Summary: People, once changed, can never be the same. This applies to things as well. Things such as bonds and relationships. Once tampered with, altered, broken, shredded and forsaken, they can never retain their former glory. But they can be rebuilt anew, if one so wishes.

Leave unsaid unspoken
Eyes wide shut unopened
You and me
Always between the lines
Between the lines
-Between the Lines; Sara Bareilles

Between the Lines
Amarxlen

The dirt under his feet crunched with each step he took, but the soft sound was lost in the chatter of the people around him. It was unusually crowded, despite the late hour, and the swarm seemed to migrate in one direction. Though why seemingly everybody in Konoha would be flocking towards the village gates, he didn't know. Confused, he allowed the crowd to direct him towards the entrance of the village.

Of course, he could have been there within seconds had he wanted to, but he saw no reason to hurry. He had just finished a bowl of Ichiraku's delicious ramen and had been on his way home when he noticed the single minded mass of people. It was peculiar – nothing like this had ever happened before. At least, not that he knew of.

While looking for a familiar face to question, he overheard snatches of angry conversations.

"...can't believe it."

"Who does..."

"...of him."

"Throw him..."

"Yeah!"

Instead of shedding some light on the situation, these broken comments only increased his confusion. Can't believe what? Him who? His pace quickened, and now he was pushing by people, worming his way through the swarm that ignored him in favor to continue gossiping.

"Sakura!" he shouted and waved, spotting a familiar patch of pink hair. Only one person in Konoha had hair that color. The girl spun around quickly, her face lighting up as she spotted her blond haired companion.

"Naruto!" She waved back and paused, waiting for him, rather than trying to walk against the crowd. Naruto moved with vigor towards his friend, elbowing his way through the mass of people. Once he was at her side, the pair started moving again.

"Sakura, do you know what's going on?" The blond held his hands behind his head, a look of confusion across his features.

"Not a clue," Sakura replied, annoyance simmering in her emerald eyes. Naruto huffed and turned his gaze forward, muttering under his breath. They walked in silence for a few moments, trying to gather what was going on through the broken statements that continued to flutter around.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled, motioning wildly for him to join them. The silver haired jonin complied, if at a snail's pace. Naruto's patience was running thin by the time their sensei joined them, and he wondered if the jonin could walk any slower.

"What the hell's going on?!" Naruto shouted.

"I have absolutely no idea," Kakashi answered in his 'I Know Something You Don't Know' voice, and his mouth curved into a smile beneath his mask.

"Liar!" Naruto pointed accusingly at his sensei.

"At least try to lie convincingly!" Sakura said angrily. Kakashi waved his hand dismissively, pointed forward to motion for them to continue walking, and hid his face behind his book. They obeyed, more out of curiosity than actually being subordinate, Naruto grumbling something about evil senseis.

At long last, the looming figure of the village gates appeared, the sunset casting a shadow across the crowd. They were open, when at this time of night they would be sliding shut unless somebody was expected. Their confusion only grew faced with this anomaly. Shinobi were usually informed of important guests.

"Has Konoha invited a daimyo?" Sakura asked, looking back at Kakashi, finding this the only logical conclusion. The jonin shook his head and turned a page in his book.

"Eyes on the gates," he instructed. The two complied, and Naruto huffed and crossed his arms, craning his neck to see beyond the crowd. Kakashi obviously knew who was coming in – why would he keep that from them? What was the point? Naruto finally gave up trying to look beyond the crowd and instead opted to jump lithely onto a nearby roof. Now he had a perfect view and would be the first to see the guest.

"If it's a daimyo, I'm gonna bug Tsunade-baa-chan until she tells me everything," Naruto vowed, nodding his head, his cerulean eyes never leaving the village gates.

For the longest time nobody appeared and Naruto was left to stare at the woods outside Konoha, woods he knew well. And then, there was a figure, moving steadily closer, but not fast enough for Naruto. Now, however, he knew for sure that the figure wasn't a daimyo of some distant land, because a daimyo was bound to have hordes of shinobi or even regular guards protecting him.

Annoyed at the lack of clarity of the stranger's features, Naruto jumped from roof to roof to get a closer look. The group was thinking along the same lines and they jostled and pushed each other to get closer to the gates. If it wasn't a daimyo, was it a returning shinobi? He didn't know of anybody going on a large mission lately, and even then, the common people rarely knew of shinobi missions and were unable to welcome them back. Then who?

Finally, the features became clear enough that Naruto could see them. The wind picked up, ruffling his and the stranger's hair. Naruto stiffened, his gaze hardened, anger bubbled in his blood. Speechless and lost in a roiling pool of emotion, the blond flew from his perch and back to his house. Damn Kakashi for not telling him who was coming, for not warning him. The broken comments began to make a small amount of sense. The people of Konoha were angry. Naruto... Naruto was pissed, livid, even.

He threw open the door to his small but cozy apartment and slammed it shut, the harsh sound resonating through his head. It was with purpose that he stomped across the room, grabbed the familiar, heart breaking photograph and threw it at the wall. It shattered and fell to the floor, and though the blond wasn't tired, his breathing was ragged and strained. He stared at the broken glass, the merciless photograph that glared at him, reminded him and willed it silently to burst into flames. His fists shook, why, he didn't know.

At long last he sighed, and with one final glance at the wicked photograph, he retreated to his bedroom and collapsed onto his bed.

The knocking was urgent, insistent and it began at an ungodly hour in the morning.

"Go away," Naruto muttered into his pillow, squeezing shut his bloodshot eyes. He was unable to sleep, because every time he had tried, his dreams were filled with murderous crimson eyes, crackling silver electricity, and smooth scarlet blood. Finally he had become too tired to dream and had enjoyed a blissful half hour of eyeless, electricity-less, bloodless dreams. Until the knocking had started.

It continued unrelenting and was now accompanied with a voice, unbelievably shrill in the early morning hours.

"Naruto, open up!" Knock, knock, pound, pound. "C'mon Naruto!" After five minutes of trying to silently will her away the blond rolled out of bed with a thump and got reluctantly to his feet to open the door for Sakura. He sighed, and carefully rearranged his features into a smile for his pink haired friend.

"Hey Sakura!" Naruto greeted upon opening the door, grinning broadly. Sakura frowned at him, no doubt noticing the bags under his eyes and the strained edge to his voice and smile. She sighed, and stared at him with worried emerald eyes.

"Oh Naruto," she said sadly, almost mournfully as he moved aside to let her into his house. He shut the door behind her and her eyes immediately found the new hole in the wall from the doorknob and then darted to look at the broken picture frame, the shattered glass, and the photo in the middle of it all.

Naruto laughed nervously, "Must've knocked it over last night." Despite his attempt at nonchalance, his smile was stiff and he quickly fled the room, leading Sakura to the kitchen – devoid of painful memories. Sakura sat at the table, perfectly comfortable being in Naruto's small home.

"Do you want something to drink? Did you have breakfast?" Naruto asked, in spite of the fact that he only had ramen to eat, and his milk had probably gone bad again. He was trying to stall, to avoid the conversation he knew she was going to start, hoping she would get discouraged so they could overstep that landmine. But she shook her head, her bubblegum hair swaying lightly around her shoulders, and jumped right onto the landmine.

"Are you okay, Naruto?" she asked, even though she knew she had a pretty good idea as to that answer. Naruto would lie through his teeth so that he didn't worry her, which only worried her all the more. With this question, it was best not to ask Naruto himself.

"I'm fine, Sakura! You worry too much," he told her trying to find something to do with his hands. There was a distinct lack of anything to do in the kitchen. His instant ramen cups and chopsticks were thrown in the garbage, and having realized his milk was bad, he hadn't had any more, but he also hadn't cleared it from his refrigerator. Keeping his eyes safely away from hers, he pried open the door to his refrigerator and grabbed the foul milk within and tossed it into the garbage.

"I saw him too," she reminded him quietly, fingers intertwined, gaze down on the table. Although unlike Naruto, she hadn't fled. She had stayed and looked on in shock, before giving her sensei a betrayed look and then fleeing. Naruto stiffened, his eyes wandering for something else to do. Upon finding nothing, he sighed, and sat on his counter. He only had one chair at the table. Once upon a time he had had two chairs, but he found that the second chair, left empty and uninhabited only made more prominent the lack of company and made him feel lonelier.

He scoffed.

"Everybody in Konoha saw him, Sakura." His comment was met with silence as she chewed on her lip, trying to figure out how best to say her thoughts. Finally, she just took a deep breath and said it calmly.

"I think we should go talk to him," she proposed. If possible, the tension in the room grew, anger, betrayal, and sadness flowing off Naruto in palpable waves. He gripped the edge of his counter with paling fingers, fought the instinct to shout at her, his shoulders stiff, his teeth grating against each other. He remembered vividly murderous crimson eyes, crackling silver electricity, and smooth scarlet blood.

"I don't think that's a good idea." He said shortly and hopped down from the counter. She followed him with her eyes as he walked across the room to the door. It was her greatest wish that things could go back to how they used to be, before Orochimaru had entered their lives and torn apart their world.

"Please Naruto-"

"I don't think so, Sakura," Naruto cut her off, his tone of voice final, the conversation ended by his angry departure.

The sky was deceivingly clear, the sun shined misleadingly brightly. Naruto walked aimlessly, barefoot and still in his pajamas, not feeling the tickle of the grass beneath his feet. Aimlessly he wandered, but his footsteps trickled longing, betrayed purpose. They led him to a familiar place, full of familiar ghosts. It was their place, the original Team Seven. It belonged to the four of them, and only them.

The three stumps, where they had grudgingly become teammates, reluctantly realized that, for the moment, they needed each other. But what's true in the present is only true for a moment, a second, a heartbeat, especially in the world of shinobi. What was true then, that they needed each other, fell apart before their eyes, before they could do anything to stop it. It collapsed right beneath their noses, simmering under the surface even before they formed bonds.

Perhaps it happened for a reason; maybe it was inevitable that the three drift apart. But then... maybe it was inevitable that they be reunited.

Finally, the ghosts chased him away and Naruto turned and left. It wasn't their place anymore. It didn't belong to the four of them as it once had. They had no claim on it, except denied memories.

There were other places too that held ghosts, were abundant with shadows, and his feet continued to betray him, sending him to the mercy of the ghosts and shadows. It was simple enough scenery, trees bordering a memorable lake at the bottom of a grassy hill. The dock extended into crystalline depths. It wasn't a place one stumbled upon by accident. It was a place sought out. But there was something just not right about the way it was currently presented to him.

When Naruto closed his eyes it was twilight, and a small darkly clothed figure sat brooding at the end of the dock. Naruto would gaze down sadly, empathetic to someone else as lonely as he. The small figure would turn slowly, a glare on his face meant to keep people a canyon's distance away. Naruto would grimace down at him and they'd turn away simultaneously. And Naruto wouldn't be able to help but smile, having found somebody who could understand his pain, his loneliness.

But that wasn't the way it was, and that wasn't right either anymore. Nothing was right anymore. It wasn't right, completing missions with somebody else, training with somebody else, eating at Ichiraku's with somebody else, not hearing–

"Dobe." It was a familiar word, a familiar voice, one that he hadn't forgotten over time. Naruto stiffened, the urge to turn and look at the owner of the familiar voice almost overpowering his more logical impulse to bolt like a hunted fox.

They stood there in silence, not knowing what to say, or perhaps not knowing how to say it. The unsaid words flowed like a current between them, shrieking to be understood, but going unheard. Through the confusion of instincts rushing in his head, Naruto knew one thing for sure: This wasn't how he wanted things to be.

He turned slowly and felt his heart break anew at the stranger wearing the raven's skin and twisting his features into a look of apathy. He swallowed heavily.

"Sasuke." He said harshly. He couldn't bring himself to use that word. Just as Sasuke called only Naruto 'dobe', Naruto called only Sasuke that word. Pulling out that word, the one reserved only for Sasuke, would be like forgiveness, in less words. It would be like things were back to how they used to be, but that was impossible. He stared at the ground, unable to look at his...

His what? What were they, now that Sasuke had forsaken their bonds, trampled and burned them? They had been rivals, teammates, and somehow, best friends. What was left for them now that all that was gone?

Naruto clenched his fists in hopelessness. He didn't know what to do now, now that Sasuke was back in Konoha, now that Sasuke was in front of him, by his own accord, no less. So he did what was natural, what was right, what was theirs no matter how much time passed. The meaning might change, evolve, as it had before, but it was still theirs.

He raised his fist and buried it in Sasuke's jaw. Then he raised his other fist, still not satisfied, even as Sasuke's head whipped around like a doll's. His fists were flying, one after the other, the familiarity of the situation driving him to punch faster, fiercer, and with more force each passing second. And Sasuke stood there and took it, not backing away or trying to defend himself.

"Fight back!" Naruto demanded, roared. He wanted Sasuke to fight back, needed Sasuke to fight back to dispel the suffocating familiarity. When Sasuke refused to obey, Naruto cried out in rage and helplessness, and his bare foot connected with the raven's abdomen.

And then everything was still again, the current of unspoken words resuming as if it had never been interrupted. Naruto stood, breathing heavily, raggedly, his fists shaking with rage, sadness, and betrayal. He stared at Sasuke, greedily taking in and memorizing the sight he had been denied for three years. Sasuke, perhaps understanding Naruto's need to just look at him, sat still on the ground, for the first time allowing Naruto to have something he wanted.

He saved Sasuke's eyes for last, terrified of what he might see, horrified of what the consequences could be if he didn't look. His gaze moved slowly, expecting emptiness and trying to prolong the moment before the last of his hope, hope he hadn't known he had, was crushed. And at long last, cerulean met obsidian. Naruto's breath caught in his throat, because Sasuke's eyes weren't empty and apathetic. There was something there that Naruto couldn't identify, and he gave a shaky laugh.

When, as he continued looking, that mysterious something didn't disappear, Naruto laughed again. He kept laughing, even as the tears began to roll down his cheeks. Gradually, the laughter turned into full out crying and Naruto let the tears come freely. He was beyond caring what Sasuke thought of him. Even as the raven stood slowly and took a wondering step forward, probably drawing the conclusion Naruto was insane, Naruto couldn't bring himself to care. In fact, he would show Sasuke how much he didn't care. So he raised his fist to land another punch.

But this time, Sasuke caught his fist and held it tightly in his own pale hand. Annoyed, Naruto raised his other fist to try again, but Sasuke intercepted that one as well. Naruto glared, his tears having subsided. Sasuke stared, that whatever it was refusing to leave his eyes as he leaned closer to the blond. Naruto pouted, looked away and finally found his voice again.

"You're looking at me funny, teme," he said, pulling out that word, the one reserved only for Sasuke, because he had finally figured it out. The reason he had allowed Naruto to punch him, again and again, the reason he had made Naruto relive those moments on the top of that God forsaken rock was because he was trying to apologize, he was trying to begin the long journey to mend their shattered relationship. And Naruto had easily forgiven him.

"Because it's been too long, dobe," Sasuke replied. Naruto breathed deeply, oddly relieved. Sasuke had changed, he had changed a lot. So had their relationship. The very core of it had shifted and molded and become something else. But one thing was the same. The way Sasuke would say one thing and mean another. That hadn't changed. For that, Naruto was relieved. I missed you, he was saying.

So even though their relationship could never be the same, even though he didn't know if Sasuke was his rival, his teammate, his best friend or something else, he could accept this. Because Sasuke was here, and he was willing to fix their relationship or even create a new one built on sturdier foundations. They were together and the past had been forgiven and could be forgotten. Nothing else mattered. I missed you too.