Title: "No Major Harm"

Author: Shaitanah

Rating: R (overall)

Timeline: chapter 411+ (SPOILERS)

Summary: Look inside you, they said. Naruto looked – and got a lot more than he bargained for. Canon meets AU… and they change places! + Naruto is driven to make a decision concerning Sasuke; a new enemy catches the two at their worst.[Sasuke/Naruto] Please R&R!

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi. Naruto Pilot Chapter also belongs to Kishimoto Masashi. Lyrics from I Speak Not by George Gordon Byron. Chapter title from the song of the same name by Damien Rice. Quotes from Naruto Chapters 7, 400.

A/N: Back to the canon-verse again, are we? ;) This chapter is slightly shorter than I planned it to be but it's because I had to transfer the final scene of it into the next chapter. The new division is more logical. Thus, this one is more about choices and decision-making and acceptance. Enjoy, and thank you for all your beautiful reviews!

Chapter 10

Coconut Skins

I speak not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name;
There is grief in the sound, there is guilt in the fame;
But the tear that now burns on my cheek may impart
The deep thoughts that dwell in that silence of heart.

Team Sand/Team Hawk camp

"Naruto."

The youth spun around to face the person who called his name softly, and saw Gaara standing a few metres away from him.

"Don't do that again," he muttered sullenly. He was really tired of people sneaking up on him. "Why are you here?"

Gaara took a few steps towards him and stood near him. Naruto was looking up at the stars, tall grass swaying lightly all around him. His hands froze a little over the surface of this emerald ocean, and the spikes of grass brushed his palms.

"I can't get used to it," Gaara said. "Sleeping. It feels odd." After a short pause he added: "I would have been all right, you know."

Naruto uttered a non-committal 'hmm'. He felt angry with himself for having lost his temper like that. But Sasuke… he was just so…

"He, on the other hand, seems unstable. I know this feeling only too well. Torn between the darkest desires, with blood on your hands, so much of it that it becomes your tomb. I challenged him to see if I was right. Unfortunately, I feel that I was."

Unstable, Naruto thought with a scowl. Sasuke had completely lost it. That slip of sanity could have cost them both dearly.

"It's not that simple between the two of you, is it?" Gaara pried gently.

"It never will be. I can see his true colours." Naruto bit his lip. Perhaps he wasn't supposed to be talking like that, taking the other Naruto's dedication to Sasuke into account. "What am I going to do? I don't feel anything for him. I don't even want to. Have– I really wasted three years on finding him? I must have been out of my mind."

"Don't say that," Gaara cut him off. There was a steely edge to his voice. "You never give up. This isn't the time you started."

Naruto took a deep breath. Great; now he felt like crying. He couldn't afford it, not in front of Gaara or anyone from his clique, or Sasuke, or Hawk, or even alone. He never cried.

"It is not in our power to control the others' fate," Gaara went on, "but there are always some hidden paths that lead straight to the point of your destination. They are easy to overlook, but they are the right ones. Despair will only cloud your mind. Right now your village needs you. And he… he is your friend, right? He needs you too."

Naruto's eyes widened. He felt frightened. The weight of this responsibility was too much for him. He had always been the carefree, happy-go-lucky demon child, too selfish for his own good. He had never had to care for anyone. And right now so many people suddenly needed him. So many people were ready to put their faith in him.

"What if I'm the wrong person?" he exclaimed. "I can't save anyone!"

Gaara's placid eyes gleamed, betraying but a hint of his inner turmoil.

"Sometimes the people we want to help think they don't need any help," he said dryly. "Do you remember the person I was? Do you remember what I told you about the meaning of my existence? I lived to kill. Only that way could I feel happy. But that was never true happiness. You changed me, Naruto. Only you… you alone had the power to do that. It is thanks to you that I am what I am now. If you don't see it, then you are blind."

Naruto's lips trembled. That was all very poetic – and not a word of it was said about him. It was a different Naruto back than. All Konoha (and Sasuke) had now was him – and he was ready to renounce them because he was scared. He wished he weren't such a coward.

"So your friend is a pig-headed jerk who is neck-deep in the mess he's made himself," Gaara said ruthlessly. "Big deal! You have been through this so many times. You are Uzumaki Naruto! You have things to fight for and friends to protect. You have your dreams and your power and your promises."

"I… It's not…"

"If you turn your back on it all, you will be just like him. You will betray yourself and all the people you have helped. I can't let it happen because I am your friend and I'm proud of it."

Tears splattered over Naruto's cheeks. Gaara's passion was contagious; he could feel it contaminating him and couldn't fight it. If Gaara only knew that his words were directed at the wrong person!

On the other hand, what did it matter if he was not the Naruto that had changed Gaara? What did it matter if he hadn't given any promises and hadn't spent three bloody years trying to become stronger for Sasuke's sake? He was here now, he was their alternative to the world without Naruto at all. He was their chance, and they were his.

"Gaara," Naruto said huskily. "Thank you. You are stronger than I am. You've managed to change my mind."

The Kazekage smiled, slightly embarrassed.

Silence, vast and endless, stretched between them. A surge of gratitude towards this almost-stranger who spoke so openly, so ardently to him overwhelmed Naruto.

"Your village is lucky," he whispered. To his right, Gaara inclined his head curiously. "You must be a great ruler."

"I believe in friends and future, that's all."

Naruto peered at him intently. Friends and future… Wasn't that something the Chief might have told him to believe in? Yes… it sounded like a nice thing.

Naruto smiled. He would give that bipolar prick another chance. Because they could be friends.

They parted the next day, the Sand shinobi continuing on their way to the Kage summit. Naruto and Gaara shook hands, only a pair of identical small smiles that played on their lips betraying the memory of what had transpired the night before. Once again, Naruto was thrust into the vortex of moody silence interspersed with Karin and Suigetsu's minor arguments on the way.

He was mulling over the chain of events that had got him landed where he was. It might have been his chance to change. He had never felt the need for it before, but hearing Gaara speak of him like he wielded some kind of power to affect the lives and the fortunes of those around him made Naruto think: What if he could?..

Engrossed in suchlike thoughts, Naruto snapped out of that uncharacteristic silence what seemed to be hours later, upon hearing a carnival melody rippling through the air. There must have been a town nearby. A sudden desire to enter it and get lost among the crowd – only to break away from his company – descended upon Naruto.

"Bloody hell!" Suigetsu swore fervently.

Naruto glanced at him briefly. The Mist ninja was shaking his jerrican in dismay. It was empty.

"We'll be by the river again soon," Sasuke observed. "You'll refill it there."

Suigetsu grumbled something about authoritarism and the general injustice of this sick sad world, but refrained from starting an argument. As they pushed further, the sounds of music grew louder. Sasuke attempted a maneuver to keep away from the town gate, but Naruto took lead decidedly, and to his amusement, the team followed him without any questions.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sasuke hissed, catching up with him and blocking his way.

To hell with changing! At least for today.

"Oh, come on! Konoha can wait a couple of hours!"

He pushed Uchiha out of the way, smirking at his sullen expression. The guy must have thought he was mad, procrastinating deliberately after having uttered quite a few passionate speeches about how important it was to make it to the village in time. Naruto loved unsettling Sasuke; he wasn't ashamed to admit that he cared about it much more than he did about the entire village.

"Don't look at me," Suigetsu said, catching Sasuke's moody look. "He talks sense. I'm going to find a water pump now."

He waved his jerrican in front of the captain comically and vanished into the glitter-strewn darkness of the gateway. Naruto skewed his eyes upon Karin who was shifting from one foot to the other indecisively, casting flirtatious looks at Sasuke. He was too far to discern the words, but when she said something, Sasuke dismissed her with vague irritation and sped away into the grove outside the town. Blatant disappointment was written all over Karin's face as she turned around and walked towards the gate. Juugo lingered on the spot for a moment, as if not fully certain what he was supposed to do, and then followed her.

With the proper lighting Karin was pretty. That was the conclusion Naruto came to after watching her for a few long minutes.

It was two hours after they had entered the town. Naruto had used them to the maximum, just strolling amidst the colourfully dressed-up people, stuffing his stomach with all sorts of food and even dancing. He was twirling an empty dango senbon between his teeth, sitting at the street bar counter with a weary but pleased outlook when Karin came into view. She flung herself on the chair casually and ordered sake. Her cheeks were flushed and her flaming red hair was scattered all over her shoulders.

Her beauty, or whatever the effects that made her face nice to look at could be defined as, was rough and a bit sultry – at least when she was conscious of it. Sometimes, however, her eyes would open wide and her lips would part somewhat innocently, and she wouldn't look so bitchy and unpleasant to deal with. She had the power both to attract and repulse people; in Naruto's case, it often worked simultaneously.

"Just what does a girl have to do to get a guy's attention?" she whined, taking a swig from her cup. She wasn't looking at Naruto, but he knew she was talking to him and he knew exactly what the subject of this rant would be. "Honestly, sometimes I think I should just perform a striptease right under his nose, but he wouldn't notice that anyway! Men are pigs." She sighed dramatically and added after a pause: "It's a universal wisdom that has gone through centuries for all women to live by; yet we keep pining for the most unattainable guys!"

Naruto held a quizzical pause and then said: "And you're telling me this because… I'm not a guy?"

"I don't know why I'm telling you this!" Karin flared up.

Naruto chuckled with slight unease. What did she see in Sasuke's anyway? From what he remembered of the other Naruto's story, Sasuke had always been this girls' magnet type. Why? Seriously, what was it with all those girls liking men who didn't talk to them, didn't so much as look in their direction and acted like they had the biggest stick up their asses that had ever existed!

Wanting to change the subject before Karin jumped all over him, he found nothing better than to wonder mistrustfully, "How old are you anyway?"

Karin traced his look directed at her drink and scowled at him:

"That's a really rude question, foxboy! Besides, it's not like they actually wanted to see an ID." She brought the cup to her mouth and then lowered it with a low growl. Her lips twisted in distaste. "Will you just look at that? This moron is picking up a fight again! Suigetsu, you idiot!"

She stormed off, leaving Naruto to wonder if he would ever see Suigetsu in one piece again. Probably not. Oh, well, life's cruel.

He yawned delightfully. It felt good to relax in this festive atmosphere, but no matter how much he wanted it to go on, it was time to go lest he should get engaged into another fight with Sasuke. Naruto was about to leave when the aforementioned Uchiha appeared out of nowhere and took a seat near him.

"Where are they?" he wanted to know.

Naruto shrugged and mentioned that Karin and Suigetsu would probably not be free to go until dawn, what with thrashing the life out of each other somewhere on the other side of the sea of people splashing all over the street. Sasuke kept quiet, surveying Karin's abandoned cup. It gave Naruto an idea.

"You know," he began carefully, "most people don't have an option of crashing an entire village to release their frustration. So they just go for the trivial. They go and get drunk. I've never been drunk."

Sasuke turned to him slowly, his intense gaze lingering upon Naruto's face. The youth smiled wryly. A moment later Sasuke picked the cup up and downed it at a single draught. Naruto laughed and signaled to the bartender to bring some more.

Over the years Naruto had grown accustomed to waking up to various sorts of ache, be it the aftermath of a street fight, or the side effects of a jutsu training, or even the hurt of being rejected. All that, he could deal with. The splitting, tormenting pain in his skull, however, was new to him.

Naruto opened his eyes – and promptly squeezed them shut again. It pained him to look. His head was spinning, and everything around him was glaringly white. The whiteness stood before him even with his eyes closed, safely tucked underneath his eyelids. His mouth was dry as a desert.

He lay still, waiting for the buzzing in his head to subside. When he opened his eyes again, there was a bleary blob leaning over him.

"How many fingers do you see?" the blob asked in Suigetsu's voice.

At first Naruto thought the jerk was mocking him because he could see no fingers at all. Then a few long, skeletal shapes came into view.

"S-six," he rasped. He vaguely remembered that such a number shouldn't be the norm. "Have you mutated?"

Suigetsu disappeared, having released a quiet sigh of surprise. A flare of red replaced him. Naruto shut his eyes again. Too bright. Why did everything have to be so bright?

"You two are just so stupid!" Karin's shrill voice rang in his ears.

Naruto cringed. Karin… Right, the festival. She hadn't finished her sake, but Sasuke did. Naruto's eyes snapped open. Oh, hell! He rolled his head to the right with an effort and spotted Uchiha sprawled near him. He looked lifeless, his face pale, as though covered in flour.

"My head's like a beehive…" Naruto whined.

Sasuke opened one eye and stared at him blankly like he couldn't see him at all. Naruto ran his swollen tongue over his lips. So that's how it felt to get really drunk… Gross.

"You!" Karin shrieked. Naruto inhaled deeply, feeling he would be sick, when she grabbed him by the collar and yelled in his face: "It's your fault! Before you came along, things like this just didn't happen!"

Naruto wheezed, trying to get her attention to one far less than pleasant fact: a characteristic lump was coming up to his mouth and his vision was swimming. He blinked a few times, his breathing level, then turned his head as far as he could manage and threw up. Karin jumped backwards with an outcry of surprise and made a disgusted face. Naruto groaned.

Within the next hour his condition fluctuated fluidly from nightmarish to hardly bearable. Sasuke's was no better, except when he vomited, Karin would support him and be exceedingly nice to him even though he paid her back with vicious glances harbouring killing intent.

"Not so cool now, huh?" Suigetsu muttered, earning himself about the same glare from Karin herself.

Nevertheless, Karin's infatuation didn't stop her from declaring both of them perfect fools and firing off contemptuously, "If you can't hold your booze, don't drink!"

Ultimately, they were forced on their feet, and they dragged after Team Hawk at a snail's pace. The landscape around them looked bleak and bleared beneath the overcast sky. Going hot and cold all over, Naruto listened to the clatter of his own teeth and hoped with all his heart that Sasuke felt as terrible as he did. The idea to keep away from alcohol until he was twenty-one might have had a point after all. Somehow, after the last night Naruto doubted that twenty-one would be a magic threshold, crossing which would make him like drinking.

"That's it!" Karin exclaimed all of a sudden. Her voice was loud, like nails drawn over glass. She stopped abruptly, eyes blazing behind the spectacles. "I'm calling a halt."

"No," Sasuke objected. He spoke for the first time since last night; every word seemed to have to fight its way out of his parched mouth. "We have no time anymore. We go on."

He swaggered and almost fell. Juugo held him in a vertical position. Sasuke coughed and shut his eyes for a moment, resting his forehead against Juugo's forearm.

"You are in no condition to stand, much less walk or run," Karin said dryly. "Suigetsu and I are going back to the town to refill the supply of water you two have drunk and hopefully find something to zap your hangover. You'll handle them, right, Juugo?"

The man nodded in detachment. As the two members of Team Hawk took off, Naruto flung himself on the shady patch of the ground beneath a tree a little farther from the road and screwed his eyes shut.

"You gotta admit," he said as he heard Sasuke lie down as well, "it was a bit of fun."

After a pause, there came a strained answer:

"Before or after we started vomiting our guts out?"

Naruto laughed in spite of the rising sickness. He couldn't have phrased it better.

Sasuke comes to, lying on a grassy hillock, nothing but oceans of green and grey around. Passed out again. It seems so trivial, a hangover; he almost wants to laugh about it.

He turns his head and spots Naruto resting a few metres away from him. He looks paler than usual, but overall, Sasuke believes, his system has taken less time to recover from the effects of alcohol.

Sasuke doesn't really remember the previous night, and it displeases him. He is reluctant to lose control of his actions; not knowing what he might have done while intoxicated equals… Sasuke flounders. He can't even finish his thought.

He vows never to drink again.

"I've got this taste in my mouth," Naruto draws out. "Yuck."

"Where's Juugo?" It is only now that Sasuke notices they are alone.

"How should I know? Gone to take a leak or something."

Anger boils within Sasuke, but it's so weak, so innocuous that all he can do is ignore it. The world around him is falling apart. He watches the sun lurk behind the clouds (the curtain is thinning in places and the glares are quite conspicuous) and thinks of Naruto.

It hits him all of a sudden like a mountainous wave: Naruto is gone. Forever or not, so far it is indefinite; but he is not here, not in this world, he will not meet him at the gate of Konoha, he will not fight him, he will not yell at him, he will not–.

Sasuke will have to make do with this new, unfamiliar Naruto. He is naïve and foolish to hold on to the face and the name and the voice, even if he knows that underneath it all this is a different person. That's what the last night was about. Forgetting it was a different person.

Is the rest of the world really so blind? Sakura spent a week with him; didn't she notice? Gaara talked to him; was he so easy to fool as well? What about Kakashi, Tsunade, anyone in that blasted village? Sasuke clings to this as to yet another reason to despise them. They could never see people for what they were. They failed to see Itachi and now they failed to recognize the fake Naruto.

Sasuke doesn't know how he should treat him anymore. As a bystander, as a victim, as a thief, as a friend… To tear his deception down or to accept him and wait, wait for the real one to return.

What if he never does?

It shouldn't matter.

With a feeling he cannot quite place, Sasuke thinks about his own otherworldly counterpart. Is he with Naruto now? Is he very different from Sasuke? Is he… enough for Naruto?

It should not matter.

Last night they sat on a roof (he remembers now) and Naruto was telling him something about himself. He doesn't remember what it was exactly, but he remembers the gentle sadness in his voice, the struggle not to care (on both their parts) and the strange, almost surprising realization that this person had crossed the worlds to battle his loneliness.

And Sasuke felt so alone.

He had no other world to escape to.

He remembered then, seemingly for no reason, a brief moment of weakness in front of Sakura when he deigned her an explanation for his dogged determination to continue the survival training. Not 'I want to become a ninja'. Not 'We'll do this together'.

"There's a man only I can kill. That time… crying… I'm an avenger. I have to become stronger than him."

In that other world, was it possible that things had turned out differently? He imagined his brother still being alive, still standing by him. And maybe their parents, too. He wondered what it felt like to live without the word 'avenger' carved into his heart and mind.

"He gave you revenge as your goal," Madara had said. "In order to make you stronger. Since the day he left the village, he planned to fight you and die by your hand."

Mild rushes of wind stroking his skin, Sasuke lies on the hillock and remembers the feeling that burnt in his chest last night.

Jealousy.

"Kinda long for a leak," Naruto murmured, knitting his eyebrows in suspicion. "Do you think something happened?"

Sasuke willed himself to get up. Dizziness was almost gone.

"Did you tell him he could go?" he inquired. "While we were in no condition to defend ourselves?"

"I figured–."

"You do not command my men, Naruto. Never."

Naruto made a face.

"Speaking of your men, they've been gone for quite a while too."

The flick of Sasuke's hand made him pause. Sasuke looked wary, his eyes too dark and intent against his pale face. Naruto sniffed the air and caught a thick, familiar smell drawing nearer.

"Cloud," he whispered agitatedly and lifted one finger to indicate the number of enemies. One. That was quite presumptuous of the Kumogakure ninja.

The enemy turned out to be a bored-looking woman.

"Hey there, boys," she said in a deep voice that conveyed the same lack of emotion as her face. "I'll get down to business, okay? We can do this the easy way; that is, you come with me." She pointed towards Sasuke lazily; then her voice hardened. "Or the hard way."

"Oi, lady!" Naruto bristled. "How about you stop wasting our time?"

She looked at him, taking her eyes off of Sasuke for the first time. Something indefinite flashed in her eyes, like she couldn't make up her mind about Naruto. He composed his features into a more menacing expression.

"I have no business with you, blondie. You're free to go. Your friend, however," she pointed at Sasuke once more, surveying him like he was a bothersome bug, "is the one I need."

"You hurt my feelings," Naruto scowled, "choosing him over me!"

He reckoned he could have stepped aside like he had done during Sasuke's fight with Killer Bee. But he would only be fooling himself if he said he didn't care about Sasuke's well-being. That jerk hardly deserved it of course, but–.

Naruto attacked. The woman ducked. For all her feigned dullness, her movements were precise and swift. She jumped and ended up above him, raining shuriken down on him. Naruto whirled, blocking them. His gaze flicked to Sasuke who was just standing on the same spot, doing nothing.

Naruto performed Kage Bunshin no Jutsu; the clones dispersed and lunged at his opponent. She moved swiftly in zig-zag patterns. Naruto kept behind the attacking party as she eliminated the clones one by one. For a moment she was out of sight. He tensed and felt the tip of a kunai dip lightly into his artery.

"You're ridiculously easy to figure out, kid," the woman whispered into his ear. "You should have taken my offer. This isn't your battle–."

She fell quiet. Naruto's gaze darted towards Sasuke. He wasn't there. Dammit! That breathtaking speed of his again! Naruto could feel him at their enemy's back, probably pointing a kunai at her as well.

"I see you made up your mind," the woman scoffed.

"What do you want?"

"You took something from us. I want it back."

With a quiet pop, she vanished. Naruto and Sasuke spun around simultaneously and sprang aside, avoiding another volley of projectiles. Sasuke's eyes flashed red.

"And that is?" Naruto queried.

"I'm Samui, leader of Team Samui of the Hidden Cloud Village," a belated introduction followed. "Uchiha Sasuke, I want you to answer for what you did to our sensei Killer Bee!"

She jumped at them like a whirlwind, streaks of lightning slashing through the air. Sasuke unsheathed the Kusanagi; it came down on Samui but was blocked by her own sword.

"Killer Bee!" Naruto mouthed. "But… don't you have him?"

For the first time something close to amazement flashed across the woman's face.

"We hadn't seen him for a long time until we were told by the Raikage-sama that our sensei had been captured by that Akatsuki scum." Her lip curled in cold disdain. Her blade slid over the Kusanagi with a sharp clanking sound and she leapt back, taking a defensive stance.

Naruto scowled. "In that case, lady, you were misinformed. Last time we saw him, Killer Bee was safe and sound and pretty much free from any captivity."

"Is that true?" Samui demanded.

"Why would I lie to you?"

"A good question coming from someone who allies himself with the Akatsuki." She nearly spat the last word out. "My faith in the sensei never wavered. But I can't forgive you, Uchiha. Raiton! Four Pillar Binding!"

The pillars she summoned imprisoned Sasuke and bolts of electricity shot through them, restraining him. Sasuke fell to his knees, his breath coming out in forced gasps through clenched teeth.

"Sasuke!" Naruto cried out.

His mind was racing. Sasuke's speed had decreased; he could barely fight back the attacks. Naruto, too, felt weakened, useless, but his adrenaline was pumping. He slammed his fist into the ground, causing chunks of soil to rise. Samui flashed him an apprehensive look. Naruto's lips curved into a smile. She got him pissed.

He released a necessary amount of chakra, just enough to cloak his body with a bubbling red aura. An ephemeral tail he was sporting crashed into the dirt, sending it in Samui's direction. A spiraling gust of wind lashed out towards the pillars, tearing them apart. The lightning cage fell, bluish sparks crackling noisily. Naruto ended up near Sasuke in one leap.

"No need to pretend around her, right?" he questioned with a wink.

Sasuke answered in a hoarse, pained voice: "She won't talk if she's dead."

Good. Just what he was hoping for.

He wagged his tail, stirring the wind up into the gale. It crashed upon the enemy and enveloped her, slashing at her body. Sasuke blew out jets of fire and sent them towards her too.

Samui collapsed. Her face and arms were covered in scarlet gashes; blood was beginning to crop up. Her chest heaved heavily with every breath she took. Naruto went down on all fours and snarled at her, his eyes flashing deep infernal red.

"If he's so important to you," he growled, "why are you wasting time on us? Maybe it's you he's running from! You and your stupid village!"

"Naruto." Sasuke's voice was heavy with warning.

"What do you know?" Samui spat.

Sasuke darted towards her, but her fingers moved at the speed of light, fluid and skillful. Blue light flared around her hands. She pressed her palms flat against the ground. An enormous bolt of lightning cut through the soil, dashing towards Naruto and Sasuke. The tip of the electric triangle nearly caught Sasuke in mid-flight. Naruto jumped, the red chakra around him growing stronger, thicker, forming a complete silhouette of the fox. Heat and power exploded all around them. A dense cloud of dust consumed Samui.

Naruto intercepted Sasuke in the air, causing him to land on top of him. Sasuke drew in a harsh breath, hands scorched by the contact with the searing chakra, but he held tight. Blazing fissures bore deep into the distorted ground.

In a few large leaps, Naruto escaped from the battlefield. His power gave out, and he collapsed. Sasuke rolled off of him. His eyes reverted to their faded black again; scarlet webbings of damaged blood vessels spread over the whites. His chest expanded with one constrained breath before he sank into oblivion.

Stripped of his cloak of demonic chakra, Naruto crawled up to him and wrapped his arms around him.

"Never gonna drink again," he muttered under his breath.