A/N: I'm so sorry it's taken me for this long to update! It's just that I've been having a bit of a… crisis of plot development… or something… (blinks owlishly) Plus, I've had extreme problems with finding time for this fic of mine.

But hey, so what? The new chapter is here (be that a good thing or bad…)! (dances with joy) But, before letting you get to it…

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for those absolutely heart-warming, flattering reviews! (HUGS!) As I've finally gained the habit to spend some time on those amazing people who actually bother to comment, responses for your reviews can be found from underneath the chappy.

Okay, okay, here we go! I sincerely hope this didn't turn out to be horrible!

September

The first thing Sasuke heard after the irritating blinding light disappeared was voices that sounded unnaturally loud. " … is she?"

" She doesn't seem to be carrying any village's symbol, but she's definitely a ninja." There was a sound of fabric rustling. " Kakashi, what should we do with her?"

His heart jumped.

Kakashi?

No, he didn't want his former sensei to see him, not yet! He needed time to think, to get some sense into everything, before facing any familiar faces or questions.

But it appeared his worry was premature. " Let's take her to hospital. Once she's awake, Tsunade can ask her some questions."

He was starting to get extremely annoyed and even alarmed by now. Why didn't Kakashi recognize him? And why the heck were they calling him 'she'?

It took pretty much all his willpower, but eventually – just as he felt arms (most likely Kakashi's) pick him up – his eyelids inched. He groaned immediately when the light striking his eyes stung worse than needless, almost like he'd been using them for a very first time. (Or well, he mused, in a way, he was.) After some seconds and a lot of blinking, his vision cleared enough to distinguish Kakashi's profile. " …'ashi…" His voice was nothing but a quiet croak, sounded so pitiable in his ears that he winced.

Damnit, he hated this weakened state!

Fortunately, Kakashi seemed to hear the sound. The silver-haired copy-nin's gaze dropped abruptly to him, so stern that he shivered a little despite himself. (Gosh, he hadn't been expecting a warm welcome, but he also hadn't prepared himself for coldness like this!) The man spoke to someone behind them, eyes still fixed firmly on him. " She's waking up."

He frowned. There came that 'she' again. This was getting infuriating – and unnerving.

Gathering absolutely all the little strength within him, he croaked again, his voice sounding even weirder than the last time around. " …'shi… it's… me…" He licked his lips, as they felt dryer than sand-paper. " …suke… Sasuke… Uchiha…" Why the hell don't you recognize me?!, he wanted to scream in desperation, but his strength ran out. He decided to disregard to logical part of his brain that tried to message he was a traitor who'd just returned from the death – it was to be expected that things were a bit… well, weird.

For a passing moment, Kakashi's face flew ghostly-pale, and judging by the way the copy-nin shuddered, he was lucky the man didn't drop him. Then, that coldness from before reappeared into the man's visible eye, only ten times harder. " I strongly suggest you not to say another word until we'll get you to Tsunade."

He wanted to scream, punch, anything to get Kakashi to realize that it was really he. But at the moment, he just didn't have the strength. And so – no matter how much he hated it – the Uchiha was forced to surrender under a tideway of darkness.

Naruto's life certainly hadn't been that of the easier end. But the past couple of weeks… Those, he was quite ready to describe hellish. And sleepless nights didn't help with erasing the sickening images tattooed into the back of his mind.

Sasuke telling him to leave, to not interfere, when he appeared into the Uchiha's hideout.

Itachi's attack aimed his way – to test him, or to distract Sasuke, he still didn't know.

Sasuke shocking all three of them with taking the blow instead.

Everything going red in Naruto's eyes as he unleashed the demon inside him. (Half an hour from after that was missing for him – all he knew was that whatever he'd done, Itachi had reduced to pieces of rotting flesh when he came to.)

Sasuke falling limp in his arms – and never waking up again, no matter how long he kept screaming. (The rest of their team had arrived about two hours later, and – seeing the situation – teary Kakashi had attempted to remove the dead raven from his arms. He, however, had refused let go of his best friend until they'd been back home, and someone – he still had no recollection who – had managed to pry Sasuke from him to take the body for proper preparations. Sakura, he could faintly remember, had burst into tears the moment she'd seen Sasuke, and hadn't managed to bring herself to stop until they'd reached Konoha. Fortunately, Sai had been smart enough to keep all his possible comments to himself. Naruto himself had managed to stop crying just before the others had arrived to the Uchiha's hideout, but it was a different story on the inside.)

So, two weeks had now passed. And, of this Naruto was sure, he'd never stop blaming himself of the fact that Sasuke couldn't walk across Konoha's borderline that day, that the raven would never get the chance for a new start without Itachi's shadow, that he'd never get to tell Sasuke…

Fortunately, Sakura's voice stopped that scary line of thought. " So here you are." Turning his head – a little startled – he met a pair of tired, red and puffy eyes. Obviously, over-exhausting herself with working wasn't really helping Sakura forget Sasuke, the boy she'd once loved beyond anything (possibly still did). " I've been looking for you for an hour now!"

It was almost amusing. Just weeks earlier, ramen bar would've been the first placed Sakura would've looked for him from. But now… things had changed. " Sorry." Suddenly feeling almost disgusted by it, he poked the ramen placed before him. " I figured I should try to eat something."

Sakura nodded, and a suffocating, awkward silence fell as both tried their hardest not to even think about the name that hadn't been spoken for nearly two weeks, not even during the brief, unjustifiably plain funeral. Eventually, Sakura found something to say. " You should know… Tsunade's going to send a team to find Jiraiya."

His head immediately perked up, eyes growing wide. " Really? Well it's 'bout bloody time – he's been missing for weeks!" He'd lost track on how many times he'd spoken to Tsunade, desperately trying to persuade the blonde into sending a group of ninjas to go and bring Jiraiya back from his latest mission. He refused to believe that the Pervy Sage would be dead, that… that he would've lost the old man, too.

Sakura's eyes filled with misery. " Naruto…" She swallowed heavily. " You do understand that… that they're most likely to bring back a corpse, right?"

His eyes flashed hazardously. " No!" Everyone else in the building gave him weird looks, but he ignored them. He knew he was being irrational, but couldn't control himself. " He's not dead, Sakura-chan, believe it! He will come back, alive!"

The sadness in Sakura's eyes became even deeper, but soon enough she managed to create a startlingly skilled fake-smile. " I really hope so."

After that, he just couldn't take it anymore. Managing to give a pale grin, he pushed himself up, preparing to leave. " Well, I'll better go training – I'm getting rusty after playing hooky for two weeks."

" Okay." After a moment's thinking, she spoke once more. " Are you sure you're okay?"

It was quite a struggle, but he managed to flash her another grin over his shoulder. " Of course!" He then waved a hand. " See you later, Sakura-chan!"

" See you, Naruto."

Sakura's green eyes gained a worried look as they shifted from Naruto's disappearing back to his half-uneaten ramen.

No. Naruto Uzumaki was far from okay. And frankly, so was she.

¨

Outside, Naruto gave a deep sigh when leaning against a wall.

Only some weeks earlier it'd made his day to be near Sakura, but now… It was painful, as he couldn't keep himself from wondering if she blamed him for Sasuke's death, too. Also, being around her reminded him all too much of what was missing…

He nearly jumped with surprise when voices of two men suddenly came to his ears. " Can you believe that chick?" The man was obviously having hard time stifling his laughter. " Did she honestly think we'd believe she's that traitor Uchiha?"

" Yeah, especially when that bastard's already dead."

Any other day, Naruto would've beaten up anyone saying things like that about Sasuke. But right now, his mind was too filled with something else.

Sasuke… is still alive?

If it was just futile hope, he barely cared. At the moment, all that mattered to him was that there was a chance he could see his best friend again. That Sasuke hadn't died because of him.

He was gone in a flash.

Cautiously, Sasuke opened his eyes for a second time since his 'resurrection'. He was relieved to find that it was darker this time – night was probably starting to fall.

Still confused by everything, he rubbed his face in disbelief.

So… He was alive again, back in Konoha.

Even thinking about that was so hard to believe 'surreal' would've been a huge understatement.

All of a sudden, a tingling sensation came to his fingers as they brushed his skin. Something was deeply wrong.

Eyebrows furrowing, he slipped out of the bed, stumbling a bit as his legs were still pathetically weak. It took what felt like ages before he'd managed to make his way to the mirror that shone if the room's dim light.

Despite darkness, he could see the image all too clearly.

His clothing and face… They were almost scarily lot like before – the only change was that his features were now softer. But his hair, still black, now fell a long way down his back. And as he examined lower – placing a hand to his chest – he found a even louder evidence of his changes. He wasn't sure if he wanted to scream, cry, laugh or collapse.

His breath was caught into his throat, forcing him to emit a very uncharacteristic choking sound. " Oh shit…"

And suddenly, he knew much too clearly what the creepy voice had meant when saying that he'd be sent back with some 'changes', why Kakashi hadn't recognized him.

Because the person staring back at him was most definitely a girl.

And just then – as though things wouldn't have been overwhelming enough already – he could hear a familiar voice roaring behind the room's door. " I know this is a isolation room, but he's my best friend, damnit! Let me in – NOW!"

" Kiddo, I don't know what the hell you're thinking, but she…"

Despite himself, his eyes widened, the guard's voice fading out.

Oh crap… Naruto…

Yes, he'd came back for Naruto. But he was most certainly not ready to see the blonde yet, not in this form!

But unfortunately, he didn't get the privilege to make that decision. The door was thrown open, and in the hallway's bright light he could see the one and only Naruto Uzumaki. Absolutely everything stilled.

For a long, endless moment, all Naruto could do was blink, frozen to spot. Once, twice, thrice. Then, finally, came a strangled wheeze. " S – Sasuke…?"

It was so very hard to resist a small, bitter laughter. In the end, he grinned wearily. " Hey, dobe." This time, he wasn't confused by why his voice sounded so weird.

At that, it seemed, something inside Naruto snapped. Emitting what sounded suspiciously lot like a cry, the blonde sprinted to him, enclosing him into a bone-crushing hug. This time it was he who blinked.

Was Naruto really that sure it was he, even with the dramatic change he'd gone through? Or didn't the dobe notice that he wasn't exactly the same guy he was the last time they met?

The next sound that came from the blonde was definitely a sniff. " Damn you, you bastard! I… I thought I'd lost you! Do you have any idea of… of…!" Words ran out.

It wasn't until then he managed to bring his body into returning the hug, his head filled with a whirr.

' I'm sorry', he would've desperately wanted to say. But his mouth just wouldn't work. And soon, it became too late, as another person entered the room.

Tsunade arched an eyebrow when seeing their embrace, but soon enough a stone-hard look appeared into her eyes when they locked to him. " So this is the girl who's causing all the fuss." The hokage frowned, apparently trying to find something from his eyes. " I can see why Kakashi noted that you hold a striking resemblance to the Uchiha."

Naruto – his arms by then broken their hold of him (leaving him feeling strangely cold) – immediately stepped forward, subconsciously taking a stand before him. He blonde's eyes were flaming. " Tsunade-baachan, sh… he is Sasuke! He came back! He came back to us!"

Tsunade didn't seem as sure. Her eyebrows were still furrowed as she looked at him. " Can you prove that he's right?"

Sasuke had hard time restraining himself from trembling. He could only come up with one way, but after all these changes, he didn't have a slightest clue if it still worked. But he decided to try anyhow. He almost sighed with relief when feeling a familiar slight boiling in his veins. His sharingan had been activated. Despite the situation, he couldn't help but smirk at the looks upon Naruto and especially Tsunade's face. " Is that enough of evidence?"

After thinking for a second, she nodded slowly. " Yes", she murmured in a voice that almost managed to hide the fact that she was slightly shaken. She went on once his eyes were back in their normal black colour. " Now that we've sorted that thing out… We need to think about your punishment."

He shuddered just slightly, having known to expect this. Naruto, on the other hand, exploded completely. " WHAT?! He saved my life, killed so many of those bastards! You can't…!"

" Naruto." Tsunade's voice was soft, but he could tell her patience was running out. " You need to understand that despite those things you just mentioned, Sasuke still did betray Konoha. I'll have to give him a punishment for that."

Sasuke couldn't hold back his thick gulp. " What are you going to do to me?" He knew all too well that often, the price of a treachery like his was death. He could only hope Tsunade would show him some mercy…

But unfortunately, the woman's eyes were colder than winter. " Many consider what you did unforgivable, Uchiha", she stated in a stony voice. Then, all of a sudden, her eyes softened. " Fortunately for you, I'm not one of them. But I'm ordering you into a house-arrest for one month. After that… We'll see how to proceed."

Sasuke grit his teeth to lock back roars of protest. He only had one year – he couldn't afford being locked up for a full month! But, then again, he also knew that he certainly wasn't in a position to demand anything – heck, he was lucky Tsunade didn't have him executed. And so he nodded stiffly, his eyes most likely betraying all reluctance rushing through his veins. ' Thank you', he would've said, if his cursed pride wouldn't have been standing in the way.

He heard Naruto let out a deep sigh of relief with a bright grin. " Baa-chan, I knew you'd be reasonable!"

Tsunade flashed the blonde a small smile, before becoming serious again. " Just one more thing. As I said, there are many people who won't be able to trust Sasuke for a long time, maybe ever. And so, I think it'd be sensible to hide that he's alive for this month." She gave Naruto a stern, meaningful look. " I know it's hard, but I need you not to say a word about this to anyone. I'll do my best to cut off the rumours that a girl looking exactly like Sasuke has been seen around here."

Naruto seemed just about ready to blow out a full list of objections, but ended up satisfying with a pout. " Fine."

Sasuke felt almost sorry for the blonde; he could actually feel how much the boy would've wanted to tell about this to everyone, especially Sakura.

Tsunade gave the whisker-marked boy another small smile. " I'm glad you understand. And I'm sorry about forcing you to hide this. But now…" Her eyes moved momentarily to him. " There's something I need to discuss about with Sasuke – alone."

Naruto seemed extremely reluctant, but then realized that this wasn't the time to argue, so the blonde nodded and started to move towards the room's door. Just before leaving, Naruto flashed him the biggest, most radiant grin he'd ever seen. " You know, teme… It's good to have you back." The blonde waved a hand. " See you soon." And with that, the boy was gone.

He felt a almost showing smile tickling his lips.

It's good to be back, dobe, he caught himself thinking.

Although he wasn't allowed to be back for long…

Now that they were alone, Tsunade gave him a look that was harder than any of the previous ones. " It weights a lot in my scale that you were willing to give your life for Naruto. But know this." There was clear threat in her tone. " He went through a hell because of you, Uchiha. And if you hurt him ever again… I definitely won't be this merciful." And with those words, she took her exit.

Left alone, he walked (or rather dragged himself) back to bed, then slumped down with a heavy sigh, face buried into his hands.

So he was now a girl, and stuck in house-arrest for a full month. And after a year… he'd leave all behind again. (' Leave Naruto behind', a small, stubborn part inside him whispered gloomily.)

As he gave out a extremely loud groan, he suddenly found it very hard to remember what he'd been thinking when deciding to do this – to himself and the people he'd once called friends.

Outside the building, Naruto's head was spinning so badly that for a moment, he had to lean against a wall. First time in two weeks (or perhaps even a lot longer), his blue eyes were shining.

So what if he was now a girl – Sasuke was finally back! He didn't give a damn about how it was possible; all that really mattered was that hadn't lost his chance, after all. (Chance for what, he didn't quite know just yet.) Their team was whole once more – everything would go back to normal (well, to some extend, at least).

He didn't think he'd ever felt this relieved in his entire life.

And with all his determination, he swore to never let that stubborn bastard slip away from him again.

What Naruto failed to notice in his whirr of thoughts and emotions, was that there was a pair of eyes examining him from shadows.

Pain was right – I can just sense that kid's chakra. He's definitely ready. Eyes narrowed slightly. This is becoming tricky…

Approaching steps chased those thoughts away. A annoyed, bored voice spoke. " Is your observation-process finally over?"

Eyes flashed. " Yes." After so many years, the next lie came easily. " He's not ready just yet. We'll need to wait."

It took a while before there was a response. " Alright, then." The voice wavered, doubt faintly evident. Steps begun to distance. " Let's go. It's not safe to stay here for too long."

And in a blink, the two vanished in a puff of smoke.

Close by, Naruto's steps halted when he got a sudden sensation of someone watching him. Confused and alarmed, he turned his gaze to a nearby tree. As expected, no one was there.

He chuckled, shaking his head. " I'm going paranoid", he muttered, then blinked when his stomach moaned loudly. It wasn't until then he remembered that he'd barely eaten during the past two weeks.

A wide smirk spread to his face. It was time for ramen! And maybe he should smuggle some for Sasuke, too… (He was startled by that thought at first, but then quickly explained to himself that he was just being a friend; judging by how thin Sasuke was, the raven hadn't eaten properly for quite a while.)

As he rushed off, his eyes never caught the small piece of dark-purple fabric hanging on the tree he'd just taken a look at.

TBC?

A/N: (snickers evilly) I just couldn't resist the idea of turning Sasuke into a girl! Don't ask me why – I have absolutely no idea! I hope none of you was too ticked off by the twist. (glances hopefully)

Okay, it's time for me to bugger off now. I'm going to work my hardest to get the next chapter done ASAP – please be patient!

Oh yes, and please do review – you know those 'lil messaged would make my day! (gives HUGE puppy-dog eyes)

Take care!

Kai's kitty: (blushes beat-red) Thank you SO MUCH for the breathtaking compliment! Gosh, I honestly can't believe someone noticed my (almost…) retirement! I can just feel my ego swelling. (smirks)

Once more, tons of thank yous for reviewing! I really hope this fic will turn out to be a decent one!

¨

Miah-Chan: Oh YES, still will DEFINITELY be a SasuNaru (though with a bit of a twist…) – I'm hopelessly hooked on and in love with the pairing! (grins)

Again, thank you SO MUCH for the reviewing – I'm far beyond flattered you liked the chapter! I REALLY hope I'll manage to maintain the quality in the chapters to come. (gulps thickly)