Disclaimer: I do not own, though I would love to petition Kishi-sensei to make a yaoi ending. XD

I'm at a serious road block in my main fic, so I actually crawled out of the dark space that is my writer's block and managed to edit this and previous chapters to my liking. I apologize for anyone following along, I generally hate taking this long between chapters. I'm seriously considering removing this and writing before posting. Hmm…

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Once More, With Feeling

Shifting of Veracity

--

As the pair continued towards the hospital, Naruto became visibly more anxious. Sakura had to remind him several times to relax and stop projecting his concern, but she knew nothing would calm him. Not only did he have only a few hours to change history as they knew it, but he was about to walk in to see the man he loved, who had no idea of how Naruto felt and who Naruto had watched die that very morning.

Sakura's heart went out the him, and she continually pressed her shoulder to his in what she hoped was a casual gesture to remind him she was there, she wasn't leaving, and she would be by his side.

The glares Naruto was given were disturbing. Sakura knew the villagers had hated Naruto, she had even witnessed it during the years after his return from training with Jiraiya. However, by then things had calmed down very much in comparison to what she was seeing now. How could she have missed this for all those months they had spent together, nearly an entire year?

The eighth of September suddenly felt like an ominous, horrible day, even more so than it had been in their timeline when she had clung to Sasuke telling him she loved him. Because this day would decide their path. Sakura couldn't help but shudder.

"How will we do this, Naruto?"

He kept walking, but put on a slightly strained smile. "First of all, you're going to have to act as if nothing is different." He glared suddenly, though without any real malice. "Don't go overboard."

Sakura laughed. "Sasuke is an attractive man and an interesting person, but my ability to ignore a person's feelings for me and cling to them fanatically died many years ago, Naruto. You know there's nothing to worry about from me."

"I know that… but that doesn't mean I want to see it."

"Possessive," Sakura sing-songed to him with a grin, resisting the urge to link her arm through his as she dragged him along. It would have to be a gradual public change in their relationship if they were to keep suspicion off of them.

"Sorry, Sakura, but you're one hot chick. Not as gorgeous as you are later, of course," he flashed her a roguish grin, "But if Sasuke is still questioning his sexuality, I'd rather not have him suddenly attracted to you."

Sakura laughed and shook her head, "Sasuke finds nothing about females sexually attractive. He isn't a ball of hormones like you are."

"I'm grievously offended, my lady…"

"Don't even start, Naruto. Just because your vocabulary has risen doesn't mean you have to blow a fuse."

"Why you--"

"You have to act like nothing has changed as well." She twitched with the urge to smash a fist into his head as she saw him mocking her from what he thought was out of her vision.

They entered the hospital and even Sakura could no longer find a way to keep their levity and comfort Naruto, as she was trying to comfort herself. She knew that her own most precious person was within these walls somewhere, lying in a hospital bed. Or was he released by now? She didn't know, she couldn't remember, because at this time she had been shallow enough to have ignored the shining star her husband was.

As they approached the door to what Tsunade had told them was Sasuke's room, Sakura took a deep breath. When the dizziness hit, she didn't even have time to wonder why before the change took her over.

--

Naruto tromped into the room with a very real scowl, though the emotions behind it were very much different than what most would assume. He resolutely kept his eyes on the far wall and not on the bed, suddenly unable to look upon the teen who he knew was there. He wasn't ready for this, and years of practice at holding in his emotions was failing him as it often did when faced with highly affecting moments. Naruto let Sakura breeze past him as he hovered near the door, eyes on the window.

"Sasuke-kun! You're awake!"

"Hn."

Naruto had been hoping he wouldn't be. His heart leapt to his throat and he wanted to break into tears right there before flinging himself at Sasuke, clinging to his neck and refusing to let go. The voice was dull and bored, and Naruto loved the man all the more for it. He could just imagine the expression currently on his face, dark eyes staring at anything but the bubbly pinkette who was currently cooing over Sasuke's condition.

"I can't believe you're stuck in here still, Sasuke-kun! When do the nurses think you will be released? When you do, would you like to go out to lunch with me? There's a great little shop on the eastern side of town…"

"No."

The smallest pause, "Well, maybe tomorrow then, Sasuke." Naruto heard him grunt, and was sure Sakura had latched herself onto him. "Hey, Sasuke, I've been thinking about training to become a medical nin… then when you get hurt like this, I can take care of you and never have to leave your side! Wouldn't that be great?"

Naruto applauded her acting. Had he not known her better, Naruto would have believed the syrupy tone of Sakura's voice. She was currently prattling on about how much better he was looking, the fictional things they would do together when he was well, the things he had missed in the few days since their mission. Naruto hoped to go unnoticed until he had collected himself, but his luck never seemed to hold.

"Dobe, what in the hell are you scowling at?"

Naruto jerked at the long-standing epithet, eyes darting to Sasuke. He regretted it instantly.

Sasuke's eyes pierced him with their apathy, something he was so unused to seeing directed towards him. Even when Sasuke was hiding his emotions, long years by his side had granted Naruto the ability to understand his bastard's emotions… but there was nothing there now beyond irritation and annoyance. Dark hair was more limp around his face than usual, but still held its usual style. Naruto knew from experience that sleeping on it could not really tame the hair, it took getting it wet. Like in the rain, or in the shower… or in the shower with Naruto…

Naruto tore his eyes away and forced on a cheerful grin, far too wide to be genuine but it seemed to convince Sasuke. "Ch, teme. Having fun in bed? Wish I could laze about all day, but I have more important things on my agenda."

Silence greeted his flippancy, and he peeked through the corner of his eye to find two rather surprised fifteen year olds watching him.

"What?"

Sasuke recovered first, face blanking of expression and a dark brow raising. "I wasn't aware you were capable of being coherent with words over four letters, usuratonkachi."

Real annoyance now, and Naruto felt his eye twitch, "Teme… how about I kick your ass and show you how articulate I can be?"

This time, Sasuke's eyes only widened a bit at the sudden increase in Naruto's vocabulary. Naruto didn't care. He had told Sakura that he didn't intend to play the fool. He would take the transition as slowly as he could, but he wasn't going to sit here pretending he had the vocabulary of a ten year old and liked girls in any way past passive attraction. Speaking of Sakura…

Naruto blinked at the girl owlishly, suddenly realizing just how shocked she looked. Now, Naruto knew she could act, but this was ridiculous. When she scowled at him with very real distaste, Naruto recoiled internally.

He laced his fingers behind his head and gave another plastic smile, eyes nearly closed. He walked over to the bed, still trying to avoid the piercing stare of his husb-- well, friend-- no… rival?-- and grabbing Sakura's arm perhaps a bit too tight. "What is wrong with you, Sakura?" he hissed in her ear, smile frozen in place as he tried to cover his actions by batting his eyes simperingly.

"Eww! Get off of me, Naruto!" she smacked at his hands, cringing as his grip tightened.

He glanced over at Sasuke and met the suspicious dark eyes unflinchingly, having much experience in disregarding those dark looks. "We'll be back soon, alright Sasuke? Ah hah hah… Sakura-chan promised we'd… uhh… stop by and see… Fuzzy Eyebrows! Yeah, Fuzzy Eyebrows! So… we'll be back in just a minute, kay? Kay…"

He yanked a struggling Sakura out of the room, ignoring the nearly hostile tension emanating from Sasuke. He would deal with any ramifications of this later; for now he only wanted to know what in the hell was wrong with Sakura.

She was struggling. "Get off of me! How dare you touch me and take me away from my Sasuke-kun? Just who do you think you are, Naruto? Let go, let go, let go!"

The usual dark glares the citizens of Konoha were magnified within the hospital walls, and Naruto saw several aborted movements in his direction. He was apparently rather intimidating in that moment, though, since none attempted to actually pull him away from his protesting teammate.

"Damnit, Naruto, let me--" And then abruptly, Sakura stopped struggling and in fact grasped his arm, yanking him into an empty room and slamming the door behind them.

"What the hell was that, Sakura?" he hissed, clenching his fists.

"I don't know!" she said back just as quietly and no less angrily.

"Well, pardon me for being confused when you go from the pretense of acting to actually being the annoying-as-hell little twit you were when you were fifteen!"

Sakura snarled and cracked her knuckles, "You didn't think I was so bad if you had a crush on me, idiot. You were ten times more annoying at this age…"

"This is not the argument!" Naruto thundered, eyes narrowing. "I want to know what in the hell happened!"

The pinkette stiffened and bowed her head, eyes still flashing dangerously but obviously reining in her urge to argue in the face of Naruto's palpable anger. She hoped no one came to investigate the aura of rage he was exuding; for at least the twentieth time, she wished they had managed to finish the jutsu they had been attempting to create that would allow privacy. They had managed a more complex version of the ones surrounding the Hokage's office, but had yet to make one that could be put up without excessive chakra and hours of warding.

"Now, Sakura," the lack of suffix only made her incline her head farther. "What. Happened. In. There."

"I really don't know, Ho--Naruto," she whispered, catching herself in case anyone was listening. "One minute I was entering the room, the next it was like I had no control over my body. I could see and hear everything, but I couldn't make myself speak or move."

Naruto was pacing, and Sakura clenched and unclenched her fists. Her annoyance at the blond was gone, but she was very angry over what had happened. It was horribly disconcerting to have no control over your own body, to be a spectator. She shivered as she watched him walk back and forth across the small open space before the empty hospital beds.

"You were acting just as you had when you were this age. Fawning over Sasuke, looking at me like I was a leper. You were surprised that I had a brain…"

"Kisame…"

Naruto paused in mid-step, turning to regard her with wide eyes. "Eh?"

"Kisame!"

"What about fishface?"

"Just as the jutsu completed he stabbed me, right?" She ignored the dark look in her friend's face and went on. "What if I didn't come through as well as we thought?"

Naruto had stopped altogether and now collapsed in a heap on the hospital bed, staring at the floor. Sakura rolled her eyes as she watched him put the pieces together, slow on the uptake as usual but still intelligent enough to understand. After a few moments of silence he yelled suddenly, "I could kill Kisame for this!"

"Weren't you going to do that anyway?" Sakura said wryly, raising an eyebrow.

A short pause before the reply came slowly, "Well… yeah… but…" he grinned tipping his head back with squinted eyes. "Now I have an even better reason, dattebayo!"

Sakura wanted to smile at the childishness Naruto seemed to eternally possess, but the flash of flippancy was gone as quickly as it had come, and blue eyes were calculating once more. "So… instead of replacing your fifteen year old self… you're… sharing the body?"

"Most likely, yes. I can't think of any other solution."

"But then why did you lose control?"

Sakura placed a finger on her lips and tapped, staring at the ceiling. "Well, it was the second I entered Sasuke-kun's room. His chakra, perhaps? It must have something to do with him…"

"Or you were so obsessed with him at this age that your younger self can't bear to be separated from him," Naruto said with a sardonic grin.

"Actually…"

Naruto snapped his head towards her and narrowed his eyes. "Actually…?"

Sakura laughed, "That makes sense, really. Who better to trigger a change than Sasuke? He is the real difference between my older and younger selves. I didn't see what you two had until I was eighteen, when you returned from your training with Jiraiya-sama."

"You knew then?" Naruto said after a long silence, stunned. "I didn't even know until… well… until after he came back."

Sakura laughed quietly, shaking her head. "You couldn't see yourself. Someone would mention Sasuke's name and you would get so quiet, so serious. Once you were reminded of him, no one else existed in the world to you. When I was younger, perhaps I was obsessed with him… but he as your world. And it had nothing to do with how handsome he was, how aloof or talented… it was all because you saw in him what no one else could, what no one else dared. You knew him in ways none of us ever could have dreamed of back then… and it didn't take long for me to see how important your bond was. I knew you would manage to save him someday, and I knew your connection would only evolve from there. And… I was happy for you both. I think that is when I knew I'd grown up."

Naruto watched her fondly, his previous anger washed away. He shook his head and gave a crooked smile. "I'm glad you know me better than I know myself, Sakura-chan. I don't know how I would be doing this without you. We'll just have to strangle that annoying ass part of you until it goes the hell away, and you'll be great."

She laughed, but her evil grin sent Naruto skittering.

"Anyway, we should be getting back to the bastard, shouldn't we?"

Sakura shifted and peered at him out of the corner of her eye, lips pursing. "You aren't doing well with this, Naruto."

"What do you expect, Sakura-chan?" His smile was heartbreaking. "It hurts. To see him looking at me like I'm an insect, not remembering the things I do. I can't tease him about the henge I put on him at our wedding, or remind him of the time I saved his ass from those ninja who'd caught him bathing in the river. He looks so much the same despite the age difference… but seeing him really brought it home that he isn't the same. And I'm going to have to deal with that."

Arms wrapped around him and Naruto sagged against his friend, breathing shakily. Her fingers ran up and down his back, soft sounds of comfort breathed against his hair. He was embarrassed to be coddled like she would have her son, but she supposed that this was a catharsis for them both. His arms came around her waist and they stayed like that for long minutes, both collecting themselves.

"We should go, Naruto."

"Hmm, yeah. Sakura-chan?"

She turned and raised her eyebrows, a soft smile remaining on her face.

"Thank you. And I swear to you that I will fix this."

"If anyone can, it will be you, Naruto."

--

Naruto had been sitting there for quite some time, squinting his eyes through the darkness of the cloudy night. His vision had never been very good -- he liked to blame Kyuubi for that, fucking canid -- and he was having trouble searching through the shadows in the meager light thrown from the streetlights, despite his best efforts. The darkness was too dense outside of the rough circles thrown by the lights, the blackness too deep. Naruto gave up on his futile search and closed his eyes, letting the sounds of the night wash over him.

Naruto let himself be lost in the song of a nearby cicada, however strange it was for one to be out when the weather was cooling so rapidly, breathing slowly going steadier. He needed to focus. He couldn't lose himself to his own headstrong emotions. In some cases, it was all he had and it was a damn good thing he had them; he could name a million instances in his youth that he had only survived by sheer determination and rash action. But in moments like this, with so much on the line, Naruto knew he needed to keep his head about him.

"This way."

The whisper reached his ears easily, and Naruto snapped open his eyes to search for his quarry, as ineffectual as it was. Though he could make little to nothing out in the deep shadows of the night, he could both hear and sense the enemy now, closing in on his position. Naruto kept low to the wall surrounding the hospital's roof, eyes turned towards where he knew the group was.

As they stood beneath him, Naruto could almost make them out. He counted silently, tallying up the four and hoping that the weird bone-guy hadn't joined when they had been unable to find Sasuke immediately. By their relaxed postures, though, he didn't think he had. They seemed to assured of their own success.

"Why is he in this dump?"

A muffled scoff. "It is a hospital. He is obviously injured. This will only make our mission for Orochimaru-sama easier."

Naruto wished he could see well enough to distinguish who was speaking, but it wasn't worth straining himself. He couldn't even remember their names, anyway.

"So, what, we just scale the wall and grab this Uchiha kid? How boring."

Air was expelled loudly. "No way you're getting me climbing walls."

"Fat ass."

"Listen, brat, just because you're a girl…"

"Enough, all of you!" There was a long stretch of silence. "Let's just get this Uchiha guy and get out of here. Orochimaru-sama doesn't want the entire village coming after us, ya know?"

Naruto decided now was as good as ever. He stood and stepped up onto the low wall, lips quirking as he stepped off and dropped to the ground, chakra breaking his fall. The group had scattered back and Naruto gave them a grin, able to see them well enough now. "Hey kids. Nice night for a walk, isn't it?"

"Who in the hell are you?!" the largest of the group growled, setting his formidable frame forward as if he was going to charge.

"Uzumaki Naruto, at your service. And if you want to get your grubby little mitts on Sasuke, you're gonna have to go through me, first!"

The girl of the group, having scooted to the back, scoffed. "Please. I could take you on blindfolded."

Naruto smiled and brought his hands together. "We'll see. Kage bunshin no Jutsu!"

--

A/N: Right. I don't do good battle scenes, especially with characters I don't care much about. If it was characters I was comfortable writing, I could probably get something out. But with these guys? Pah. I had to Wiki them so I could remember anything beyond "Uhh, they were called the Sound Four!" So… cop out. Big one.

Side pairings. I have never been good at them and they always, in my stories, get brushed over at best. Mentioned, known, but I will rarely, if ever, actually focus (or even write at all) on any pairing other than the main one of the story. However, there will be many, many, many pairings in this story, most of them het (I am not an everyone-is-gay writer, I can't do it no matter how much I love reading it). However, if you can think of the pairing, it will probably be mentioned at least in jest. One thing I've always noticed about fanfiction is the distinct lack of 'dating'… so far as the Konoha Rookies are concerned, they will have (and will in the new timeline) experiment, break up, and have horrible and not-so-farfetched matches before ultimately ending up with someone.

If you're REALLY concerned about it, I'll try and list them all sometime, or at least the ones they ended up with and will end up with this time around. However, as I said, it really is going to be hardly a point of the story, so I hope I don't lose readers because of mentioned pairings.