, and they all turned as one to look at the boy on the bed who was stirring.

Wooden geta clacked over the hard floor as Jiraiya walked towards the boy.

"Hey, gaki. How're you feeling?" he asked quietly.

"E-ero-sennin? What're you doing here?" the boy asked quietly. "What's going on? Why can't I–" He froze. "What happened to Sasuke? That was a dream, r-right? Where is the teme? I'll beat him up for trying leave like that!"

Jiraiya and Kakashi looked at each other, before the sage turned back to the blonde. "Naruto… Sasuke's…" He sighed. "Sasuke's no longer with us."

The boy was silent, the absence of sound permeating the room as badly as white noise.

And then his shoulders started shaking.

"I did it, didn't I?" he sobbed. "It was me."

Hinata got up from her seat and went over to him. Neither the sage nor the jōnin made any move to stop her as she stood next to his bed and reached out hesitantly… No. You made a vow. intentionally to grab his hand and hold it.

"H-hello, Naruto-kun." she whispered.

"H-h-hinata-chan?"

She nodded in response, and then realizing he couldn't see her motion, spoke up. "I'm here."

He smiled, even in his constant sobbing.

"And I'll b…" Deep breath. "I'll be here as long as you want me to be."

He quickly reached out to grab her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders from his high position on the bed.

She was unable to suppress the 'eep' that jumped out of her mouth, or the blush that she could feel warming her face.

But just because she reacted like that, didn't mean she needed to retract.

So instead, she wrapped her arms around the boy she had fallen in love with, and comforted him until he could cry no more.

Naruto looked into the hand-mirror that Hinata held up for him.

Looking at the eyes that stared back at him.

No longer his own eyes, but his eyes.

Permanently red. A strange six-petal design in each of them.

Sasuke's Sharingan.

Slowing down the flow of chakra that was pulled towards them, they shifted to a solid crimson, with three tomoe circling endlessly around a coal-black iris.

Kakashi-sensei had said that Sasuke had asked for this. Had asked for Naruto to have his eyes. So that unlike him, he would be able to protect the people he loved.

But what did it matter, if he had been unable to protect the one he considered his closest friend, his brother?

Naruto nodded at Hinata, and she took the mirror and set it back down on the side table as he lowered himself down into the pillow at his back, staring at the ceiling, watching the motes of dust jump around in perfect clarity.

I promise you. I swear on everything. On my nindō. On these eyes that you gave me. On my life. That I will do what you asked. I will protect the ones I love. No matter the cost.

And with that final thought, Naruto Uzumaki closed his eyes, and allowed himself to fall backwards into the dark weariness that saturated him completely.

A/N:

The divergence point for this story is that when Naruto and Sasuke clash for the final time at the Valley of the End, instead of Naruto's hand going above Sasuke's, the Rasengan glancing off of Sasuke's forehead protector, it dives down, into Sasuke's midsection. And tears his stomach to shreds.

Naruto is still pierced by the Chidori, but it is healed almost immediately, as in canon.

So Sasuke dies. And everything changes… but at the same time, it doesn't.

The world keeps turning.

You like this? Yes? No? Maybe? Want me to continue?

Please, leave me a review! Tell me what you think! Love, hate, gripes, annoyances, questions, comments: I relish them all!