Posted: August 2, 2006

Disclaimer: Do not own.

Warnings: Shounen ai, spoilers for anyone not keeping up with the manga, & AUish. Anything involving Akatsuki and bijuus after the timeskip is completely irrelevant to this story, and as such, never happened. Actually, this applies to everything after the timeskip except the part where Naruto, Sakura, and Sai meet up with Sasuke.

General: Takes place after chapter 308 for those of you thatare keeping up with the manga.

Thank yous: peachie-x and Nox (betas) as well as everyone who has reviewed SF. Much love!

Summary: The invisibility started with one silly wish upon a star. Good thing Sasuke's doormat personality, Sai's attempts at matchmaking, and a mission gone wrong were all quite normal in the life of Naruto Uzumaki... Wait. What? SasuNaru


Previously:

"Then Tsunade's mouth opened but no sound came out and Naruto felt a sinking feeling of dread race through his mind as he translated the soundless words escaping her lips.

'Naruto, get the hell out here.' "


Surface Flaws

Chapter IV

"I'm only happy when it rains
You wanna hear about my new obsession?
I'm riding high upon a deep depression
I'm only happy when it rains
Pour some misery down on me"

-I'm Only Happy When it Rains (Garbage)

'Naruto, get the hell out here.'

The blonde teen swallowed hard, trying to keep his mind from becoming completely engulfed in panic, and took a step forward, toward the woman who seemed to be staring straight past him. Her face was tinted a soft red as she glared accusingly at the empty space that seemed to be directly behind his head.

"I'm right here, hag," he told her in an alarmed tone.

'Damnit, why does he always have to play these stupid little games?' Tsunade took a step forward, nearly crushing Naruto, and peered into the home. Her sandals slapped against the heels of her feet as she walked, the sound echoing through the empty house while she spun around, presumably to say something to Jiraiya. As for what she was saying, Naruto had no idea. He could only hear a cluttered mess of disjointed words ringing through the home, all of which had an almost…tinny quality to them.

They seemed to have the consistency of thoughts, connected by barely a thread of correlation. One fragment led to another, the odd word triggering a new onslaught of phrases that made as little sense as their predecessors.

Naruto's teeth tugged at his bottom lip and he tried to pretend that there was no way he could be hearing Tsunade and Jiraiya's thoughts because that would make whatever it was that was happening real.

Then, without warning, the busty woman walked into the house, crushing Naruto's toe in the process, and proceeded to make her way to the kitchen. The boy let out a pained yelp and jumped backwards, bending over to clutch his throbbing toe.

"That hurt you fat old hag," he growled.

Tsunade didn't seem to acknowledge what she had done, Naruto realized a moment later. She couldn't have because she stood in the center of his kitchen with her hands placed firmly on her hips and a severe frown on her face. There wasn't a hint of recognition visible on her features.

Oh shit…

"Tsunade?" he said, moving forward hesitantly as he finally began to comprehend what was going on.

This could not be happening.

He stared at her red-tinted face, trying to pretend this wasn't happening. There was no way his life could decide to throw this at him too, not with everything else that was going on. In all honesty, Naruto doubted his sanity could handle another crisis of this magnitude.

Jiraiya shrugged, saying something to Tsunade and made his way past Naruto and down the hall as if he couldn't see Naruto. There was only one reason both the Hokage and the hermit would look directly past him and act completely oblivious to his presence.

They couldn't see him…or hear him for that matter.

And he couldn't hear them when they spoke. There was no way he logically could; nothing he heard ever matched the movements of their mouths.

But that didn't explain why he kept hearing the fragments of sentences that almost resembled thoughts. Naruto blinked and suddenly everything clicked into place and he tried very hard to stay calm, but he couldn't because this was not good and it could not be true.

But it was.

When his mind finally stopped its rampant denial and analyzed the truth objectively, there was no way Naruto could discredit his theory. Nor could he stop the way his heart suddenly decided to race, or the way his palms began to sweat, or the way his eyes couldn't help but flit around his house, betrayed; or the way--

He was the polar opposite of calm. He was panicking.

Naruto stared at his home, trying to imagine how it must look without him and wiped his damp palms on his pant leg. He needed to try to get Tsunade and Jiraiya's attention; he just didn't know how.

A deep breath found its way through his lips, filling his lungs and slowing the panic attack he could feel brewing beneath his skin. He would make this better, but in order to do that he needed to be in the same room as Tsunade and Jiraiya.

Taking one step at a time, Naruto started for the hall. His legs shook and his eyes darted about the enclosed space rapidly, trying to watch everything at once.

"I am not going crazy," he whispered and lifted his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face. "I am not going crazy."

When he reached the doorway, Naruto grabbed it with a trembling, clammy hand and allowed his body to collapse against it. The frame provided a nice sturdy support. The boy let his head fall against the wood structure and stared into the room, feeling like he was wearing red-tinted spectacles.

The two Sannin were standing in his bedroom, words racing through unmoving lips as they took in the empty room, and he finally had to admit to himself that he was unable to hear their words. Instead, he could hear their thoughts.

They were so loud and intrusive; never-ending ramblings of words that meant nothing to Naruto because they were tumbling into the air so quickly the boy was hardly able to keep up with them.

He let his gaze drop to the floor and tried to even out his breathing. If he was going to find a way out of this, he was going to have to be in a stable frame of mind. That meant not having the startings of a panic attack.

"I am not going crazy."

His eyes wandered to his toe and he flinched; it was becoming purple. The knuckle appeared to be bruised though the rest of his toe seemed fine. The throbbing was still present. He wiggled the appendage delicately; if Tsunade had been able to see him, she would never have stepped on his foot.

Naruto stopped wiggling his toe and glanced up at the Sannin, his eyes wide.

But she did step on his toe.

That had to mean something right?

The boy grinned through his fear and tentatively walked forward, his mind traveling through a million concepts as he gently tapped Tsunade's shoulder.

"Please work…" he murmured and waited.

The old woman tensed almost immediately and Naruto felt as if some giant bubble inside him had popped. He gasped for breath and stared at her in wonderment.

She could feel his touch.

He grasped her pigtail and pulled on it lightly.

He was still real.

Naruto swallowed hard and tried to think of what to do next, now that he knew he was merely invisible and not… The boy frowned, not enjoying where his mind was taking him, and decided to turn his attention to Tsunade's thoughts as a distraction. They had abruptly become suspicious the moment Naruto had touched her and she was now muttering to Jiraiya through the corner of her mouth.

The old man, Naruto suddenly noticed, was also staring in his general direction, a guarded frown on his face. Jiraiya's thoughts became slightly fuzzy and a shadow behind him flickered.

Naruto jumped, surprised by the sudden movement, and tried to follow it with his eyes. But it was too late, the shadow was gone and a familiar pulling feeling was grabbing at his navel, drawing him inside out.

Naruto's second experience with being awake while leaving the red world was just as unpleasant as the first. He felt as if he were collapsing in on himself and being ripped in half at the same time; it was horrible. His jaw clenched as he refused to scream, and he wrapped his hands firmly around his burning middle.

When the feeling passed and Naruto was finally able to focus his eyes, he saw both Tsunade and Jiraiya staring at him, completely dumbfounded and mistrustful simultaneously.

"Naruto?" Tsunade asked as if she were unable to believe whatever it was she had just witnessed.

"Hi." he muttered and collapsed to the ground, seeing nothing but black.

-----

When Naruto woke up, he had no idea how long he had been unconscious. That was the only thing he had no idea about, everything else was burnt into his mind and pressing at the forefront of his thoughts. He swallowed around the terrified lump in his throat and reminded himself that he was not crazy.

Then, Naruto slowly opened his eyes and saw Tsunade bent over him with a closed off expression on her face.

"He's awake," she said, moving back so he could rise into a sitting position.

Naruto watched as both Tsunade and Jiraiya exchanged a glance of confirmation.

"Naruto." Jiraiya stared hard at him, his eyes seeming to dig into Naruto's mind and pick through his thoughts. The boy said nothing and turned his gaze to Tsunade.

"What just happened?" she asked, adjusting her position on the bed so she was facing him rather than Jiraiya.

Naruto shrugged.

The woman let out an aggravated exhale of breath. "Does it have anything to do with Kyuubi?" she ventured.

Naruto flinched, a sour frown crossing his face. Of course, they were here about Kyuubi, Sakura had told them as he had assumed she would. Still, that knowledge didn't seem to make things any less complicated.

He let his gaze move to his feet with a shrug, and murmured, "I don't know."

"Sakura said you told her Kyuubi's been acting strange," Jiraiya commented from where he was standing in front of the open window. He was watching the world outside, a contemplative frown on his face. The soft wind that was blowing through the pane rustled his hair and pulled at his clothing serenely.

"Yeah, so?" Naruto bit out in aggravation.

"Tell us about it." Jiraiya suggested, his hands finding their way into his pockets.

Naruto glared at his feet and crossed his arms over his chest in a childish gesture. "What am I supposed to tell you?" he demanded in a weary voice. "I woke up this morning and no one could see me. Everything was tinted red and Kyuubi was uneasy. Nothing was different from how it has been."

There was silence and Naruto swallowed hard, trying to admit to what had just happened. "Well it was almost the same, except … no one could see me." He frowned, his expression lightening from irritation to fear, and drew his knees to his chest, allowing his head to drop to the sturdy support he had just created.

Tsunade stared at the boy, her eyes narrowed in thought as she chewed on her lip. "Lift up your shirt and lie down," she commanded, placing a hand on the boy's chest and pushing him into a lying position.

He didn't resist, but rather followed the direction in which he was being pushed and pulled his up shirt to reveal his stomach, which showed no hints of the seal.

Kyuubi stirred as Tsunade's hand softly palmed his stomach, applying a soft amount of chakra that brought the glowing characters of the seal to the surface of Naruto's skin, flawing the soft milky complexion.

Her chakra roved through his body, weaving its way around. If Naruto were to put an image to the sensation, he would have described it as a rat in a maze, tentatively brushing against the walls before backing away and trying a different route. The only difference was that this maze didn't have an ending.

After about ten minutes of doing this, Tsunade finally removed her hand from Naruto's skin, pulling his shirt back down with a frown.

"I couldn't find anything abnormal," she told him, glancing over her shoulder to share a look with Jiraiya. "Can you describe for me what you've been feeling?"

Naruto shrugged. "I already told you most of it. I usually just feel dizzy and sick and then everything goes red and I pass out. Well, there was one night where I managed to make it to bed without passing out." He didn't feel the pride he would have normally felt, and this only served to further trouble the blonde.

Tsunade and Jiraiya did not appear impressed either. "Is there anything else?" the woman insisted. Naruto could see in the reflection of the window that Jiraiya was no longer watching the world below; his focus was inward on his thoughts.

"No, not really." Naruto tried to think of other details that he had missed, but none came to mind. He stayed sprawled on his bed, closing his eyes, and indulging in the sensation of the tangled blankets caressing his skin - holding him loosely.

"Well, until we find out what's going on with you, I'm going to have to put Team 7 on a break," Tsunade said carefully.

Naruto's eyes snapped open and he saw a million horrible images in his mind at once, all of which led back to Sasuke.

If Sasuke found out that they were no longer receiving missions, he would get suspicious and that meant he would begin watching Naruto closely - too closely. He would watch Naruto with such fervor that eventually he would realize what was going on.

Naruto would not allow that to happen. "You can't," he cried out, staring at Tsunade with horrified blue eyes. "I mean, you don't know what's wrong so maybe there isn't anything wrong! If there isn't than this would be stupid. Besides, I can do missions, it's not like I'm an invalid and have no--"

"That's not the point Naruto," Tsunade interjected, squeezing the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, slowly massaging. "If I sent you on missions you could become a liability, and I'm sure you would not appreciate that. I am not sending Team 7 on any missions until I determine what is wrong with you."

Naruto shook his head and glared at Tsunade. "But I'm fine. Besides, what will I do all day without any missions? The only thing I can think of doing to pass time is bug you and everyone else."

The dry look he received had been expected. "No."

The firm tone of Tsunade's voice did not deter Naruto; he instead decided to fight with even more fervor. He could only imagine how weak Sasuke would believe him to be if he found out what was happening.

"This is stupid and you know it, hag." Naruto slammed his fist on the bed and glared at the woman, his chin jutting out stubbornly.

"Naruto, I am not going to waver on this decision. Do you understand me?" She stood from the bed, her stance stiff and furious.

"Yeah, well, neither am I!" he yelled back, pushing himself off the bed as well. "Let me do missions." Rather than asking, he opted to make demands.

"Fine," Tsunade snapped so quickly she almost cut Naruto off. "You are assigned to guard duty tonight at 10:00 pm sharp with Uchiha Sasuke and if you make just one complaint I will you put on house arrest under Kakashi's watch. Do you understand you cheeky little shit?" The woman sounded as if she were prepared to up her threat to murder should the situation escalate. It was because of this that Naruto decided to nod with a sulky expression and allow Tsunade and Jiraiya to leave shortly after without bothering with goodbyes.

-----

Naruto shivered as a rough breeze passed over his damp skin and slowly lowered himself to the ground beside Sakura, his breathing heavy and labored.

"That was fun," he commented as she dropped to the earth beside him, sitting Indian style. There was a rip in her dress just above her pelvic bone, where her hip met her ribs, and a small trickle of blood was trailing down her skin, darkening the fabric beneath it.

Naruto winced; he'd been expecting her to dodge that bout of shuriken. In his anger and need to vent his anger over that morning, the boy hadn't noticed Sakura's reserve. However, after reevaluating the situation, Naruto found he couldn't believe that Sakura had stayed on the defensive the entire training session because of his amazing offense. He had not become that good in one day's time.

The blonde glared sullenly at the ground and clenched his teeth. "Tsunade and Jiraiya came for a visit this morning," he told her in a careful tone, watching her through the curtain of his eyelashes. Sakura's smile dropped, falling into a frown, and she met Naruto's gaze squarely, her eyes dark with resolve.

"Oh." She tensed defensively. "Well, it's not like I didn't warn you that I was going to tell them."

Naruto let out a huff of breath in agreement and pursed his lips, his eyes landing sharply on and following a tiny green garden snake that was slithering through the grass. He couldn't argue with that point, and yet he wanted to so badly because he had asked her to remain silent. If Sasuke found out, it would be her fault.

He picked up a stone and clenched it in his fist, trying to keep from saying anything incriminating.

"I know you're angry with me, Naruto," Sakura said after a pause, her voice haughty and stubborn as if he had no right to be upset. "But you might as well tell me what you found out."

He shrugged resentfully, his fingers itching to grab a shuriken - not a rock - and toss it at the snake. "Tsunade found out enough to demote me, us, to D rank missions for the foreseeable future."

Sakura opened her mouth, about to say something, and then closed it, her eyes softening into an expression of pity. She shifted nearer to Naruto and placed a hand on his knee. He flinched and tightened his grip on the stone, hard enough to feel the rock cutting into the calloused flesh of his hand.

"You don't have to pity me," Naruto told her in a snappy tone as he brushed her hand away with a dismissive flick of his own. Sakura scowled at him.

"Oh, would you quit being such a baby and tell me what's wrong." She smacked his leg and crossed her arms. The soft pink locks of hair framing her face fell into her eyes and she had to brush them away with a groan of frustration.

Naruto shifted defensively at the insult and glared back at Sakura. "Apparently, the red bouts are a side effect of irregular invisibility in which I can hear people's thoughts instead of their voices," he said with a dry smile that clearly said 'now leave it alone'.

"What?" Sakura screeched, her arms uncrossing in one fluid moment to catch her as she fell forward, landing on all fours with her bottom resting on her calves. She stared at him, wide-eyed and absolutely starving for information.

The boy sighed, his anger ebbing away at the curious - worried - innocence on her face. "It'll be fine, Sakura," he assured her, his voice still edgy, and shrugged his shoulders awkwardly, loosening his grip on the stone.

"Don't you try to brush this off, Naruto," Sakura said, outraged, "You are going to tell me what happened."

"I already did." He groaned, and tried to stay angry with her. If Sasuke found anything out tonight during guard duty, it would be her fault. So why was he suddenly forgiving her? The boy groaned in exasperation and let his shoulders droop, defeated.

"Naruto," she warned, her eyes narrowing threateningly.

He forced an awkward - tired - chuckle, "Of course it wouldn't hurt to fill you in on a few extra details…" the boy said with a resigned smile that didn't really feel like his own.

"No, I don't think it would." Sakura agreed, her eyebrows lifting expectantly. The boy bit the inside of his lip and tried to think of something worth telling her.

"When I woke up this morning, Tsunade and Jiraiya were at my apartment, knocking. But when I opened the door to let them in, they couldn't see me or hear me but I could hear them -- er…well, I could hear their thoughts." Naruto let out a frustrated huff of air at the memory. "It was weird because they could still feel my touch and I could still feel theirs. It was like I was there, able to touch everything, but at the same time I wasn't."

Sakura muttered, "Weird… " She was apparently as thrown off guard by this revelation as Naruto had been. "So do you know how it's affecting Kyuubi? I mean, he has been acting oddly."

Naruto couldn't hate her when she stared at him so sincerely, her eyebrows drawn inward with concern and her bottom lip tugged between her teeth apprehensively.

"That's the weird thing. According to the hag, there was nothing wrong with Kyuubi," he said, still bitter at the decrepit old woman for demoting him to guard duty of all things with Sasuke of all people.

Sakura gave Naruto a reprimanding glare. "Don't call her that," she warned.

"Why shouldn't I?" he demanded. "She put me on guard duty with Sasuke tonight. That's all I'm capable of doing at the moment because apparently I'm a liability." He groaned and glared at the ground, trying to evoke pity in Sakura.

Instead of pity, he received a soft laugh and a disbelieving snort. "Naruto, at this point, as much as I hate to admit it, you are a liability. What with your condition and all…" She trailed away and gauged his reaction.

"My condition?" Naruto scowled. So this new found thing was a condition now? He clenched his teeth as Sakura opened her mouth to speak. "I'm fine, Sakura. There is nothing wrong with me. So I go invisible once in awhile. I do not need to be babysat or protected."

"I didn't say that," Sakura argued in irritation, "besides, for all we know someone could be moving your subconscious between planes or something as a way of trapping you. I've heard of that happening before like fifteen years ago."

Naruto snorted, still stung by her previous statement. He hated it when people underestimated him and told him what he wasn't able to do. Negativity seemed to stick to him like Velcro, latching onto him and trying to drain him. For Naruto, the only way to remove this parasite was to do what he supposedly wasn't able to do - prove everyone wrong by conquering the source of the negativity.

And he would. He would convince Tsunade to send him on a mission and he would not be a liability. He would be the one saving both Sasuke and Sakura's asses when things got rough. He would not be a liability.

Naruto glanced down at his left hand, his eyes suddenly stony. He had sworn upon a cut in his left hand long ago that such a thing would never happen again, after all.

-----

Naruto slowly made his way towards the gates of Konoha, his hands in his pocket and his head ducked beneath the hood of his poncho. Fat droplets of rain were falling from the sky relentlessly, pasting his waterproof jacket to his body and chilling him to the bone.

He sniffled as the gate came into view and felt his stomach tense. Sasuke was standing there - waiting.

This was going to be fine, he reassured himself as he rubbed at his nose, which was running. He frowned. If it was going to be fine, why had he suddenly lost the ability to walk? He was frozen with apprehension it seemed. Sasuke had been absent from Naruto's life since the party - since he had implied that Naruto enjoyed Sai's attention before leaving with nothing but a cruel glare.

Naruto drew a deep breath and willed his legs to move, and they did. Of course, whether or not that was a good thing was arguable. As he neared the gate, Naruto noted that Sasuke was also wearing the standard black waterproof cloak; his black, sullen eyes watched Naruto approach with an expression of distaste.

Right, Sasuke was still upset about the party. If Naruto had not forgotten then Sasuke, who seemed to have a merciless memory, had certainly not released the details from his mind.

"Hey." Naruto strode over to his partner and smiled brightly, trying to hide his unease. Sasuke would not only be angry, but he would also be distrustful. They had not had guard duty in a long time. Not since Sasuke had been under suspicion, three months back after his lengthy escapade in Sound.

Naruto held his grin in the face of Sasuke's disapproval. If he kept his cool then perhaps he would be able to avoid any conflicts that could lead to Sasuke's discovery of his teammate's sudden 'condition'.

Sasuke rolled his eyes - or Naruto assumed he did - and nodded his head in the direction they were headed, indicating that the boy should follow.

Naruto trotted after him dutifully and let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Whew, today was rough, huh?" Naruto commented as he hurried alongside Sasuke. The dirt squelched noisily in their wake and Naruto found himself looking anywhere but at the dark-haired boy beside him.

He was ashamed. Naruto paled and tried to look at Sasuke, but he couldn't. Why the hell was he ashamed? He wasn't the one that had been a royal ass at the party.

Sasuke snorted after a pregnant pause and glanced at Naruto suspiciously. "What did you do that managed to land us on guard duty?" he asked without any formalities and stopped to stare at Naruto with blank eyes. The blonde surveyed their surroundings, avoiding Sasuke's gaze, and realized that this was where they had been assigned.

"What makes you think I did something?" He tried to sound casual but his voice came out as a high-pitched squeak.

Sasuke stared at him dryly. "That much should be obvious," he stated condescendingly. The blonde blushed and shrugged.

"I…uh… pissed Tsunade off more than usual," he lied with very little ease. The shake in his voice and the unsteady pace of his sentence made the falsehood obvious.

"Right." Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets and turned away from Naruto, staring off into the distance. Naruto's shoulders lifted and fell as the boy let out a weary sigh. Beside him, Sasuke's red eyes scanned over the forest below, searching for anything out of the norm.

All Naruto could see was rain and lots of it. He shifted uncomfortably and opened his mouth, unsure of what he was going to say. "What did you do after Ino's party, huh?" The bitter edge to his tone couldn't be helped it appeared.

Either way, it worked as a conversation filler. Naruto scowled and let his own eyes wander to the trees, evading the dull glaze of his companion's stare.

Sasuke said nothing and began pacing, the steps taking him farther away from his original location.

"Why'd you leave anyway?" Naruto insisted, moving over to where the dark-haired boy had relocated. There was an aura of anger surrounding Sasuke, but Naruto ignored it. He wanted to know what had happened to upset his friend so severely the other night.

Sasuke ground his teeth irritably and growled. "Because I was bored."

"You liar. There was way too much happening for anyone to be bored. Even you." Naruto kicked at a puddle, spraying Sasuke with an onslaught of muddy water. The motion brought an amused smile to his face and left him the victim of a furious glower.

Sasuke stared down at his wet cloak with disgust. "You could at least try to act your age," he growled and drew in a controlled breath.

"Oh, quit changing the subject you big priss." Naruto pulled his hands from his pockets and crossed his arms, surveying Sasuke with a raised eyebrow. Rain dripped from his face and a cold wind whipped his cloak about, tearing through the fabric and chilling his skin.

"I already told you why I left."

When he was wet, Sasuke looked like a drowned rat, even with a hood to keep him dry. Naruto took a step forward, finally meeting Sasuke's eyes.

"And I already told you I don't believe you," he countered, his gaze growing coldly amused. This was fun. This he could deal with. Fighting Sasuke was normal. He grinned.

"As if your opinion ever mattered," Sasuke retorted condescendingly.

Naruto snorted. "If my opinion didn't matter you would never have come back and you wouldn't have been so jealous of Sai."

Sasuke's eyes widened, as did Naruto's.

He had certainly not been expecting to say that. In all honesty, he'd never even considered the possibility that Sasuke could be jealous. But, judging by the horrified - by Sasuke's standards - blush on the other boy's face, perhaps the assumption wasn't too far off.

"I wasn't jealous," Sasuke snapped defensively. "It was just disgusting how he was all over you. Nobody likes seeing things like that, especially between two boys."

Naruto scoffed and grinned. "You were jealous," he taunted. Across from him, Sasuke was growing increasingly tense, his eyes narrowed into tiny slits.

"You didn't have to watch it," he said in his defense. "Besides, he looked like he was going to rape you."

"Like I wouldn't be able to defend myself if he tried," Naruto said dryly. He pulled back his hood, and stared at Sasuke with a superior smirk, waiting for some sort of response.

The other boy remained silent, refusing to take the bait.

So Naruto pushed onward. "Just admit it, you were jealous."

Sasuke still said nothing and turned away, watching the perimeter of the forest for intruders even though both boys knew there were none.

Naruto laughed and said in a sickeningly sweet voice, "At least I know you care." He came up behind Sasuke, grinning wickedly.

"Of course I do, dobe," Sasuke murmured, or at least Naruto thought that was what he had said because the boy's voice had been barely a whisper at best.

Naruto felt his throat go dry and his eyes began to search Sasuke's empty face desperately. If he looked closely enough he could see the traces of a smirk on the other boy's face. And if he let his imagination loose upon the image, he could see the tiniest flicker of affection in Sasuke's eyes and the smirk was actually a smile.

Naruto grinned and resisted the urge to lay his hand on Sasuke's shoulder. He couldn't remember when he had stopped hating the rain, but he certainly remembered why.

"Thanks," he whispered and let his eyes move from Sasuke to the forest below.

And so they both watched the world below with identical smiles on their faces, beacons of light in the center of a storm.

-----

Everything was off. Not only was his vision black and white with no grays, but what should have been light was dark and what should have been dark was light. The entire world was inverted and nothing was as it should have been.

Naruto stood in the center of this world, in the end of an endless valley that rolled in waves of dark, black grass. His eyes roved over the strange scene warily, trying to find something to focus on - something to lead him.

He thought he heard the soft scuffle of footsteps, but when the boy turned to stare in the direction the sound had come from, there was nothing; only a silence that seemed to mock him as the black sky flickered white, as if it were laughing.

In the distance, a white figure was barely visible. It was nothing more than a silhouette that glowed against the black sky. It shifted and Naruto could just make out two red dots on what had to be the face. They were blaringly visible, almost glowing, because they were the only colour in this strange world.

Naruto took a step forward, but the figure remained still. It had noticed him, ruby eyes locked on him in a dead gaze. He knew those eyes. They belonged to Sasuke.

The boy's advance on his teammate grew faster, each step falling sooner than it should, creating a sloppy rhythm of pounding on the ground. The sound of grass crunching beneath his feet echoed in the stagnant silence that seemed to be unwavering.

"Sasuke?" Naruto called when he was about five meters away from the boy. Red eyes snapped into focus and narrowed on Naruto. The boy turned and walked away from Naruto, his slow steps somehow faster than the blonde's, which were quick and restless.

Sasuke's soundless saunter stopped and he glanced over his shoulder at Naruto, his face apathetic, and crossed into a forest's edge. The growth of trees had not been there seconds before, and yet its appearance seemed natural - expected.

Naruto took a tentative step towards the line of trees and bit his lip in indecision. He had no idea where he was or what on Earth lay beyond the first row of foliage. But, if Sasuke had gone that way, then he would as well. He would follow his dark-haired companion until he was able to make sense of his life.

One step through the line of vegetation took Naruto into a clearing that was lined with tall towering cliffs of white that contrasted starkly with the black sky. In the center of the clearing stood Sasuke, his back to Naruto. The Uchiha family emblem glared at the blonde, the red and black of the fan looking misplaced upon the boy's white silhouette. Something was wrong with the symbol though…the colours seemed off.

"Come to me," a raspy voice whispered from above and both Naruto and Sasuke looked up, their eyes landing on Orochimaru.

The blonde boy took in a gasp of air and his eyes darted to Sasuke, who was smirking at Orochimaru in boredom.

"Will you give me the power to kill my brother?" he asked in monotone.

Orochimaru nodded and, with skills Naruto had never before witnessed, Sasuke leapt upwards landing alongside the founder of the Hidden Village of Sound.

"What the hell are you doing?" Naruto demanded, rushing toward the white face of the cliff and placing both hands on the deceivingly smooth stone. It sliced into his hands, drawing blood, which glowed a deep crimson, staining the purity of the white beneath his wounded appendages.

"Seeing to my needs." Sasuke's voice echoed in the dormant clearing. "If you wish to stop me, come up here."

And so Naruto climbed. His pace was sluggish at first but it slowly became faster until he was climbing over the edge to stand before a frowning Orochimaru and a smirking Sasuke.

He reached for Sasuke. "You're not leaving ever again."

Sasuke snorted and took a step backwards just as Orochimaru stepped in front of the evasive boy. He grinned, his snake-like tongue flitting out to wet his lips.

"You will never have him back." A black arm reached forward, connected with Naruto's shoulder, and shoved hard. The blonde took a step backward, his eyes widening as he did so, and he fell off the edge of the cliff.

He let out a strangled yelp, crying, 'Sasuke' loudly and watched as the familiar pair of crimson eyes peered over the edge of the cliff, watching his descent. The boy shook his head and turned away.

Naruto struggled for breath and flapped his arms uselessly, trying to slow his fall, but it was to no avail. He only seemed to fall faster.

Below him, a light glowed orange, drawing him into its misleading warmth and pulling him safely to the ground.

"It is you," a deep voice observed through the glow of orange and the wiry form of a fox stepped into Naruto's line of vision.

The boy stumbled backwards, falling onto his bottom and felt his breath leave him. "What am I doing here?" he asked, his voice cracking as he clambered away from the predatory eyes that were surveying him.

"Running away," Kyuubi replied. His voice was terrifying, the falsetto tones overlaying the bass to create a thousand voices coming from one body. "When will you stop going backwards, I wonder?" The demon pondered aloud, its eyes narrowing, conniving.

Then it jumped, claws drawn and aimed to kill, "You had better stop going backwards, boy!"

Naruto let out a harried shout and rolled to the side, leaving the illusory comfort of the orange light and entered a garden. The sound of water running over a bed of rocks tinkled through the air, its sound a soft lullaby to his shaking nerves.

"You're back?" a deep voice asked and Naruto rolled onto his stomach, the warmth of the sun beating down upon his back and the coolness of the grass caressing his stomach. He was staring directly at Sasuke, who was sprawled across from him in the same position.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and stared at his comrade, confused. "Did I leave?" The encounter with Kyuubi was already gone from his mind.

"Yes," Sasuke replied in boredom. This boy wasn't the Sasuke Naruto now knew, he acted like the old one.

"Oh." Naruto glanced down at the grass and shrugged, "Sorry."

The boy across from him snorted. "You never understand, dobe," he informed Naruto, almost wistfully.

The blonde wished Sasuke would stop changing the subject so rapidly that his words made no sense.

"What?" He lifted his body so he was sitting, staring down at the dark-haired boy before him.

"You never understand," Sasuke reiterated, also rising, only to a standing position. He held out a hand to Naruto and watched him expectantly.

"Yeah, I got that. But I don't get what you're saying." Naruto took the offered hand and rose to his feet. Sasuke smirked in amusement and the blonde realized the irony of his question.

"Come," Sasuke said calmly and led Naruto towards the stream, which was white washed over black. Like a façade of purity worn to disguise evil. The boys hopped over the stream and came to the edge of another cliff.

There was streak of lightning in the air and Naruto shuddered as a cold wind tore at his skin. Moments later a clap of thunder sounded above them. Sasuke's eyes darkened and he advanced upon Naruto, forcing the boy to the cliff's edge.

"Sasuke?" Naruto sounded unsure, his voice wary and betrayed all at once.

"Youdon't understand!" the boy restated through clenched teeth, growing suddenly aggravated. "It was always worth it."

And Naruto was pushed backwards and then he was falling and Sasuke was staring down at him with a sad expression on his face; an expression so sad that Naruto swore he could see the shine of tears in the boy's eyes.

Then he woke up and the world was red-washed and the dream slowly began to fade.

But Naruto had enough time to stare at his ceiling and wish that Sasuke had said, "You were always worth it" before he fell asleep again, this time without dreams.


AN: Sorry this took so long to get out. I've been busy rehearsing and touring so SF has sort of taken a back seat position. Don't worry though, Chapter 5 is about halfway done and there's lots of Sasuke in it!

Anyway, as I've mentioned almost every chapter, I love long reviews that tell me how I can improve or even what you really liked, so feel free to leave me one wink wink!
-TJ